Americans would think of something completely different if you mentioned "wedding cake". A stereotypical one would be:

http://uwebus.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/small-wedding-c...

Yes, that is right. Xmas cake is the fruit cake often found inside the wedding cake.

U.S. wedding cakes do not have fruitcake inside them.

We do not have Christmas Cake in the US as far as I've ever seen. Even 'fruit cake' which exists solely around Christmas has been the butt of jokes for at least 30 years so very few people actually buy/eat them and they don't usually have anything (booze, frosting) going on with them.

Wow, always figured it was the same everywhere. Here in France we have "buche de noel" which means "log of Christmas" because it's a cake shaped like a log.

We do have 'yule logs' which wikipedia tells me are broadly the same cake (chocolate sponge cake rolled up around frosting) but I don't know that it's really all that common.

US Christmas is stereotypically endless cookies, with gingerbread and cinnamon rolls coming in strong. In general though I think the culinary traditions aren't really unified enough to be worth talking about.

Except for eggnog!

I totally forgot I learned about buche de noel in French class about 20 years ago. Thanks for the flashback.

I find the thought that we have a lot of seasonal cakes amusing. You can find "Galette des rois" around january only, "bugnes" around march I think, "papillotes" and "buches" for Christmas...

Christmas Cake in Japan is entirely different from what the British call it. In Japan it's a double layer chiffon sponge filled with strawberries and cream, with additional strawberries and cream on top.

Guess, you mean Japanese Strawberry Shortcakes?

Interesting, in France we eat that cake on Xmas :

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=christmas+cake&source=lnms...

I don't where that comes from, obviously it's in the shape of a firewood, I wonder if other countries follow the same tradition.

We have Yule Logs in the UK, because some people dislike the other Christmas cake.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=isch&sa=1&q=yule+log

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_log

Thanks, so apparently it comes from Germany, I thought only people in french speaking countries were eating that kind of cake.

We have those in the US too, but we don't call them 'Christmas cake'.

They're just called fruitcake in the US. The tradition goes:

Anyone who has never taken a taste of one before, takes a taste, then throw the cake out, and never try eating one again.

If a cake has lasted the year without anyone taking a bite of it, you re-gift it.