Let them eat cake
A brief history of royals and cake in this month's The Royal Archive
Hello, Royal Clubbers, it’s Millie here, bringing you this month’s edition of The Royal Archive. Apologies for the atypical delivery day – I had to wait longer than anticipated for the ingredients for this post to fall into place…
Most of us enjoy cake but when you’re royal, the mouth-watering concoction of eggs, flour and sugar take on a whole new significance. From cake-cutting with swords at official events, to multi-tiered wedding cakes with extravagant ingredients, there’s plenty to be learnt about royal confectionery over the ages. Indeed, earlier this month a rare slice of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II’s ‘10,000 mile’ wedding cake went up for auction (more on which later).
I spoke to food historian Sam Bilton and former chef for the royal family, Carolyn Robb, to get some insight into the types of cakes that have been popular throughout royal history.
Read on to find out all about the ‘10,000 mile’ cake, Prince William and Prince Harry’s unusual birthday cake requests, and King Charles’s meticulous cake habits. You will also get the chance to cast your vote to decide on which royal wedding cake is the best – and even get a sneak peek into my kitchen where you can watch me make Princess Diana’s ‘favourite’ cake (and even get the recipe)…