The Icing On The Cake

Who is the London-based baker responsible for creating Prince Harry and Meghan’s lemon-and-elderflower wedding cake?

- Emma Hughes

IT wasn’t something that most people gave much thought to—and those that did probably assumed, quite reasonably, that when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle cut their wedding cake, the item in question would be a rich fruit one. That’s what The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge ate at their wedding and what The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall had at theirs six years earlier (albeit one jazzed up with 20 bottles of brandy).

However, the Royal couple had a surprise up their sleeve. In March, it was announced that, rather than going down the sturdy, sultana-studded route, they were having a lemon-and-elderflower cake celebrating ‘the bright flavours of spring’, covered with buttercream and decorated with fresh flowers. Moreover, it was going to be made in a tiny east London bakery called Violet.

‘I can’t tell you how delighted I am,’ bakery owner Claire Ptak said when the news broke. ‘Knowing that they really share the same values as I do about food provenance, sustainability, seasonality and, most importantly, flavour, makes this the most exciting event to be a part of.’ As it happens, that isn’t where the similarities end. Like Miss Markle, Miss Ptak is American. And, like her, she fell in love with an Englishman, then found her life transformed as a result.