The Most Glamorous Royal Wedding Cakes Through History

The new Duke and Duchess of Sussex chose a simple, floral design for the cake at the intimate evening reception following their wedding at Windsor Castle on Saturday. Claire Ptak of London-based bakery Violet Cakes created the confection made of lemon sponge cake drizzled with elderflower syrup and topped with an Amalfi lemon curd. Ptak and her team of six bakers spent five days baking and icing each tier of the cake in Buckingham Palace, using a total of 200 Amalfi lemons, 500 organic eggs from Suffolk, 20 kgs of butter, 20 kgs of flour, 20 kgs of sugar, and 10 bottles of Sandringham elderflower cordial. The three individual cakes were transported and placed on top of gilt stands from the royal family’s collection and decorated with 150 flowers, including peonies and roses, on site that morning. 

There was something for everyone at Prince William and Princess Kate’s April 29, 2011 reception! The pair offered guests a taste of their official wedding cake – an eight-tier fruitcake decorated with over 900 leaf and floral touches created by baker Fiona Cairns. But a second chocolate-cookie cake by McVitie’s Cake Company was also served at the special request of the sweet-toothed groom.

Not just one cake would do for Prince Charles and Princess Diana, who served 27 at their July 29, 1981, wedding. While most were donated by royal watchers, the couple’s official cake was prepared by chef David Avery of the Royal Naval Cookery School. Topping out at more than 5 feet high, the cake was adorned with both the Prince and his family’s royal coat of arms, the couple’s first initials and a spray of roses, lilies of the valley and orchids.

Charles’s mum and dad, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, celebrated their Nov. 20, 1947, wedding with a 9-ft. tall, four-tier cake that weighed in at a whopping 500 lbs. Crafted by McVitie and Price Ltd., the same biscuit company whipping up dessert for William and Kate‘s big day, the showstopper even depicted scenes from the couple’s lives.

When Sweden’s Crown Princess walked down the aisle with Daniel Westling on June 19, 2010, the country’s Association of Bakers amp Confectioners gifted the couple their official wedding cake. Weighing 550 lbs., the decadent dessert was made up of 11 tiers, each in the shape of a lucky four-leaf clover.

Spirits were very high at the July 23, 1986, wedding of Prince Andrew and Duchess Fergie, who served their guests a 5½-ft. marzipan and rum-soaked cake. The towering treat, which was prepared at the navy supply school HMS Raleigh, featured 15 ingredients, including rum, brandy and port, and was large enough to be cut into 2,000 slices.

Dispensing with a customary English wedding fruitcake, Prince Edward and his bride selected a seven-tier Devil’s Food cake for their June 19, 1999, wedding. Topped with tennis rackets (in a nod to the fund-raiser where the couple met), the 10-ft. tall confection took baker Linda Fripp and her staff 515 hours to create. Continuing to break with tradition, the Earl and Countess of Wessex cut their cake prior to serving dinner – something that was downright 21st century.

It does cut like a knife! For their June 10, 1993, wedding reception, Jordan’s Queen Rania and King Abdullah’s enormous multi-tiered, rectangular-shaped cake – decorated with crowns and lace embellishments – was sliced down to size with a sword.

The official wedding cake of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later the Queen Mother) and then-Prince Albert, Duke of York, was put on display in Reading, England, prior to their April 26, 1923, nuptials. Hordes of onlookers queued up to vie for a view of the ornate, 10-ft. tall confection.

Greece’s Crown Prince Pavlos and heiress Marie-Chantal Miller took the phrase “let them eat cake” to heart at their July 1, 1995, nuptials, serving 300 smaller cakes – one per table – in addition to their main confection. The design of the eight-tiered centerpiece by baker Colette Peters was inspired by a china pattern from the Royal Collection.

When Hollywood beauty Grace Kelly wed Monaco’s Prince Rainier on April 19, 1956, her six-tier wedding cake proved fit for a princess. Given to the newlyweds by the pastry chefs at Monte-Carlo’s famed Hôtel de Paris, the treat’s upper two tiers featured a built-in cage that held a pair of live turtledoves – they were released when the couple cut into the cake with Prince Rainier’s sword – and was topped off with a revolving miniature of the bride and groom that played “Ave Maria” and Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.”