Prince William certainly isn’t the first and, after Friday’s Royal Wedding, will definitely not be the last to request a chocolate biscuit cake at his wedding!! The cake is said to be a childhood favourite of Prince William’s, one that appears in Princess Diana’s personal chef, Darren McGrady cookbook ‘Eating Royally‘.
“I was thrilled to learn that Prince William had chosen the Chocolate Biscuit Cake recipe from my book Eating Royally: Recipes and Remembrances from a Palace Kitchen, for his wedding cake because it is also his grandmother’s favourite cake. I used to prepare it for both of them when they had tea together. The Queen would request the cake in the menu book for Sunday tea when she knew her grandson William would be joining her from Eton.”
The task of creating a chocolate biscuit cake fit for a future king and queen was given to the British biscuit maker McVitie’s. The company, now part of the United Biscuits Group, has made many of the wedding and christening cakes for members of the Royal Family since the marriage of George V to Queen Mary in 1893. It also baked the official cake for the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s diamond wedding anniversary in 2007.
The wedding cake consisted of 1,700 biscuits and nearly 40 lbs. of chocolate, plus we are told a couple of secret ingredients! On the question of which type of biscuits were used Paul Courtney, McVitie’s Cake Design and Development Head Chef, said that Rich Tea were being used and that “Rich Tea are perhaps not the most glamorous biscuits in the world….but they’re quite crisp compared to a digestive, and so they’ll contrast well with the softness of the chocolate.”
The three tier stacked square cake was presented on a beautiful golden stand. The chocolate decorations included white chocolate water lilies, milk chocolate leaves and a mixture of white and milk chocolate feathers.
Like Prince William, I also grew up eating chocolate biscuit cake. The ones I used to eat were made by my grandmother, whose secret ingredient I can reveal – it was glacé cherries!! I’ve not tasted the cake for years, so to me William’s cake is very appealing – Think I might just have to buy some Rich Tea biscuits.…..
What do you think?
Glynis says
I actually preferred this cake to the ‘official’ one. It’s classy and elegant. Have you got a recipe for this cake as I’d love to try it 🙂
Lindy Smith says
Hi Glynis, recipe will be on our blog tomorrow – just putting the finishing touches to the post!!! 🙂
Katie McElvaney says
I prefer that to the official one as well. I would like to say majority of the cakes i make our chocolate biscuit cakes and every wedding cake i make has at least one tier chocolate biscuit. Not putting McVites down as there biscuits are lovely but i found after a lot of trial and error. Tesco’s economy range are the very best. They break up really well, same goes for the digestive biscuits.
Lindy Smith says
Another biscuit that I’ve used that works well is Nice biscuits!
Glynis says
Thanks Lindy and great tip Katie 🙂
Etam Dedhar says
Think I may have to try this too! Lol
Denise O'Dwyer says
I made this cake from ‘Eating Royally’ for our own Royal Wedding celebration BBQ. It was delicious. With hindsight, I think I should have left it in the fridge before serving it on such a warm day as it became rather gooey inside after it was cut. No complaints from the eaters, though!