'Free at last'

For those of us who might wish to throw a more modest and sedate party to mark the end of a marriage, ordering a "divorce cake" could be the way forward.

At one bakery in Florida, Elite Cake Creations in Cooper City, near Miami, they are now getting three to four requests for divorce cakes each month.

Owner Beatriz Otero, says she once made a cake for a male client who asked for it in the shape of a golf bag, with a sign on it that read "free at last, going golfing".

Most requests, however, are for a picture of a bride dragging a groom by the leg, with a sign that says "take him to the trash".

Other cakes may feature grooms being eaten by an alligator, or dismembered in a Jacuzzi.

Ms Otero says: "For one of my customers we did her wedding cake, then five years later we were doing her divorce cake.

"Relationships are hard. My way of helping them is making a sour situation a little bit sweeter."

An Elite Cake Creations' divorce cake for 10 people typically costs about $70, with the customer being able to choose from more than 150 different flavour and fillings combinations.

'Acknowledging loss'

While entrepreneurial small firms across the US are happily making money from the increase in the number of people celebrating a divorce, why has the phenomenon grown so strongly in recent years? And is it a good thing?

As its name suggests, Divorce Hotel checks couples into hotels so they can agree their divorce terms Psychologist Robin Deutsch, director of the Centre of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law, at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, says it is a development which should be welcomed.

"The growth of the divorce [celebration] industry speaks to the fact that people want to acknowledge loss through ritual," she says.

"Many people find release through it - I had one couple in my office who said their vows backwards.

"I think it gives them a sense of hope and closure, it's a positive thing.

"People do what they feel they need to do to move on. What they do, what kind of ritual they have, that's their choice."