So this is what I do on my first Sunday off in awhile.  I think about cakes.  Alot.  All day, in fact.   One would wonder what all the fuss is about.  There’s not much to it.  Flour, sugar, eggs.  In reality it’s far more detailed than that.  It’s an art form onto itself.  For me, it’s more of an obsession.   Earlier in the day, I worked on a personal project.  It involved icing.  I can’t get away from it.  It calls me, even when I should be thinking and doing other things, like laundry, or returning phone calls from friends I haven’t called in months because I am too busy making cakes.

 

 

I have spent ten hours working on this blog post today.  Six hours into my research, we had a momentary power outage.  I watched in horror as my computer screen faded to black and the familiar hum of my computer was silenced.  Luckily, my blog post drafts are set to auto save, something I hadn’t a clue about  (thank you, my fabulous IT guy) and very little was lost.  I hope you enjoy seeing these images as much as I have enjoyed researching them.

Today’s post is inspired by royalty.  And cake.  Royal wedding cakes.  I am, by nature, a very curious person.  I have always wondered what kind of cakes are served at royal weddings.  Please note that not every royal wedding cake is depicted here.  This is just a small, but very interesting collection. Some royal couples have more than one celebration and more than one cake. In those cases,  I have tried to include as many as I could find.

Many of the cakes are not what we would expect.  Some are partially fake.  Surprisingly,  in some cases, the cakes do not appear to be spectacular.  In fact, they’re down right unattractive.  Either way, preparing a cake of massive proportions  is no easy task. Much time, thought and preparation goes into preparing a royal wedding cake. The pastry chefs and artisans that are so carefully chosen to craft one of these edible masterpieces, were, and continue to be, among the most talented in the world.

Here’s a small ‘royal wedding cake’ journey through time.

1858:  Princess Victoria ‘Vicky’ (Queen Victoria’s oldest child) and Crown Prince Frederick William ‘Fritz’ of Prussia

1863:  King Edward VII and Princess Alexandra of Great Britain

1871:  Princess Louise (sixth child of Queen Victoria) and John Campbell ‘Lorne’, Marquis of Lorne

1923: Prince Albert, later King George VI of England and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

1934:  Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princes Marina of Greece

1947: Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten

Close up of the bottom tier

1955:  King Hussein and Queen Dina

1956:  Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly

1956:  Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly (image of entire cake)

1963:  Princess Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy

1964:  King Constantine II and Princess Anne-Marie

1981:  Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (one of 23 wedding cakes).  A 27 year-old slice of the cake pictured here sold at auction in 2008 for approximately $2000.

1986:  Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson

1993:  King Abdullah and Queen Rania (there were two different receptions, hence two cakes)

1993: King Abdullah and Queen Rania (this is the other cake)

1995:  Prince Pavlos of Greece and Marie-Chantal Miller (the cake was made by our very own Colette Peters). The main cake was eight tiers tall and was accompanied by 300 additional cakes, one per table. The cake design was inspired by a china pattern from the Royal Collection.

1995: Prince Pavlos of Greece and Marie-Chantal Miller (Replica of cake by Colette Peters)

1998:  Charles De Bourbon-Siciles and Camilla Crociani

1999:  Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones

2000: King Letsie III of Lesotho and Karabo Motsoeneng

2001:  Prince Haakon and Mette-Marit Tjessem-Hoiby

2002:  Prince Willem-Alexander and Maxima Zorreguieta

2004: Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson

2004: Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson (close up of the cake)

2004: Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson (cake topper)

2004:  Prince Felipe and Letizia Ortiz

2004:  Prince Hamzah and Princess Noor

2004:  Prince Hamzah and Princess Noor (close up)

2004:  John Philip Elkann and Donna Lavinia (a reproduction of the famous Lingotto on the “Via Niza”, in Turim, which was once a huge Fiat car factory, a company owned by the groom).  I wonder what this weighs.  If you’re wondering, that’s a unicorn on the top.

2007:  Alberto Matta and Princess Xenia Galitzine

2009: Duke and Duchess of Vendome

Images and information courtesy of:

www.imageshack.us, www.theroyalforums.com, www.gettyimages.com, www.photobucket.com, www.corbis.com, www.colettescakes.com