Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding cake has been unveiled – and it is truly beautiful. The royal couple broke tradition with their "ethereal" lemon elderflower cake, which was displayed in an unusual installation at Windsor Castle. The first photo was shared on the official Kensington Palace Twitter account. As promised, it was displayed in an unconventional way - with three separate cakes displayed on ornate gold goblets and adorned with fresh peonies and roses.
© Photo: TwitterPrince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding cake has been unveiled
Claire Ptak and her team of six bakers spent five days working in the kitchens at Buckingham Palace to produce the special cake, using seasonal and locally sourced ingredients, including a cordial made using elderflower from the Queen's Sandringham Estate.
Prince Harry and Meghan's cake was served at their lunchtime reception
Some 200 Amalfi lemons were used in the recipe, as well as ten bottles of Sandringham Elderflower Cordial, 20kgs of butter, 20 kgs of flour, 20kgs of sugar and 500 organic eggs from Suffolk. Claire said: "It's a lemon sponge - a special sponge that I developed just for the couple, and we drizzle the layers with elderflower cordial from the Sandringham estate so it's really lovely and as local as you can get. We have a lemon curd made from Amalfi lemons which to me have the most delicious flavour. And then we've got elderflower swiss meringue buttercream."
STORY: See preparations for Prince Harry and Meghan's royal wedding cake
Adding a personal touch are the floral decorations - featuring three types of Meghan's favourite flowers, peonies, in shades of white and cream, along with four different white and cream roses. The flowers will be removed before guests tuck in to the cake, but the slices will be served with edible rose petals to the 600 guests at the lunchtime reception in St George's Hall.
© Photo: Getty ImagesPrince Harry and Meghan Markle in the royal wedding carriage procession
Harry and Meghan are said to have been hands on with the process, sampling a number of different lemon and elderflower cakes. "They loved it. They tried quite a collection," Claire said. "What they said to me is that they really loved the idea of the seasonality and the freshness."
