Baker Claire Ptak Reveals the Mishap that Almost Ruined Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Wedding Cake
One year ago Claire Ptak baked Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding cake.
Here, she discusses her initial meeting at Kensington Palace, how they chose the flavors, and what it was like baking in the Buckingham Palace kitchens.
Plus, Ptak reveals a blunder on the day that almost led to a cake disaster.
Nearly one year after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot, their wedding cake baker, Claire Ptak of Violet Cakes, reveals to T&C what it was really like breaking royal tradition and whipping up the most famous elderflower and lemon cake in history.
Meghan had been a fan of Claire's for years before the royal wedding.
Raised in California, Ptak never had any intention of baking for a living. "I really wanted to be the next Quentin Tarantino," she says. But when that didn't work out, she switched industries, and started her career as a pastry chef. Eventually, she moved to London to launch her own baking business.
Ptak opened Violet Cakes, her first bakery, in East London in 2010, with a focus on homemade, seasonal, "aesthetically laid-back" food. "My bakes are ingredient-led," she says, "I’m all about doing really amazing sourcing and trying to make whatever it is-the fruit or that chocolate-to taste more special."
In fact, it was her knack for creating beautiful, organic, and seasonal treats that caught the eye of then-actress Meghan Markle, who interviewed Ptak over email for a post on her blog The Tig. Several years later, when Meghan was looking for someone to create a royal wedding cake that not only looked beautiful but also tasted good, Ptak was at the top of her list.
An invitation from Kensington Palace
The former pastry chef was invited to an initial meeting with Meghan at Kensington Palace in January 2018, just two months after the couple announced their engagement. “During the meeting Meghan said, 'You know, we want you to do it,'" Ptak recalls. "I think they really knew what they wanted, and I really admire that."
Perhaps it was her sample selection that helped to seal the deal-Ptak took six different flavors of cake with her to the Palace that day. "I thought about what I would like and what was right for the month of May," she shares, "and they went with elderflower and lemon, which was my first choice, too."
With just four months to go, Ptak and her team started the necessary preparations with a team of just five trusted colleagues, including two alumni bakers she brought back to help.
Tearing up the royal wedding rule book
The plan for the cake, Ptak describes, was always going to be a break from tradition. "We discussed that they wanted something very unique and outside the box; they didn’t feel that there should be any kind of constrictions, to do something within tradition," she says.
And on March 20, Kensington Palace released a statement announcing that Ptak was the chosen baker and that the couple were to have a "lemon elderflower cake to incorporate the bright flavours of spring. It will be covered with buttercream and decorated with fresh flowers."
Of course, steering away from a traditional fruit wedding cake caused a bit of excitement with both the press and the public.
"I think the hardest part was that there was so much talk about us before it happened, so you’re like, 'Oh God. I have to do it now. I have to deliver it, and it better be good.' So that was the scary part. We just put our heads down and really focused on the job," Ptak says. "I just wanted to deliver the best possible cake."
Once the flavor was set, the team had to decide on the cake's decorations, a process Ptak describes as remarkably easy. "They absolutely signed off on everything, and it was really cool because this made it a very easy process. I would suggest something and they’d say, 'We love it.' I think [Meghan] knew that I would do the kind of thing she was interested in, and that made it easier," Ptak says.
"I don’t think it was an intention to make a big statement but it kind of came out that way, so it was really exciting to be part of that. Also, to be asked to do what I love rather than be given a brief, it was like a dream job for sure."
Baking in grand surroundings
Since Harry and Meghan had decided on a fresh sponge cake as opposed to a fruit cake that could be made weeks in advance, Ptak wasn’t able to start baking the cake until the day before the wedding.
"It’s the way we bake anyway. We do things à la minute, so we knew that and planned our strategy and team accordingly. We were ready," she says.
And rather than begin creating the cake in their small and open kitchen, with the eyes of customers watching their every move at Violet Cakes, Ptak and her team were invited to the kitchens at Buckingham Palace.
"They have a wonderful chef called Mark Flanagan who was incredibly supportive and welcoming to us. Baking there really set the tone for us," she says. "We loved being there because we have a tiny kitchen and they have incredible facilities. We made [the cake] in London and transported it to Windsor where we finished the decoration."
On the day of the wedding, Ptak and her team arrived at Windsor at 5 a.m. to complete the finishing touches. "Because of timing, there was a lot of waiting," she says. "We had to be there that early to get things into place and get all the flowers done."
But, things didn’t go exactly as planned.
Drama on the day of the royal wedding
In addition to the wedding cake on display, Ptak's team created several other tiers. "There’s 750 people to serve and you wouldn’t have time to cut it-the cakes that were actually on display were donated to charity the next morning," she explains.
The cakes that were served to the wedding guests had been pre-cut earlier in the day.
"I have really have strong feelings about the temperature of cakes and how they should be served ... To transport a cake, you have to get it very, very cold so that it doesn't move and then you want to slice it when it’s cold," Ptak explains.
"The ones that we cut were nice and cold, and then they’re meant to stay out at room temperature until they’re served so they go lovely and soft. But there was a miscommunication, and they were all put back into the fridge. I had been elsewhere looking at the flowers and came back down and saw that they were all in the fridge and I so I freaked out."
Fortunately, there was a fairly easy fix.
"We got them all on to these trolleys and took them into a different kitchen-one of the most beautiful kitchens in Windsor that’s all copper, an original, restored kitchen. Here they had a special heating area so we were able to put it in a really warm spot and, in the end, they were perfect. But there was a panic. It didn’t seem like a big deal to anyone else but to me, if they had to bite into a cold cake I would have been mortified."
With the drama over, Ptak and her team added the finishing touches.
"We put the last few petals on the cake and Isaac, my head pastry chef, and I just stepped back and looked at it. There were a few footmen around and they gave us this nod of ‘well done’ and I think we both looked at it and were like 'Oh my God we did, this is so amazing,'" she says. "To know that Oprah and the Queen ate our cake was pretty exciting."
But after all that hard work, Ptak didn't stick around long enough to watch any members of the royal family tuck into a slice.
"We got it all ready and then the footmen passed it around while we sneaked out," she says. "It had been an incredible experience and we just wanted to slip away and let them enjoy their wedding."
One year later
Almost a year after baking the world’s most famous elderflower and lemon cake, Ptak says she's "still buzzing." "We had lots of lovely attention. It was such a positive thing, a really happy moment to be in the limelight-all of our customers were proud of us," she says.
And, as one might expect, being chosen to bake a royal wedding cake has had a significant impact on her business over the past 12 months. "It was really validating," she says.
"We already had a strong social following but it pretty much doubled. For a small business, we work really hard to get repeat customers and to maintain standards and to stay relevant and interesting to people, so it was an incredible boost. We have tried to get better rather than live off a reputation."
In the weeks following Meghan and Harry's wedding, the Hackney bakery was swarming with new, intrigued visitors hoping to try the cake that won over the royal couple.
"Initially we said no we’re not doing that same cake because it was for them and we wanted a cooling off period-a wedding cake is bespoke for a couple," Ptak tells us. "But the flavor has since become available everywhere, a bit like salted caramel. It’s a traditional combination but I suppose we made it kind of big."
Fans will be pleased to know that the famous elderflower and lemon flavor is back on the menu at Violet Cakes, just in a "slightly different recipe."
So, what’s next for Ptak?
"We’re currently looking at a bigger facility where we can do more because we do have to turn down a lot of orders, especially on weekends. With a new, bigger space we can take on more business and have a better kitchen," she says.
While Ptak admits she doesn't have any immediate plans to move away from her East London location just yet, world domination isn’t far away for the humble baker.
"I’d really like to do something for my American audience because that’s where I’m from and a lot of our fans are from there, as well as my family and friends and all the chefs I used to work with," she says. "I’d like to have some kind of product beyond my cookbooks so I’m just trying to figure out how to make that happen."
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