The tradition of royal wedding cakes

Royal wedding cakes are usually grand affairs, elaborately decorated and stretching over multiple tiers.

Rich fruit cakes have mostly been the traditional choice for royal brides and grooms.

But Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are instead opting for a light, organic lemon elderflower cake by food writer and pastry chef Claire Ptak, owner of an east London bakery.

The first was a magnificent eight-tiered iced traditional fruit cake featuring the “language of flowers” made by Leicestershire baker Fiona Cairns.

It was centre-stage at the Buckingham Palace reception held in the picture gallery.

Their second cake was a childhood favourite of William’s – an unbaked chocolate biscuit cake.

As well as a couple of secret ingredients, it featured dark chocolate and broken up rich tea biscuits.

McVitie and Price, as the firm was then known, also made Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten’s (the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s) official wedding cake in 1947.

It was nine feet high in four tiers and painted with panels of the armorial bearings of both families, and included the monograms of bride and groom, sugar-iced figures to depict their favourite activities, and regimental and naval badges.

When the Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, their official royal wedding cake was 5ft high and weighed 255 lbs.

It was made by the Royal Navy’s Cookery school, HMS Pembroke, at Chatham.

It was decorated with the figure of Britannia in the act of blessing figures of the bride and groom dressed in ancient Greek costume.

Victoria’s cake is seen as the most influential of royal wedding cakes.

Prior to Victoria, wedding cakes were not an important feature at wedding receptions.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, weddings featured the “bride pie”, which was a meat-filled dish which formed part of the wedding banquet.

Princess Margaret – the Queen’s sister – had  her monogram and coat of arms on the side of her large wedding cake.