The Duchess of Cambridge is still in touch with her wedding cake designer.
Catherine and her husband, Prince William, personally chose Fiona Cairns to create the elaborate eight-tier floral-themed dessert for their 2011 nuptials and the chef was delighted to have heard from the couple afterwards that her and her 75-person team’s creation was “beyond their expectations” and she confirmed she has since been in touch with the duchess on several occasions.
Fiona told Us Weekly magazine: “We were very fortunate to be at the wedding that afternoon.
“I received a phone call on my mobile to say that the couple had said the cake was beyond their expectations. That was not from the couple; that was actually from somebody within Buckingham Palace who had had a conversation.
“And then after that, I [have] spoken to Kate a couple of times and received letters, and yeah, the cake was a success.”
The cake was crafted from 17 individual cakes to make up eight tiers – some of which were subsequently served at the christenings of William and Catherine’s children, Princes George, seven, and Louis, three, and five-year-old Princess Charlotte – and decorated with around 900 individually iced flowers and 17 types of leaf.
And according to Fiona, Catherine herself “was the visionary” behind the sweet treat, having input on everything from the flavour to the design.
She said: “She is actually very creative…
“A piece of lace came by post. And I thought, ‘I wonder if this is the lace of the dress.’ But we weren’t told that. We’d be just asked if we could replicate it onto a few of the tiers of the cake.
“All the list of flowers that we made for the cake was a list that Kate drew up herself from the language of flowers and the flowers [from] coronations. We were told that lily of the valley would be important, but we weren’t told that that would be the main decoration within the Abbey [or] that she would be carrying that [in] her bouquet.”
Fiona remembered the couple’s wedding at Westminster Abbey 10 years ago as being both “majestic” and also “sort of intimate”.
She said: “It was the most spectacular, wonderful occasion.
“The atmosphere within the Abbey was quite extraordinary. It was, it was.
“There was a buzz of excitement, and it was a very, very special occasion. It was majestic and it was a huge historical occasion, but it also felt — I think it was because of the way it was interpreting the couple’s personal ideas — quite sort of intimate as well.”