Welcome to 'Central in an object', our summer series celebrating the rich history of the Central Otago district. 

We asked museum curators and volunteers across the region to strip it back to basics: choose just one item from their collections that tells a story about who we are. 

Today, Maniototo Early Settlers Museum curator MaryAnn Devereux tells us about the top tier of a 132-year-old wedding cake.

The object

It is a culinary relic that has outlasted the Victorian era, two World Wars, and the arrival of the internet.

This is the top tier of a wedding cake baked 132 years ago, currently preserved in the Maniototo Early Settlers Museum collection.

Looking closely at the tier, visitors can still spot the sultanas and ponder just how much sherry must have been used to keep it intact for more than a century.

It serves as a reminder of the sometimes superstitious traditions surrounding marriage in the district’s early days.

On their departure from a wedding, it was usual for guests to receive a small portion of cake from the bride and groom.

It was believed that if a single woman placed a fragment of wedding cake under her pillow, she would dream of her future husband.

Some couples still retain a portion of their wedding cake to consume on their first anniversary - a tradition believed to bring good luck.

This stems from an earlier custom where the top tier was saved specifically for the christening of the firstborn child.

Despite the cake’s survival, the story of the lovers who cut it has been lost to time.

The museum does not know the names of the happy couple, nor the reason why this specific top tier was never consumed.