Details of the Kate and Williams official wedding cakes were released after yesterday’s lunchtime wedding reception at Buckingham Palace for 650 close friends and family.
The main centrepiece cake was an eight-tiered moist dark fruit cake, covered in sugarpaste with masses of floral and piped details. The fourth tier mirrors details in the room, with the roses, acorns, ivy leaves, apple blossom from the wall’s garlands. Elsewhere on the cake seventeen different blooms and foliage have been used for their symbolism “language of flowers”. These included ivy (marriage), daisies (innocence), Sweet William, cascading orange and apple blossom, bridal rose (happiness), myrtle (love), and lily of the valley (sweetness and humility).
The cake stood almost 4ft tall, took five weeks to make and two days to set up in the Palace picture gallery. Fiona Cairns, who also makes cakes for Harrods, Waitrose and Selfridges, said “Catherine did not want it to be 7ft tall, she didn’t want it towering and thin, and I think we succeeded.” Palace pastry chef Kathryn Boyden said: “This cake made me speechless. It is exactly what the bride wanted. It’s perfect.”
So what do I think? I really like the reference back to the language of flowers, but personally I would have preferred to have seen a beautifully designed and executed elegant wedding cake. A cake that complimented the sophistication and style of Sarah Burton’s stunning wedding dress design, yet also incorporated some of the happy couple’s personality. I feel the cake could have been so much more than it was, after all, we have many very talented and highly skilled sugarcrafter’s and cake makers in this country. Two months however is a very short lead time for such a large wedding cake, Fiona and her staff must have worked extremely hard to produce this cake – what a task!!
It will be interesting to see what impact; such a potentially influential cake has on global wedding cake trends. Will brides rush to have their own scaled down versions? Only time will tell……
Do let us know your thoughts…..
Sharon Hughes says
Well I am also speechless,with shock!!!. I do not like it at all. It is too busy far too much going on and there dosen’t seem to be a theme. Like you Lindy I would have preferred a simple elegant cake in keeping with Kate’s beautiful dress. In this case less is definately more.
Geraldine Whelan says
I agree Lindy, while a beautifully decorated cake, and like you I think the language of the flowers is a lovely detail, it is a little fussy for my liking….But all in all a fabulous cake and some achievement…
Emma Jayne says
I hate to say it, but the cake is so old fashioned for such a modern Bride. I was so looking forward to seeing it and I am very disappointed. I’m sure there are loads of cake makers who could incorporate the language of flowers on a modern style cake with less fuss. I am quite sure Lindy would have done the perfect cake. If it was my choice I would have requested Lindy as my Cake Designer.
Emma Jayne
Joanne says
A very beautiful cake & lots of skill has obviously gone into making it but I am still a bit disappointed. It is a bit bland all in one colour and does not have much impact in the pictures unless you look close up, but if it is exactly what the bride wanted it must be right. I suppose its about personal taste when it comes down to your own wedding cake
Debbie says
I happen to love it.. i know it#s busy, but i think a simpler design would be lost in the palace .. it has to have the ‘bigger than wow’ factor.
Liz Finch says
I loved the sentiment of the cake with “the language of flowers”. I’m a flower mad person anyway.
It didn’t quite “hit the spot” with me though.
I’m sure everything the bride and groom wanted was incorporated but I feel it was “over done” in an attempt to be impressive. There was just too much going on. It hadn’t been “fine tuned” – guess that comes down to time.
It was a “huge” ask at very short notice and the staff at Fiona Cairns must be very proud of their creation and I’m sure have worked tirelessly to finish the cake. Congratulations must obviously go to them. I’m sure those individuals never expected to work on a Royal Wedding cake.
When you see the clean lines of the dress and the delicacy of the bouquet – you expect to see a cake that reflects this. Or at least I do.
Allison says
Is the new trend going to be ‘decorate to match the walls at the reception’? That was a little odd.
Overall, not a modern cake at all and way to ornate and old-fashioned, but if you are going to use the walls of an old palace as your muse (never mind the flower thing – nice – but not well executed) what else could be expected.
Gill Waite says
I think it’s a very clever cake because it clearly has a lot of ‘cake’ without being too tall – so I like the idea of smaller cakes making a bit tier.
But to me, it’s a mish-mash and I want to see an overall theme and it looks like 7 different people each did a tier and put them together – there’s no central theme running through the whole cake. I also don’t like white and ivory mixed particularly.
I also think it lacks a bit of the ‘wow’ factor – but then I felt the whole wedding was a bit demure and slightly bland with very little colour all the way through. There is no doubt that this is a marriage of love and that’s just wonderful to see after some of the recent royal marriages – Kate’s dress was lovely but not wow, her sister stole the show and I think this cake fits with the rest of it – great but not wow – just my opinion!
Etam Dedhar says
I really love this cake! I think it fits very well within a Palace and not over the top in the slightest!
I also thought it was a really lovely touch to add ‘the flowers of love’ to this beautiful cake. So well done Fiona You did not disappointed me!
Cucina Italiana says
It’s not what I would have chosen but then again, it wasn’t my choice to make.
If the bride was happy with it then that’s all that matters – sorry, but in this case, regardless of other cake deorators’ experience and talent, no other opinion counts…
Personally, I thought the Grooms cake was better – not only in looks, but also I’m sure, in taste (I hate fruit cake)!!
carly says
I really don’t like it! I thought She’d have gone for something more stylish and elegant……… I did my own cake last july……. it too was entirely ivory but with a slight pink blush on the ivory roses and I can safely say that my 5 teir creation was more elegant and far prettier!
Mary says
I much preferred their chocolate biscuit cake which looked modern and inviting.
I don’t want to take away from the skill employed in it’s creation and I know they didn’t want a tall cake but I think the bottom tiers are really contrived, creating an unbalanced and ugly finish to what could have been very elegant and beautiful. Beside the subtle, organic elegance which William and Catherine’s taste had exhibited throughout the wedding this cake looked garish and out of step; a mish-mash of chaotic ideas.
ANGELA CRISTOFARI from italy says
I liked this cake a lot,for my taste it was very elegant. I would be able to do just a plan of this cake 🙂
kiss to Lindy Sally Jane.
Kimberly Joseph says
I think the cake is lovely, but it just doesn’t have the ‘wow’ factor expected for a royal wedding cake. It was very disappointing for me. They claimed the cake would have some Lambeth-style work on it, but I really don’t see it at all. I think some lavish piping would have been great for the cake, since Kate wanted it to have a traditional look. Overall, I think the choice of cake decorator wasn’t ideal. Fiona makes lovely cakes, but they are not upscale or lavish. I think Eddie Spence, Nicholas Lodge, Toba Garrett, etc would have done a better job.
Peggy Moehle says
I think it is a BEAUTIFUL cake! I love everything about it! It is simple and elegant a real joy to look at! I think it was perfect for a royal wedding!
Denise O'Dwyer says
This cake is a work of art and utterly beautiful. I like it very much. It’s a good contrast to the relatively simple wedding dress and even simpler evening dress.
Lindy, out of interest, do you have a picture of Diana’s wedding cake?
Lindy Smith says
Denise, a total of 23 wedding cakes were made for Prince Charles and Lady Diana, including the official five-tier cake made by the Naval Armed Forces. It was a Royal iced creation, but we are talking 1981 and sugarpaste was very much the new kid on the block at that time.
Jane Moseley says
I too was slightly disappointed, I was hoping for a more modern cake. Not taking anything away from the skill of the design, however I would have thought that in addition to Lindy as an obvious choice, Mitch Turner or Peggy Porschen would have provide a more modern design and still would have been able to incorporate the flower theme and meanings.
Emma Bangay says
I do like the wedding cake and I have to admit when I first saw it I did say ‘oh wow’! I can only dream of being able to produce a cake of this standard! That said on closer inspection I agree that it does look like several different designers made the individual tiers, they don’t flow easily into one another. I don’t mind the colour choice as I think its very pretty but maybe a touch of gold would have made it a little more ‘royal’. I can’t wait to see how this effects the trends of wedding cakes. I think we are going to see requests for more traditional piping work! Overall well done Fiona & team!
zalita says
its certainly a beautiful cake but i expected something different and more modern as opposed to traditional!
also looking at the cake makers work i really thought there were many more impressive cake decorators like lindy to create a masterpiece, i loved her dress but i’m really disappointed with the cake.
Denise O'Dwyer says
Oh how dated the Charles and Diana cake looks now!!! And such a contrast to her beautiful Baroque style dress…. I wonder how Kate’s cake will be viewed in 30 years’ time?
Anne says
Big and impressive in the flesh i’m sure it was and as long as they all liked it at the palace, well done to Fiona Cairns for making it in this hard business. I was stunned by the average standard of execution. Apart from the geometry of it which seems neat enough, the piping, flowersand general design were not of the level i expected in a country that inented Royal Icing and tiered wedding cakes. As many said above, it’s a bit of a mish mash of old fashioned features and it ends up being neither a modern cake, nor an old fashioned one, more the worst of both. To me, It looks like an american cake in some ways, the way theyve picked up British skills and threw the whole lot in their big designs.
I appreciate how difficult it would have been to design this cake though and the way it has been done, it ticks a lot of boxes on paper and no one but hardcore sugarcrafters would have anything concrete to criticise. It must be difficult to decorate that many tiers without being too repetitive, too plain, too assymetrical and so o . To us, the roses are not very good, stamped ivy leaves as a snail trail are tacky, bald thistles are not Scottish, and some piping is hazardous, and that is a shame. The only people who are disappointed are those of us who expected to see something wow that would inspire us but as it is, it might just push royal icing accents
a bit more on our cakes. At least it’s not too hard an act to follow.
Well done to all concerned anyway, it must have been so exciting for them.
Anne says
Ps. Eddie spence has been sick and wasnt reallyy available to do the cake although i understand some kind of proposal was made, and messed up, on his behalf to the palace. Cant say anymore As i dont know enough, i just overheard something.
Cake Tins says
There is no doubt that a great deal of effort has gone into that cake. I echo the sentiments of it being out of keeping with the bride and the nature of the event but it’s still a wonderful cake to look at.
Katie strahan says
I agree with Peggy. It’s fab. I reckon that ANY cake decorator, me especially, would be incredibly proud if I could do one tier of a cake like this. It fits the royal wedding perfectly and as far as influences… I have already had an order for a tiered fruit cake with piped swags and pearls with one inch Seperators. Only difference is it is going to be white. Well done Fiona on a perfect cake for a perfect occasion. K
Moo Eleven says
I would have used this company:
http://www.facebook.com/yummycupcakesandcakes
They’d reflect the elegance, I think.