Feeding 600 is a piece of cake for royal bakers
PACKED with 200 Amalfi lemons, 500 eggs and ten bottles of elderflower cordial, the royal wedding cake gets its finishing touches from bakers after a marathon five-day effort at the Buckingham Palace kitchens.
Californian Claire Ptak, who runs the trendy Violet Bakery in East London, has been chosen by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to create the ‘ethereal’ layered lemon and elderflower sponge cake, in an unusual design with three parts of varying sizes. She has been working with her team of six bakers fulltime for five days in the palace.
Slices of the cake will be served to the 600 guests at the lunchtime reception in St George’s Hall. As well as eggs, lemons and cordial from the Queen’s Sandringham estate, it contains 20kg (44lb) of butter, 20kg of flour, and 20kg of sugar.
Three types of Meghan’s favourite flowers, peonies, will decorate the top. The final design will be unveiled on the big day although Miss Markle and Harry are in on the plans. Miss Ptak revealed only that the cake will be a ‘non-traditional layout’. She added: ‘It’s a kind of an ethereal, floral flavour which I think is very special, especially for a wedding.’