Royal couple share ‘afternoon tea' with 800 reception guests
A traditional British afternoon tea was the culinary centrepiece of Saturday's royal wedding of the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles.
Miniature sandwiches of smoked salmon on brown bread and roast venison with Balmoral redcurrant and port jelly on white bread were among the 16,900 canapés prepared by royal chef Mark Flanagan and his brigade of chefs.
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Some 800 guests at the Windsor Castle reception also tucked into hot canapés of mini Cornish pasties and grilled vegetable tartlets with Parmesan, followed by a selection of pastries, including caramel banana slices, strawberry tartlets, glazed mocha fudge, plain scones with Cornish clotted cream and Duchy strawberry jam, and miniature ice-cream cornets.
Also on the menu were slices of a double-boiled fruit cake baked by Welsh grandmother Etta Richardson. The prince first tasted the cake, usually sold on a stall at Carmarthen market, on a visit to Llansteffan in 2004 and was so impressed that he ordered 20 for his wedding.
The wedding cake - a 24in-square organic rich fruit cake with an octagonal dome - was made by Dawn Blundone and Mary Robinson, who make cakes for the Highgrove shop. Detailed lattice work with a small initial C in the lattice, together with roses, thistles, leeks and daffodils, formed the decoration.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 14 April 2005