4ft cake of London landmark created to celebrate royal wedding

Now that's what we call a cake and a half!

In celebration of the upcoming royal wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William, royal cake makers Sophisticake has created a 4ft wedding cake replicating the steeple and spire of St. Bride's Church.

The famous landmark, also known as The Cathedral of Fleet Street, was the inspiration for the first ever wedding cake back in 18th century London.

It's said the story began with Thomas Rich, a baker's apprentice from Ludgate Hill, who fell in love with his boss' daughter and asked for her hand in marriage.

Rich wanted to surprise his new bride by creating something spectacular for her on their wedding day and found inspiration from the steeple of St Bride's Church.

The multi-tiered wedding cake he created, based on the structure of the steeple and spire, was the first of its kind, and sparked the wedding cake phenomenon that's still a firm favourite of brides and grooms across the world today.

As well as celebrating the royal wedding, the cake - made by Dawn Blundel, the woman who baked the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Camilla in 2005 - is also part of Visit London's ongoing campaign, Only in London.

Jacqueline French, spokesperson of Visit London explains: 'With just weeks to go until the Royal Wedding, we wanted to celebrate London's part as the backdrop to the most talked about wedding of our time. By recreating the cake and revealing its history, we want visitors to the capital to enjoy the unrivalled heritage that can only be found in London.'

But, what we want to know is, how many eggs would it take to bake a 4ft cake? Two hundred, apparently!

Dawn explained: 'I was thrilled to be asked to bake this St Bride's replica cake in celebration of the forthcoming royal wedding and bring it here to London.

'Only in London can you really feel a part of this historic moment. The cake took over 200 hours to create and for real authenticity I followed a medieval recipe.

'By using pounds upon pounds of spices such as mace, nutmeg and cloves I was able to stay true to the cake's original 18th century origins and hopefully make something Thomas Rich would have been proud of. In total, I used a startling 200 eggs, 120lb dried fruit and 18lb butter!'

Wonder if the royal wedding cake will be as extravagant?

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