Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's royal wedding cake took a team of bakers from Violet, a London bakery, to assemble.- The cake was made using 200 Amalfi lemons and 10 bottles of Sandringham Elderflower Cordial.
- Claire Ptak, the owner of Violet, shared a hack for her lemon loaf
recipe with Insider that makes it taste like the wedding cake. - Ptak says home bakers can get the flavors of the
royal wedding cake simply by swapping out half the lemon juice in the icing and drizzle for elderflower syrup. - Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry celebrated their royal wedding with an elaborate lemon and elderflower cake from the master
The cake was made with 200 Amalfi lemons (the bakery sources all of its lemons from Italy's Amalfi coast) and 10 bottles of Sandringham Elderflower Cordial. But you won't need all that to make a similar cake at home.
Violet owner Claire Ptak told Insider she plans to share a recipe for an at-home version of the cake in an upcoming cookbook.
Until then, however, she has shared her lemon drizzle loaf recipe from her 2015 book The Violet Bakery Cookbook with Insider — along with an easy hack to make it taste more like Markle and Harry's cake.
Ptak told Insider that home bakers can get the flavors of the royal wedding cake from the lemony loaf cake simply by swapping out half the lemon juice in the icing and drizzle for elderflower syrup. She even started selling it that way at Violet.
"It's super popular," she told Insider of the lemon loaf. "It has a lot of the same components as the [royal wedding] cake. I mean, it's definitely different, but it's this really lemony cake and what we do at the shop now is instead of making the icing with lemon juice we make it with elderflower syrup. Just to give people on a regular day a hint of that flavor that we made for Meghan and Harry."
Ptak said she's been making this cake — sans elderflower — with her daughter Frances while in quarantine.
"With kids, it's like the fastest thing possible," she said, adding that she prefers to bake quick desserts while in quarantine rather than ones with longer lead times like two-day doughnuts.
While her bakery is closed, Ptak has been sharing some of her recipes, including her chocolate chip cookie recipe, on social media, and said she loves to see people sharing their versions of her treats in their own kitchens.
Here's her recipe:
Lemon Drizzle Loaf from The Violet Bakery Cookbook
This recipe, which comes directly from Ptak and her team, makes one 10-inch-by-4-inch loaf cake, which cuts into eight slices. Ptak's suggestion is to replace half the lemon juice in the drizzle and icing with elderflower syrup for that royal touch.
Ingredients
For the sponge:
1 ⅛ cups (265 grams) unsalted butter, very soft
1 ⅓ cups (265 grams) granulated sugar
Zest of 3 to 4 lemons (save for the juice)
3 eggs
2 ⅛ cups (265 grams) plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
⅜ cup (100 grams) milkFor the drizzle:
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp fresh lemon juiceFor the icing:
1 cup (250 grams) icing sugar
2 tbsp lemon juiceMethod
Heat your oven to 350 F (or 325 F with the fan oven). Butter a 10-inch-by-4-inch loaf tin and line the base and sides with parchment paper, extending the paper about 2 inches above the top of the tin.
First, make the sponge. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar well but not as fluffy as you would for a layer cake. Zest the lemons into the butter mixture and mix thoroughly.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each one is thoroughly mixed in before adding the next.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Mix half of this into the creamed butter mixture, scraping down the sides, until barely combined.
While the mixer is still going, beat in all the milk. Then add the remaining flour and mix until just combined. Scrape the bowl and give it one last mix.
Scoop the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a palette knife or spatula.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until the top of the cake is springy and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
To make the lemon drizzle, combine the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a small pan and heat just until the sugar is melted. Do not let this boil or the fresh flavor is lost.
Use a skewer to poke holes evenly throughout the baked loaf. Pour over the lemon syrup and let it soak in whilst you make the icing.
In a small bowl, whisk together the icing sugar and the lemon juice until smooth.
To remove the loaf cake from the tin, run a small paring knife along the sides of the tin and then tilt the tin on its side and coax the loaf out, using the baking paper as a handle. Remove the paper and turn the loaf upright on your cooling rack or worktop. Drizzle over the icing and let it drip down the sides. Use a spatula or cake or tart tin base to lift the loaf onto a serving dish. This keeps well for up to three days in an airtight container.
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