By Katie Nicholl
Last updated at 4:44 PM on 27th March 2011
Sweet-tooth: Prince William and his bride-to-be Kate Middleton have spared no expense with their wedding cakes
Prince William and Kate Middleton have been keeping an eye on costs ahead of their wedding– but they are sparing no expense when it comes to the cake.
The couple, who both have a sweet tooth, have chosen to have two cakes served at their wedding breakfast following their marriage at Westminster Abbey on April 29.
One will be William's favourite chocolate biscuit cake, which is made from a special recipe involving Rich Tea biscuits and dark chocolate and is set in the freezer rather than baked in an oven.
Buckingham Palace has sent the recipe to chefs at McVitie's, who will make an outsized version including 1,700 biscuits and nearly 40lb of chocolate.
The couple have also asked Leicestershire-based cake-designer Fiona Cairns to make a multi-tiered fruit wedding cake which will be decorated with fresh fruit and flowers.
Kate has been instrumental in creating the cake. It is thought it will incorporate the couple's cipher, which will be released on the wedding day and is expected to be their entwined initials.
Kate has chosen pale colours for the cake and apparently wants a floral theme featuring the symbols of the four nations: an English rose, a Scottish thistle, a Welsh daffodil and an Irish shamrock.
When Mrs Cairns visited Clarence House six weeks ago to discuss the cake, Kate had designed 'mood boards' to show her what she wanted.
'She has guided us right from the beginning and has quite strong ideas,' said Mrs Cairns, 56.
'She knew very much what she wanted and she brought us mood boards and told us what influences she would like us to use on the cake.
'The cake is multi-tiered, doesn't have colour – it's cream and white [icing] – and it's a traditional cake but also quite delicate and modern. All the tiers will have a different theme.'
Asked how she felt to be designing the wedding cake, Mrs Cairns said: 'I couldn't believe it. I'm very excited, very daunted and very privileged – a mixture of emotions.'
William and Kate were said to be impressed with her cakes, having tried them previously.
Delicious: Fiona Cairns with some of the decorations. One of the cakes will be a multi-tiered fruit wedding cake which will be decorated with fresh fruit and flowers
William's stepbrother Tom Parker Bowles, a food writer for The Mail on Sunday's Live magazine, has written on Mrs Cairns's official website: 'Fiona Cairns makes cakes that taste superb and look amazing. They're handmade and elegantly decorated.'
According to one aide, the couple liked the idea of using a British baker who uses traditional ingredients. 'William and Kate were keen to choose a village cake designer.
They had seen her cakes in the past, and they are big fans of her fruit cake.'
The Palace has said the cake will have 'a strong British floral theme' and will be decorated using intricate piping to create flowers, leaves and scrollwork, and accompanied with fresh fruit and flowers.
Mrs Cairns added: 'I can't tell you exactly the recipe, but the brandy is very important. We always soak our fruits overnight to plump them up.
This is exactly the same method you would use at home if you were making a fruit cake – we just use bigger batches.'
Mrs Cairns, who bakes a Christmas cake for Sir Paul McCartney every year, started her business in the kitchen of her home 25 years ago. She and her husband Kishore Patel now operate the business out of a state-of-the-art bakery in Leicestershire and supply cakes to Harrods, Selfridges, John Lewis and Waitrose.
The 600 guests at the wedding breakfast will also be treated to William's childhood favourite, the McVitie's chocolate biscuit cake.
Paul Courtney, McVitie's cake design and development head chef, said he was proud
to have the task of making it for William.
'It's an unbaked cake and it will be made in a test bakery where we develop new products as our factory lines are too big,' he said.
'It has a couple of secret ingredients we can't tell you about but it will have dark chocolate, to give it a really nice flavour, and use Rich Tea biscuits that will be broken up.
'It will be decorated with chocolate display work which will be contemporary, modern and elegant.
'When Prince William was a young boy he would have it for tea and really enjoyed it.'
McVitie's has made many of the wedding and christening cakes for members of the Royal Family since the marriage of the future George V and Queen Mary in 1893.
It also baked the official cake for the Queen and Prince Philip's diamond wedding anniversary in 2007.
I thought it is not 'done' to disclose these matters (before the wedding) especially where Royals are concerned! (maybe I'm wrong, but even I never allowed my cakemaker to let on about my cake).
- Maureen, Former Bristish colony with plenty of sunshine, 27/3/2011 15:38
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