Elspeth A. Lodge

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FLECKNEY, UNITED KINGDOM – MARCH 24: Cake designer Fiona Cairns, who has been commissioned by Prince William and Kate Middleton to create a multi-tiered traditional fruit cake for their wedding, mixes ingredients, on March 24, 2011

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Elspeth Lodge Mar 28, 2011 – 2:30 PM ET | Last Updated: Mar 28, 2011 3:01 PM ET

Many people don’t realize the royal couple are following tradition, not adding a modern twist to their wedding, by having two wedding cakes instead of one.The first cake, a three tiered fruit cake is traditional to English weddings; the top tier is known as “the christening cake,” which the couple will likely save in a tin to eat at the baptism of their first child.The second cake will be the “groom’s cake,” a less formal cake, a tradition that originated in the Tudor period but isn’t often bothered with today.

The groom’s cake

Prince William has chosen a chocolate rich biscuit cake for his grooms cake. A simple unbaked cake of crushed McVities rich tea biscuits and dark chocolate, reports the Telegraph.

“It was once English custom for this [the groom's cake] to be a fruitcake as well,” reports worldweddingtraditions.com, but today the groom’s cake is likely to be chocolate.”

Buckingham palace has sent a special “secret” recipe to McVities that William used to enjoy at tea time as a child.

The cake will be baked in a factory test kitchen by Paul Courtney, the firm’s cake design and development head chef.”It has a couple of secret ingredients we can’t tell you about but it will have dark chocolate, to give it a really nice flavour, and use rich tea biscuits that will be broken up,” Mr. Courtney told the Telegraph. “It will be decorated with chocolate display work which will be contemporary, modern and elegant.” Also, it will include no less than 1,700 biscuits and nearly 40 lb of dark chocolate, says the Mail.

As a plus, the company has made many royal wedding and christening cakes since the marriage of George V to Queen Mary in 1893, says the Telegraph, adding another level of tradition to the wedding.

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STOCKPORT, UNITED KINGDOM – MARCH 25: Cake Design and Development Head Chef Paul Courtney tastes a piece of a trial biscuit cake after making it at the McVitie’s factory March 25, 2011 in Stockport, England.

Another tradition? “Legend has it that if single females take a slice of the cake home and sleep with it under their pillow they will dream of their groom-to-be,” says theTelegraph of the grooms cake.

The fruit cake

The fruit cake is served at the wedding reception (or the “wedding breakfast”) along with  the groom’s cake.

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FLECKNEY, UNITED KINGDOM – MARCH 24: A decorative rose for the royal wedding cake is made on March 24, 2011 in Fleckney, Leicestershire, England.

In creation of the wedding fruit cake, Kate Middleton has worked closely with popular Leicestershire-based cake-designer Fiona Cairns, who supplies cakes to swanky department stores like Harrods.

The cake will be covered in edible flowers and fruit.

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FLECKNEY, UNITED KINGDOM – MARCH 24: Cake designer Fiona Cairns, who has been commissioned by Prince William and Kate Middleton to create a multi-tiered traditional fruit cake for their wedding, poses with a Victorian recipe book, on March 24, 2011 .

“I can’t tell you exactly the recipe, but the brandy is very important,” says Cairns to the Mail. “We always soak our fruits overnight to plump them up.” She says ingredients in the cake include dried fruits such as raisins and sultanas, walnuts, cherries, grated oranges and lemon, French brandy, free range eggs and flour, says BBC.

Rui Vierira / WPA Pool / Getty Images

FLECKNEY, UNITED KINGDOM – MARCH 24: Cake designer Fiona Cairns, who has been commissioned by Prince William and Kate Middleton to create a multi-tiered traditional fruit cake for their wedding, holds a tray of decorations for the cake March 24, 2011 in Fleckney, Leicestershire, England.

In terms of decoration “She [Kate] has guided us right from the beginning and has quite strong ideas,” said Ms. Cairns.”She knew very much what she wanted and she brought us mood boards and told us what influences she would like us to use on the cake. The cake is multi-tiered, doesn’t have colour – it’s cream and white [icing] – and it’s a traditional cake but also quite delicate and modern.

All the tiers will have a different theme.’  The edible flowers will include an English rose, a Scottish thistle, a Welsh daffodil and an Irish shamrock, says BBC and “The cake will feature William and Kate’s new cipher — thought to feature the couple’s entwined initials — which will be officially released on their wedding day on 29 April.”

The Palace has said to the Mail “the cake will have ‘a strong British floral theme” and “will be decorated using intricate piping to create flowers, leaves and scrollwork, and accompanied with fresh fruit and flowers.”