So, the phone rings and, amazingly, it is Buckingham Palace… “Hello, is that Fiona? You remember the fabulous cake that you created for William and Kate’s wedding. Well, we were wondering if you might be able to put together something equally awe-inspiring to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953.”
Actually, it didn’t quite happen like that but imagine that was you who took the call and you had to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and design a celebratory cake worthy of such an illustrious occasion. Just what is involved? Where exactly would you start?
Well, as Royal Warrant holders for marzipan and almond products, we at Renshaw decided it would only be fitting if we commissioned Fiona Cairns, who really did design and make the Royal Wedding Cake, to go ahead and design, bake and decorate a creation for the Coronation Festival at the palace.
As you can see, the result was simply sensational:
You can imagine that this took several weeks of planning, as we first had to sit down with Fiona and toss around a multitude of ideas involving such elements as colour, technique and shape. It wasn’t long before she came back with the outline sketch that you see below…
The hexagonal base and the four tiers above it clearly had to have both royal and coronation themes as well as pay homage to the four countries that comprise the realm.
It took Fiona and her team 3 days to put together the final creation and, when you examine the incredible detail, you can see why.
The base features the national emblems of England (Rose), N. Ireland (Shamrock), Scotland (Thistle) and Wales (Daffodil) as well as the diamond shaped Coronation Festival logo.
The second tier, decorated with marzipan leaves and roses, features the fleur de lys from the Queen’s Coronation Coach while the third tier was piped with intricate swag details and miniature delicate gold crowns.
The fourth tier displays a larger fleur de lys which features strongly in royal heraldry and is represented on the Queen’s crown.
Finally, the cake has been topped with real panache as a representation of the Queen’s Coronation orb, which has been adorned with edible gems in place of the sapphires, rubies and diamonds that encrusted the real version!
If you aspire to creating a majestic celebratory cake of your own, you can pick up some handy tips at www.renshawbaking.com
Disclosure: This post was brought to you by Renshaw and now I’m off to get myself some cake.
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