Prince William admits ‘militant’ rule in the kitchen

LEAVE A COMMENT While it's the Princess of Wales who admits she stays up baking late into the night to craft her children's birthday cakes, her husband, the Prince of Wales, has opened up about a particular cake recipe that's close to his heart.

The November instalment of Country Life has been guest edited by the future King, and he took the opportunity to share his favourite recipe – a chocolate biscuit cake he used to be served by his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Within the pages of the issue, William shared the exact recipe with readers, admitting that he is "quite militant about the recipe," adding: "It has to have the right amount of biscuit to chocolate. If you have too much chocolate, it’s too rich; if there is too much biscuit, it is too dry. It’s a fine balance."

Explaining his love for the particular dessert, William wrote: "I definitely have a sweet tooth and I love this recipe, which was dreamt up by my grandmother’s kitchen team… My grandmother got me into teatime with this cake being the perfect invitation: every time I’d go to have tea with her, I’d be hoping it would be served. It didn’t always happen, but I was so happy when it did; she would put on the most amazing teas. It was how I began to love and appreciate the Great British teatime."

The royal has so much love for this particular cake, which uses Rich Tea biscuits, that he requested one be made alongside a traditional fruit cake for his 600 guests at the canapé reception of his royal wedding in 2011. The Country Life feature reports that it "called for 40lb of chocolate and 1,700 Rich Tea biscuits" to make the impressive dessert. William explained that it was a "groom's cake" and the origins of a groom's cake come from Victorian England, when a second, richer and usually alcohol-laced cake would be dedicated to the groom.

In 2025, Princess Catherine jokingly outed William for critiquing her baking decisions. It was during a joint outing to the National Federation of Women's Institute when the royals sampled bakes.

While she tucked into a slice of chocolate chip cookie cake, the Prince of Wales helped himself to a chocolate brownie and a piece of orange and Campari cake before being introduced to the women who made them.

William was quick to shower the brownie (and the baker) with praise, adding: "And I know my brownies", while his wife quipped knowingly: "William is very fussy about it." The reason for the prince's praise? The fact that the brownie didn't contain nuts. "Never put nuts in a brownie," he insisted, which prompted Catherine to joke: "I had to learn the hard way."

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