Create Your Own Royal Wedding Cake: A Step-By-Step Guide

Want to make your own royal wedding cake? You're in luck! While the recipe for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding cake was kept secret, you can create your own lemon and elderflower drizzle cake to get a taste of what the royal couple experienced on their big day. This cake is fit for a king or queen, with its bright flavours of spring and elegant decoration. In this guide, we will walk you through the steps to create your own regal dessert, from preparing the batter to adding the finishing touches. So, get your aprons ready and let's begin!

Lemon and elderflower flavour

The lemon and elderflower wedding cake chosen by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was created by Hackney-based baker Claire Ptak, owner of Violet Bakery in London. Ptak has shared that the cake was an elderflower-infused lemon cake with layers of lemon curd and elderflower buttercream.

Baking the Cake:

To make a similar cake, you will need the following ingredients:

• Flour
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Butter
• Lemon
• Elderflower cordial
• Milk
• Baking powder
• Salt

Preheat your oven to 325-350°F. Grease and flour three 6-8" round cake tins and line them with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, lemon zest, and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition.

Alternate adding the flour mixture with the milk, lemon juice, and elderflower cordial, beginning and ending with flour.

Spread the batter evenly between the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Lemon Curd Filling:

For the lemon curd filling, you will need:

• Lemon juice
• Lemon zest
• Butter
• Sugar
• Eggs

In a glass bowl, combine the egg yolks, an egg, sugar, lemon juice, and zest. Place the bowl over a bain-marie (a pan of simmering water) and cook on medium to high heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens.

Once it has thickened, add the cubed butter and whisk until smooth. Strain the mixture through a sieve to remove any lumps and place it in a glass jar. Refrigerate for a couple of hours until it thickens enough to spread on the cake.

Elderflower Buttercream:

For the elderflower buttercream, you will need:

• Egg whites
• Sugar
• Butter
• Elderflower cordial

Place the egg whites and sugar in a bowl and give it a brief whisk. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water, ensuring that the water does not touch the bowl. Whisk the mixture until it reaches an internal temperature of 160°F or until it is no longer grainy between your fingers.

Transfer the bowl to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and whip until the mixture is at room temperature and forms glossy peaks.

While the mixer is running on low, slowly add the room temperature butter, a tablespoon at a time, allowing it to incorporate before adding the next piece. Finally, add the elderflower cordial to taste.

Assembling the Cake:

To assemble the cake, spread a thin layer of buttercream on top of the first cake layer. Pipe a border around the outside to hold the lemon curd. Fill with lemon curd and repeat with the next layer.

Place the final cake layer on top and do a thin crumb coat on the entire cake. Chill the cake for 20 minutes before frosting the top and sides with the remaining frosting.

Top the cake with fresh flowers, such as peonies or elderflowers, ensuring that you wrap the stems in floral tape to protect them from the cake.

Your royal wedding cake is now ready to serve!

Three thin layers

To make three thin layers for your royal wedding cake, you will need to adjust the recipe to create a layer cake. This approach is more manageable for less experienced bakers and also means the cake bakes and cools faster.

First, preheat your oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/Gas Mark 4. Grease three 20cm round, deep, loose-based tins and line them with baking parchment.

In a large bowl, place 225g/8oz of softened butter, 225g/8oz of caster sugar, and the zest of one lemon. Use an electric whisk to beat the butter and sugar together until they are pale and fluffy. Gradually add three eggs, whisking well between additions and adding 2 tbsp of flour with the last egg to prevent curdling.

Sift over the remaining flour (225g/8oz self-raising flour) and gently fold it in with a metal spoon, along with 2 tbsp of hot water.

Spoon the batter into the prepared tins, levelling the surface of each. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the cakes are shrinking away from the sides of the tins. To check if they are done, insert a fine skewer into the centre of each cake; it should come out clean. Cool the cakes in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove them and let them cool completely before assembling your royal wedding cake.

You can decorate your three-tier cake as lavishly or simply as you like. For a true royal touch, why not try crystallising edible flowers and gently pressing them into the top and sides of the cake?

Buttercream frosting

To make a royal wedding cake, you'll need a buttercream frosting that is fit for purpose. Here is a recipe for a simple vanilla buttercream that can be adapted to your taste.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract or flavouring of your choice
• 4 tbsp heavy whipping cream, room temperature

Method:

Firstly, prepare a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Next, whisk the butter until creamy. Reduce the speed to low and add in the icing sugar, 1 cup at a time, until well blended. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes. Then, add the vanilla and 2 tbsp of cream and continue to whip on medium for 1 minute. Finally, add more cream as needed until the desired consistency is reached. Whip until the frosting is smooth and silky.

Tips:

• For a chocolate version, add cocoa powder.
• For citrus flavours, add 1-2 tbsp of zest or curd.
• For peanut butter frosting, use peanut butter powder.
• For other fruit flavours, use freeze-dried berry powders.
• Add cream 1 tbsp at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
• Always sift your powdered sugar to avoid lumps.
• If you are making a cake with multiple layers, consider making a crumb coat layer of frosting, thicker than just a crumb coat, but not too thick, as rosettes or other decorations will add a lot of icing.

Flavours and Colours:

• Substitute vanilla extract for other extract flavours such as almond, coconut, maple, orange, or lemon.
• Mix in a few tablespoons of fruit jam to make strawberry or raspberry buttercream.
• Whip in a couple of tablespoons of fresh lemon curd to make a lemon frosting, perfect for filling between layers of cake, especially if you also add fresh raspberries!
• Mix in homemade or store-bought caramel sauce for a nice caramel frosting—ideal for banana cake.
• The frosting can be easily tinted with food paste gel or food colouring.

Stiffness:

• Adjust the consistency of the buttercream depending on what you plan on using it for.
• The easiest way to do this is by adjusting the amount of cream you use. The less cream you pour in, the stiffer your frosting will be.
• If you pour in too much cream, simply add more sifted powdered sugar to stiffen it back up.
• For frosting and spreading on a cake, a medium consistency (somewhat soft but slightly stiff) works well.
• For piping and decorative work, a stiffer consistency is better, so the detailed edges of your piping tips show clearly.

• This will depend on how you plan on using it.
• For a not-so-tall 2-layer 8-inch round cake, you’ll have enough frosting to fill, frost, and get a tiny bit of piping in (assuming you are spreading the frosting thin).
• For cupcakes, consider whether you want a light, thin layer or if you plan on piping a swirl. This recipe makes enough to spread an average amount of frosting for 24 cupcakes or enough to pipe swirls of frosting for 15 cupcakes.

Fresh flower decoration

Fresh flowers are a beautiful and elegant way to decorate a wedding cake. They add a special, timely touch to the cake and are perfect for a royal wedding. When choosing flowers, opt for non-toxic varieties such as carnations, mums, roses, spray roses, pansies, lilacs, and lavender. Avoid toxic flowers like ranunculus, peonies, and eucalyptus, as well as flowers treated with pesticides.

If you want to add flowers to the sides of the cake, you can wrap the stems with floral tape, which sticks to itself and usually comes in green shades. This prevents any fluids from the stems from leaching into the cake and altering the taste or causing an unpleasant appearance. Another method is to use bubble tea straws, which are thick, clear plastic straws that can be inserted into the cake at an angle, and then the flower stems can be slipped into the straws.

To add flowers to the top of the cake, you can place a cake board or cardboard cake round on top of the cake and then arrange the flowers on it. This way, the flowers don't come into direct contact with the cake, and you don't need to worry about wrapping the stems.

It is best to add fresh flowers to the cake on the same day as the event or a few hours before to ensure they look fresh and don't wilt.

Elderflower cordial

You can buy elderflower cordial from many grocery stores, including Whole Foods, Mom's, and Fresh Market. It can also be found at IKEA, where they sell an elderflower syrup. Alternatively, you can make your own elderflower syrup by bringing 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar to a boil, before stirring in 2 tablespoons of elderflower cordial.

When making the cake, brush the elderflower cordial onto the cake layers a total of four times, allowing a few minutes in between so the liquid is absorbed.

Frequently asked questions