May has been an exciting time for the Queen, with the arrival of her latest great-grandchild Archie at the beginning of the month, followed by the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston over the weekend. And the celebrations will continue next week, when the Queen helps mark Sainsbury's 150th anniversary with a special cake created by baker Claire Ptak – who was behind the culinary centrepiece for the wedding day of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. On Wednesday, the Queen will visit a replica of one of the original Sainsbury's stores in Covent Garden, London, and will cut into a specially-created citrus and blossom cake.
Sainsbury's will celebrate 150 years with Claire Ptak creating a special cake for the store
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During her visit, the Queen will also meet Sainsbury's employees and will be given an insight into the history of the supermarket. Baker Claire, meanwhile, has spoken out of her excitement at being part of such a special occasion. She said: "It is yet another great honour to be chosen to make such an important cake for an iconic British brand. Sainsbury's pioneered the sale of butter in this country along with milk, eggs and crème fraiche. These are all ingredients that we take for granted today but that we could not bake without."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding cake
For Prince Harry and Meghan's big day in 2018, Claire baked them a layered lemon and elderflower cake. The baker 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. 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.
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Harry and Meghan were hands-on with the process, sampling a number of different lemon and elderflower cakes. "They loved it. They tried quite a collection," Claire said at the time. "What they said to me is that they really loved the idea of the seasonality and the freshness."
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