Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten's wedding cakes
[2][3] The principal, ‘official’ cake, served at the wedding breakfast, was baked by the Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie and Price.
The other 11 cakes – from prominent confectionary firms and smaller, family-run bakers – were displayed on “specially strengthened tables”[2] in Buckingham Palace’s 20-metre long Blue Drawing Room, and distributed to charitable organisations after the wedding.
[4] All the cakes were delivered to Buckingham Palace the day before the wedding ceremony, with Princess Elizabeth greeting each arrival personally.
[21][22] To get around food rationing, ingredients for several of the cakes came from Commonwealth countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica and Barbados.
[23] To meet the Princess’ wish “to observe austerity conditions” the principal cake was considerably reduced in size from its original design.
[27] Other recipients included staff at the royal family's residences, and those at Broadlands, a stately home in Hampshire, England, where the couple spent the first part of their honeymoon.
[33] The day before the wedding, the cake was delivered to Buckingham Palace in a pantechnicon, escorted by a “courtesy cop” together with six men inside the van.
[38] Of the gift, Queensland's State Commissioner, Lilian Gresham, said “Australian Guides had made this offer because they felt that the Princess was one of them.”[39] It was a “hastily prepared parcel” with a cable requesting assistance having been received in Australia only the week before it was shipped.
[40] The full list of ingredients, featured in the October 1947 edition of Australian Girl Guide's magazine Matilda, were: “56lb bag icing sugar, 70lb castor sugar, 50lb bag plain flour, 6 tins powdered milk, 10oz ground cinnamon, 10oz mixed spice, 6 bottles lemon essence, 1 tin almond meal, 60lb sultanas, 10lb lemon peel, 15lb seeded raisins, 10lb crystalised cherries, 12lb currants, 7lb self-raising flour, 1 bottle best Australian brandy, 20lb brown sugar, 10lb almond kernels, 12 dozen eggs, 30lb butter.”[41] Seven crates of ingredients were transported to the UK on the SS Stratheden on 14 August 1947,[42] with the shipping firm providing “special refrigeration… for the cases containing the eggs and butter”.
[43] The federal commissioner of Australia, Irene Fairbairn received a letter of thanks from Princess Elizabeth's Lady-in-waiting, Lady Margaret Egerton,[29] which read “Her Royal Highness deeply appreciated the thought which prompted the offer of this most generous and acceptable gift.”[42] Other contributions to the principal cake were flour from Canada and rum and brown sugar from Jamaica.
[2] The wedge contained seven lucky charms: a bachelor button, a wedding ring, a donkey, a threepenny bit, a thimble, a wish-bone and a horseshoe.
[50] In 2016 Le Cordon Bleu School, London, was approached by commercial broadcaster ITV about recreating the principal wedding cake for a television documentary.
[51] As McVitie and Price's original recipe was unknown, and possibly destroyed in a fire at their factory, Walsh and her team had to piece together details from a variety of sources.
[55] The design included piped thistles and roses, the Royal coat of arms, Naval emblems and an anchor with a crown.
[56] All the ingredients came from the British Empire: flour from the UK, butter from New Zealand, sugar from Barbados, eggs from Canada and Northern Ireland, currants and sultanas from Australia, brandy from South Africa and rum from Jamaica.
[1] The icing, spiced with rum from Bundaberg, Queensland, was made by D de Mars, an instructor in cake decoration at East Sydney Technical College.
The local police called in pastry chef Shaul Petrushka,[20] who made good the damage before the cake continued its journey to London.
[64] A replica of the cake then toured the UK, accompanied by photos of the royal wedding,[65] stopping at Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Nottingham, Bournemouth and Cardiff.
[66] This three-tiered cake, mounted on a silver stand was made by F E Jacobs, chief decorator of J Lyons’ Ornamental Department.
[20] This four-tiered cake, weighing 54 kg and standing 1.8 metres high was made by bakery manager, Mr Patterson.
It depicted the Princess’ coat-of-arms and the Royal Standard of Scotland, and featured 12 cm china cupids at the corners of each tier.
The cake was decorated with four real silver slippers, containing white sprigs of imitation lily of the valley, Princess Elizabeth's favourite flowers.
