ONTD

From Charles and Di's towering showstopper to Princess Grace's musical cake, feast your eyes on these over-the-top confections.

To date, Kate Middleton and Prince William have been decidedly low-key about the details of their upcoming nuptials — keeping mum on the dress, ixnaying the lavish stag party, and opting for a discreet car arrival in lieu of one by gilded carriage. And yet, there’s one royal realm where restraint doesn’t necessarily mean good taste — that of the wedding cake. Not only is more, well, more, in über-technical baking parlance, but there’s truly no precedent for a modest royal wedding cake. From Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III’s cathedral-esque tiers to Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer’s flower-sprouting temple, we’ve sufficiently drooled over these regal examples. Let them eat cake!


PRINCE CHARLES & PRINCESS DIANA


Not just one cake would do for Prince Charles and Princess Diana, who served 27 at their July 29, 1981 wedding. While most were donated by royal watchers, the couple's official cake was prepared by chef David Avery of the Royal Naval Cookery School.

The cake of Lady Diana Spencr and Prince Charles had a whiff of modernity, with its architectural, temple-esque facets and spare, columnar supports. But all the geometry is somewhat mitigated by its crown - a bit old thicket of regal blooms.

Topping out at more than 5 feet high, the cake was adorned with both the Prince and his family's royal coat of arms, the couple's first initials and a spray of roses, lilies of the valley and orchids.



QUEEN ELIZABETH & PRINCE PHILIP


Charles's mum and dad, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, celebrated their Nov. 20, 1947 wedding with a 9-ft. tall, four-tier cake that weighed in at a whopping 500 lbs. The cake was covered in ornate, cathedral-like carvings - complete with tiny figures, lavish columns, and royal insignias. Crafted by McVitie and Price Ltd., the same biscuit company whipping up dessert for William and Kate's big day, the showstopper even depicted scenes from the couple's lives.



CROWN PRINCESS VICTORIA & PRINCE DANIEL

This one is SO FUG, imo...

When Sweden's Crown Princess walked down the aisle with Daniel Westling on June 19, 2010, the country's Association of Bakers & Confectioners gifted the couple their official wedding cake. Weighing 550 lbs., the decadent dessert was made up of 11 tiers, each in the shape of a lucky four-leaf clover.


PRINCE ANDREW & SARAH FERGUSON

There was some weird discrepancy with this one. Can anyone confirm? I saw two very different pictures of their supposed cake and two different descriptions from different sources:

1) Spirits were very high at the July 23, 1986, wedding of Prince Andrew and Duchess Fergie, who served their guests a 5½-ft. marzipan and rum-soaked cake. The towering treat, which was prepared at the navy supply school HMS Raleigh, featured 15 ingredients, including rum, brandy and port, and was large enough to be cut into 2,000 slices.
2) This lavish six tier royal iced design stood over seven feet tall adorned with trailing fresh flower cascades in white and soft pink. The design was inspired by the society wedding styles and fashion of the late nineteenth century. This describes the photo above.



PRINCE EDWARD & SOPHIE RHYS-JONES

Actually not sure about this one, either...

Dispensing with a customary English wedding fruitcake, Prince Edward and his bride selected a seven-tier Devil's Food cake for their June 19, 1999 wedding. Topped with tennis rackets (in a nod to the fund-raiser where the couple met), the 10-ft. tall confection took baker Linda Fripp and her staff 515 hours to create. Continuing to break with tradition, the Earl and Countess of Wessex cut their cake prior to serving dinner – something that was downright 21st century.



PRINCESS ANNE & CAPTAIN MARK PHILLIPS


The November 1973 cake of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips was helped skyward with silver tiers, supporting the weight of the cake and all that icing — an army caterer is seen piping on ever more.



KING HUSSEIN & QUEEN NOOR

The horror...!

There must be something elementally satisfying about carving a cloud-like cake with a glinting sword — Queen Noor (then Lisa Halaby) celebrated her marriage to Jordan’s King Hussein with a lattice-decorated, rose-studded behemoth of a cake.



KING ABDULLAH BIN AL-HUSSEIN & QUEEN RANIA


It does cut like a knife! For their June 10, 1993 wedding reception, Jordan's Queen Rania and King Abdullah's enormous multi-tiered, rectangular-shaped cake – decorated with embossed crowns and lace embellishments – was sliced down to size with a sword.



KING GEORGE VI & THE QUEEN MUM

A replica.

The official wedding cake of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later the Queen Mother) and then-Prince Albert, Duke of York, was put on display in Reading, England, prior to their April 26, 1923 nuptials. Hordes of onlookers queued up to vie for a view of the ornate, 10-ft. tall confection.


PRINCESS MARGARET & LORD SNOWDON


Five feet tall, 150 pounds, and marked by hexagonally paneled tiers, the cake of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon was marked by three massive layers, in lieu of many small ones. The sides of each tier bore the Princess’s coat of arms and the couple’s new monogram.



CROWN PRINCE PAVLOS & PRINCESS MARIE-CHANTAL


Greece's Crown Prince Pavlos and heiress Marie-Chantal Miller took the phrase "let them eat cake" to heart at their July 1, 1995 nuptials, serving 300 smaller cakes – one per table – in addition to their main confection. The design of the eight-tiered centerpiece by baker Colette Peters was inspired by a china pattern from the Royal Collection.



PRINCE RAINIER & PRINCESS GRACE


When Hollywood beauty Grace Kelly wed Monaco's Prince Rainier on April 19, 1956 her six-tier wedding cake proved fit for a princess. Given to the newlyweds by the pastry chefs at Monte-Carlo's famed Hôtel de Paris, the treat's upper two tiers featured a built-in cage that held a pair of live turtledoves (ew...) – they were released when the couple cut into the cake with Prince Rainier's sword – and was topped off with a revolving miniature of the bride and groom that played "Ave Maria" and Mendelssohn's "Wedding March."



PRINCE GEORGE & PRINCESS MARINA


Sweepingly romantic garlands of flowers were draped over this column-centric wedding cake—the motifs meant to honor the nationality of the bride, Princess Marina of Greece, when she wed the Duke of Kent, in November of 1934.



QUEEN VICTORIA & PRINCE ALBERT


Want a flag piece? This cake, from the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in February of 1840, may not have 10 tiers, but it does boast four flags, excessive ornamentation, and some sort of Grecian-urn topping. Sounds delicious!


Sources:
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Of course this is an invitation to post pictures of your dream cakes (or other royal cakes not included).