A Perthshire cake decorating expert has recalled hilarious cakes he made at the request of the Royal Family to make the Queen laugh.
Cake guru Paul Bradford is known around the world for his Cakeflix series of decorating tutorials.
He recently invested in Strathardle Lodge, near Pitlochry, where he runs in-person cake courses.
Two decades ago he ran a cake shop in Linlithgow and for five years created cakes to mark the end of the hunting season at Balmoral Castle.
The Never Again Corgis cake
Mr Bradford initially thought the approach from the Royal Family was a wind-up.
“One of the Queen’s cousins lives in Linlithgow and their cook came into the shop,” he said.
“The request was just not something you’d expect from the Royal Family.
“It turned out an Edinburgh cake shop was asked to make a corgi cake for the Queen the year before.
“But she thought it looked more like a red squirrel – the tail and the colours were wrong, the face was wrong…
“So I was asked to basically mock the previous year’s cake. They wanted individual mini-cakes with letters on top to spell out Never Again Corgis.”
Paul couldn’t help but bring some creativity to the task. Each of the small cakes were individually flavoured.
Then he “took a gamble” and made little sugar corgis that were climbing onto the mini-cakes. One was even cocking his leg against one of the cakes.
“I delivered the cake and then heard nothing at all until 11 months later asking me for another cake.
“It turned out the Royal Family had loved Never Again Corgis and started spelling out other words with the cakes like it was Scrabble.”
Cake of Queen in rowing boat
For the second cake Paul was able to fully unleash his creativity.
He was asked to create a cake that referenced the Royal Yacht Britannia, which had just been decommissioned.
“They said do something funny,” he said.
“I thought I’d suggest the Royal Family couldn’t afford a boat.
“So I did a wee rowing boat with all the high profile Royal Family members. The Queen in a headscarf, Princess Anne with a basket. The board was the Hebrides Islands.
“I delivered the cake to the castle and the Lord receiving it burst out laughing but said ‘you’ve taken that too far – you can’t have the Queen rowing’.
“I carefully swapped her with a page boy at the back of the boat.
“I’m not supposed to be telling these stories but it’s that long ago.”
Three more cakes for Royal Family
Next year’s cake was on the theme of the card game Patience Solitare which the Queen liked to play.
A fourth cake replicated the Queen planting a tree in the grounds when one of her corgis decided to relieve itself at an unfortunate moment.
Paul wouldn’t describe the fifth cake he made describing it as “too personal”.
Sadly, he didn’t take any pictures of the cakes.
“I really enjoyed making them – we got word that her favourite base was a lemon drizzle with white chocolate ganache.”
A spokesperson for the Royal Family declined to comment on Paul’s cake creations.
Prince Albert of Monaco’s cake requests
Incredibly, his five years of cakes for our Royal Family is not the only time he’s made cakes for royalty.
While teaching in Monaco he created a five-tier cake for Prince Albert II to marl the tennis open.
He delivered it and then received a call requesting an additional cake.
“His fiancée had been on my website and saw a Louis Vuitton handbag cake,” Paul said.
“It was terrible timing as only the previous week, I’d had a letter from Louis Vuitton demanding I stop making this cake as it infringed their copyright.
“I said ‘I’m really sorry, I can’t do it or I’ll be sued’.
“Half an hour later, I get another phonecall. Prince Albert is best friends with the Louis Vuitton family and there’s no longer any issue.”
After delivering the handbag cake he was handed a glass of Champagne and given a private tour of the palace from the Prince’s personal butler.
“We were shown rooms where US presidents and Mandela had met the Prince,” Paul said.
“The funny thing is the butler was the spitting image of the prince. He’d had some Champagne too.
“As we’re about to leave he puts the Royal sash on, opens a window and waves to delighted tourists flashing their cameras.
“He then closes the window and burst out laughing.”
Future plans for cake business
Paul has more than 220,000 subscribers to his online lessons business Cakeflix, which he has built up over the past decade with his partner David Brice.
They invested around £500,000 on Strathardle Lodge and are renovating the nine-bedroom property.
He is looking forward to running in-person cake classes in Perthshire, which is attracting students from all over the world.
The cake expert said he has no regrets at turning down the chance to appear on Netflix cake contest Is It Cake?
He recently took part in a cake contest in Australia that was broadcast on television there.
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