Greetings everyone! Husband Mic here with a well bred edition of Merci Beaucoup's Silly Cake News. With all the hubbub over the impending royal wedding between Prince William and long time sweetie Kate Middleton, I thought I'd dedicate this week to some royal cake tidbits past and present. Especially since Reva is kind of committed to the idea of flying over for the big day as it falls on the day after our own 10th anniversary. If you'd like to start the rumor we're flying over to do their cake and I'm just making up the story about our anniversary.... well, I won't stop you;)
First slice today might also serve as an addition to Reva's Amazon Wish List! Our friends over at This Is Somerset in the U.K. posted an interesting story about Kay Sparkes and her connection to the wedding cake of one future Queen and King of England. Kay's parents owned Real & Horton Bakery when then Princess Elizabeth and her Lieutenant Phillip annoounced their engagement. With one quick letter off to old Buckingham Palace, Real & Horton offered to bake up the royal couples cake. Now Kay has a book, "Royal Icing on the Cake," which tells of those days and all the excitement of the wedding. Sounds like a fun read for all us cakers out there!
Second slice goes to the happy couple William and Kate. Almost immediately Reva thought of The Cake Store and the famed Ken Slatter. If you don't know Ken, he has been making cakes for the Royal Family for decades and is an absolute master. He's also earned a rest at 72, but Ken's offered to come out of retirement to help! The Cake Store isn't waiting around though, the store's master confectioner Steve Howard has already done up a sample cake now on display at their showroom in South East London!
Our third slice today bridges the gap between British cake couture and our time on Amazing Wedding Cakes. From the Manchester Confidential comes this story about using real wheels of cheese for one's wedding cake. This isn't a cake that looks like cheese or are infamous "cheesecake cheese cake," this is an actual stacked "cake" of cheese! Hmmm... sounds interesting, but might be better as a buffet table piece than an actual replacement for cake. I mean come on, who in their right mind would want to not have a cake?!
One more slice for what will probably be the first of a couple "Royal Editions" of Silly Cake News and it gets served up by the First Post in the U.K. concerning Royal Wedding collectibles. While all the photo emblazoned mugs and plates are fun, if you want to make money and you get into the wedding, box up a slice of that cake. 20 years ago some crazy fool did just that at Charles and Diana's nuptials and it sold for 17,000 pounds in 1998! Yikes, and I thought Sylvia Weinstock had expensive cakes!
That's it for this week cakers! Thanks for checking in and we'll keep an eye out for more Royal Cake news as it happens right here on Happy Sugar Baking Land!
Thank you for recommending my Book "Royal Icing on the Cake" The photo you have displayed is of my parents MR & Mrs Sparkes, of Castle Cary Somerset, UK.
I have since been on the BBC Radio 4 New Years Day 1st January 2011 This can be heard by going on my web site and following the link to the BBC. I am the 2nd guest 11 minutes into the programme.
Regards KAY SPARKES
Posted by: Kay E Sparkes | 17 January 2011 at 06:30 AM