Books: Royal wedding cake queen reveals her secrets

Since making a certain royal wedding cake earlier this year, Fiona Cairns has found herself in the baking spotlight. She tells Sarah O’Meara what it was like working with Kate Middleton and when she found time to write her Birthday Cake Book, out this month.

When the news came, Fiona Cairns was standing in the hallway of her Midlands home arranging miniature blue waves around a Pirate Galleon Chocolate Cake.

“The camera clicked and I thought: ‘Oh good, the photo shoot will soon be over, I’ll be able to pop the champagne and everyone will go home’. And then my mobile rang...”

There’s still a nervous tremble in her voice, when Fiona recalls the day her husband relayed that crucial message from Clarence House.

All thoughts of taking photos for her latest Birthday Cake Book fell away as she heard those three little words: They’ve chosen us.

“I’ll never forget that feeling. I was very excited and also worried, because it’s such a big responsibility.”

Fiona and a select small baking team treasured the news they would be producing the wedding cake for the soon-to-be Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in secret, as they liaised with the royal couple. They even hid their work from the rest of the staff, revealing only that it was an ‘important commission’.

“It was an amazing adventure”, says the former pastry chef whose factory produces 120,000 cakes a year, selling to Harrods, Selfridges and Waitrose.

Like any modern bride, Kate took control of proceedings from an early stage, says the cook, and luckily her desires chimed with Fiona’s talents.

“It was a dream brief for us, and very much Catherine’s, right from the very beginning. She’s very creative. We were given some lace, which we assumed was the same as the dress, so the flowers on the cake matched her gown.”

Fiona, who makes Paul McCartney’s Christmas cake every year, spent time with Kate Middleton and her staff, ensuring every detail was perfect, before beginning the construction of the cake.

An interior architect was employed to work out the structure of the creation, made up of 17 cakes and eight tiers.

“It was the biggest cake I’ve ever made,” says Cairns, her voice, quivering.

“One of the most hairy moments was getting it from its little room to the Picture Gallery on a trolley. I ended up carrying the middle sections, so they didn’t get bumped,” she says, letting out a little nervous laugh.

Considering the floral cardigan-wearing mother-of-two looks looks as sweet and light as one of her cakes, the mental image of her lugging kilos worth of fruit cake up the stairs of Buckingham Palace, while dodging DJs carrying massive amplifiers ready for the disco, is rather wonderful.

“I have recovered now, but it did take a long time. Looking back, I still can’t believe it happened,” she says.