If you're lucky enough to be on the guest list for a royal event, you'd be pretty justified in thinking that it would be off the chain. With so many socialites, celebrities and literal royalty present, every wedding or birthday bash from any one of our various princes, princesses and duchesses is expected to be lavish and lovely.
You'd expect that the same would apply for the food. As long as, you know, you actually got to eat the food. But if you were lucky enough to attend the christening of Louis, the third child of Prince William and Kate Middleton after Prince George and Princess Charlotte, you might be dismayed to learn something about the cake present for the festivities.
Apparently, Louis' mother and father really enjoyed the cake from their wedding in 2011, because they served slices of that cake at Louis' christening, seven years (and three kids) later. So, like you, I have a lot of questions. First of all, what? Secondly, how? And most importantly: why?! Let's start with 'how', shall we?
While at the time, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle received widespread praise for ditching the fruitcake in favour of a lemon-elderflower mashup, there's a reason that many royals (including Prince William and Kate Middleton) found the fruitcake more fruitful (pun intended): it actually keeps a lot better than most cakes.
The cake served at Prince William's 2011 wedding was made up of 17 fruitcakes, put together by baker Fiona Cairns. It's been preserved by all of the alcohol present in the cake, which makes it not only edible, but somehow still delicious.
Which brings us to why you'd serve seven-year-old wedding cake at your child's christening, despite having bakers on demand for exactly this kind of event.
"The tradition of saving a portion of the wedding cake for a first child's christening is a long-standing tradition in British weddings," reveals Kylie Carlson of U.K. Academy of Wedding & Events, clueing us all in on this practice. "Typically, a wedding cake in the U.K. will include three tiers, each with its own special purpose."
"The top tier is generally what is preserved for the christening. This varies considerably from American wedding cakes, in which the top tier is often saved for the first wedding anniversary. With Prince William and Catherine, it is widely known that their wedding cake was served at both Prince George and Princess Charlotte's respective christenings."
Well, that's lovely, isn't it? I guess this is pretty similar to a wedding trend that's pretty popular in America; after the wedding, it's customary for the bride or the groom to freeze a layer of the wedding cake for later. They'd then eat that slice on their first wedding anniversary, but I can't imagine it tastes even half as good without all that alcohol, not to mention that intangible royal-ness.
Still, if by some miracle you're invited to the birth of Will and Kate's fourth child, please don't be shocked or offended when they bring out some of the same wedding cake. It's just tradition, honest. Don't kick up a fuss.
