Shetland bride's bonn/bun or bridal cake was traditionally baked
by the mother of the bride. It was broken over the bride's head
as she entered the marital home after the wedding ceremony and
was intended to bless the marriage with prosperity and
fertility. This breaking of cake was a wedding tradition
observed in many parts of the country, and indeed is also a
feature in the wedding traditions of other countries. In
Shetland, the bride's bonn/bun was also known historically as
either infar-cake or dreaming-bread. F. Marian McNeill has a
note regarding infar-cake or dreaming-bread: ‘A decorated form
of shortbread is still  the national bride’s-cake of rural
Scotland, and was formerly used as infar-cake. The breaking of
infar-cake over the head of the bride, on the threshold of her
new home, is a very ancient custom, having its origin in the
Roman rite of confarratio, in which the eating of a consecrated
cake by the contracting parties constituted marriage. (Scots
law, unlike English, is based on the old Roman