Now THIS is a fruit cake


I'm not a royalist - my main reason for favouring a royal family is that it prevents us, as a nation, doing something really stupid like electing Boris Johnson or Katie 'Jordan' Price President. However, I've seen a few American commentaries online reacting unfavourably to the fact that this year's royal wedding cake is likely to be a fruit cake, illustrated not with a traditional wedding cake but with a photo of some poor offering with a crate of candied fruit wedged on top. To put matters straight, here is a royal wedding cake of the past, made by Huntley and Palmer's for the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Kent in 1934. Sadly the picture I have is not incredibly clear, but I'd estimate the cake is a couple of feet tall at least, topped with a bouquet of flowers and figurines, with little roundels depicting what I think are landscapes on the sides of the tiers.

Now this is a fruit cake!

Comments

  1. Oh, FFS. I bet the same people will react with judgmental incredulity if Kate Middleton's bridesmaids follow her up the aisle rather than preceding her. Newsflash: different countries have different traditions!

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  2. I must admit, I've seen a few things lately that have made me want to scream, "Chaps, we are NOT just Americans with cutesey little accents."

    I was mulling over fruit cake last night. I never liked it as a kid, but now I always look forward to my slice of wedding or christening cake. It's more a ritual item than a foodstuff, a sort of secular sacrament. I enjoy it for its connections to all the weddings I've been to. (That said, my wedding cake was huge and we got back from the honeymoon to find someone had saved us the top layer. Eight months later we chucked about half the layer out 'cos we simply couldn't face eating any more of it.)

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