All elements of a royal wedding are dictated by tradition — and perhaps none more so than the cake: A centerpiece often so ornamental that it is not served to guests. Is an organic elderflower cake a sign of change?
Image: DW/R. Delaney
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The multifaceted elderflower flavor
The aroma will star for the first time for a royal wedding cake, but the flowers of the elderberry tree have been used for ages in Germany and Europe.
Image: DW/R. Delaney
Elderflower: a royal taste of spring
Kensington Palace announced that the lemon elderflower cake to be served at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding would incorporate "the bright flavors of spring". Fans of the elderflower aroma describe it as like "drinking lace," — a fitting flavor for a royal wedding. The centerpiece will be covered buttercream and decorated fresh flowers including Markle's favorite, peonies.
Image: DW/R. Delaney
A spring harvest: May to July
Elderflower has a strong Victorian heritage though it is not exclusively British. The European Elder, Sambucus nigra, can be found as far as Siberia and north west Africa. Another variety grows in North America, the Sambuca canadiensis. Both varieties flower in May form in umbel-shaped bunches of tiny white flowers that by the end of summer develop into drooping bunches of purple black berries.
Image: Belvoir Fruit Farms
A European all-rounder
Elderflower, Holunderblüte, has place in Germany's heart not only due to its many culinary uses but also its wide-use in natural medicine. From fizzy drinks to herbal tinctures, Germans put the plant to good use. In Sweden, it's made into a summer drink called the Fläderblomsaft. In Romania there is a Fanta Shokata, an electric blue elderflower twist on the iconic orange soda.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A plant that keeps close company with people
Out and about, the Elder likes open spaces. You can see it growing on the side of the road even in major cities. It keenly crops up on the side of paddocks, in forest margins and in abandoned gardens, farms and industrial areas. It thrives in open, sunny spots. The flowers' panicle form creates striking disc-shaped clusters as the stems grow to a flat, plate-like surface.
Image: DW/R. Delaney
A honeysuckle treasure of spring
The sweet blossoms are harvested to be made in syrup to flavor drinks and dried for fragrant teas served all year round. The have a pale creamy palette owing to white petals and yellow pollen which gives them their distinctive scent. Often the heady fragrance from flowering bushes can be smelled from meters away. Not all love it, but it is a clear signal: Summer is on the way!
Image: Belvoir Fruit Farms
Naughty and nice: a floral product for every indulgence
Perhaps the most famous elderflower concoction is the cordial. It is produced by gently cooking the flowers with lemon and sugar to mix for a sweet and refreshing summer drink. However the fun does not stop there. The flowers can be used to make a low-alcohol champagne, sometimes called "pregnancy prosecco" and used to flavor stronger alcohols like liquor and wine.
Image: Belvoir Fruit Farms
Meet the sexy Hugo
Restaurants across Germany, Switzerland and Austria rush to offer guests the aperitif Hugo when temperatures raise. Enjoyed as an alternative to Aperol spritz, a Hugo is mixed from prosecco, elderflower syrup, mineral water and garnished with mint and lime. While the Hugo is said to have originated in South Tyrol, you can't blame the Germans for trying to claim this elegant cocktail as their own.
Image: Beatrice Grundheber
Mother nature's medicine chest
Modern herbalists still consider the elder among the most generous plants. Its use can be traced back to the Stone Age. For thousands of years, it has been prescribed in therapies for a wide range of ailments including respiratory conditions and fever. Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, the so-called father of medicine, had already documented its uses.
Image: DW/R. Delaney
Spirits, spooks and the Brothers Grimm
The elder has a rich history in the folklore of Britain and Europe. For centuries, the shrub was grown at the back door to ward of evil spirits. The name elder is thought to derive from the anglo-saxon word "Aeld," meaning fire. Its other names, like Holler, Hylderand and the German Holunder refer to a mythic pagan woman who featured in a Grimm Brothers tale, Frau Holle.
Image: DW/Maksim Nelioubin
A tree that keeps giving: berries in the fall
Be careful not to pick all the flowers! In late summer vitamin-rich elderberries grow. These fruits play a large role in European cuisine. The elderberry is not just used for flavor but also to lend its deep, rich purple color to dishes. While it may be tempting to pick and eat these jublent berries, it is best to take them home to cook them, as they can cause stomach upsets when eaten raw.
Image: Imago/Westend61
Berry of not, here they come
The slightly tart flavor of the berries turns into a favorite once cooked. This is because elderberries are often prepared with sweeter more robust berries and fruits in pies and desserts, though they also stand alone well in jams and chutneys. In Germany, a traditional elderberry soup is served as a chilled dessert. Elderberry syrup can also deliciously be drizzled onto pancakes.
Image: picture-alliance/chromorange/M. Rädlein
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In the lead-up to what may be the world's most anticipated wedding, even the finer details of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's nuptials have captivated royalists, romantics and cynics alike.
Perhaps none more so than the symphonic sounding "bright flavors of spring" lemon elderflower wedding cake. The couple commissioned Californian pastry chef Claire Ptak, whom Meghan knew through an interview for her now-shut down website for young women, The Tig.
Much more than a dessert, a wedding cake serves as a symbolic centerpiece of the ceremony. The pastries can be so ornamental that they are not even served to the guests on the day of the wedding.
Since Queen Victoria's wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840, elaborate fruitcakes have not only been served at royal weddings, but have also become cultural norm. The fruitcake's composition serves a religious purpose as well; it is made to keep until the christening of the couple's first child.
Playing the royal game her own way: Meghan MarkleImage: Getty Images/AFP/J. Selwyn
Being a half-African-American divorcee, Markle has already surmounted some of the most deep-seated conventions of the British royal establishment. Therefore she could have been forgiven for capitulating to every requirement linked to their sensibilities and tradition. But she hasn't, and behind that, she does not give an impression of a future wife willing to defer to the preference of her royal family.
Doing things Meghan's way: A shift of gears in the monarchy?
While Elderflower, a traditional Victorian flavor, may not seem like an especially radical choice of flavor for a British royal wedding, taken as a whole the boldness of the gesture shows that Markle will do the wedding her own way.
Markle has already sacrificed her acting career just as it was taking off, her large online communities and social media accounts to toe the line of royal protocol.
Therefore, choosing fellow California native Claire Ptak, who is connected to the elements of a past Markle was asked to erase — at least digitally — shows that while she may be willing to wipe her personality from social media, she is not about to fully abandon her past identity.
It is a taste of the ways in which Markle’s socially conscious background will inform her choices as a royal.
Claire Ptak, who runs the Violet bakery in hip East London, is "committed to using seasonal, organic and low intervention produce" Image: Imago/i Images
Kensington Palace announced that Harry and Meghan will be serving their cake to guests on the day. That may sound normal, but it isn't — at least not for a royal wedding.
In 2011, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had two cakes made for their wedding. The biscuit cake — Prince William's childhood favorite — was eaten that day, while the main piece, an eight-tiered traditional fruitcake with hundreds of intricate sugar flowers, went on display after the wedding before being sliced to be sold at auction.
The top tier of it was kept almost three years and served as the christening cake to their first born, Prince George. Whether Harry and Meghan include a consolatory fruitcake for a future christening remains to be seen.
A 6-year-old piece of Kate and William's cake was reauctioned in 2017 and fetched 638 pounds (€730)Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stillwel
While Markle may have lost much of her immediate autonomy marrying into the royal family with all its protocols, her profile and efforts as a gloves-off social commentator live on.
It is not that she has just gotten behind recent campaigns like the #MeToo movement; her feminist efforts far pre-date her royal profile. At age 11 she wrote letters to ad executives and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton about sexist advertising that peddled a woman's place as in the kitchen. The advertisement for dishwashing liquid was changed after receiving her complaint. Markle's co-stars are rumored to have nicknamed her "MSH" Markle (for "Make Shit Happen") on set.
The internet will not forget that she recommended her almost two million Instagram followers that they read the work of prominent US academic Noam Chomsky, who famously espouses anarchist theories.
Chomsky also counts with those who are in eager anticipation of Markle's entry into the most privileged of institutions, telling The Guardian late 2017 that it "Sounds as though she may, for many reasons, shake up the royal family."
On one level the lemon elderflower cake and its "low intervention" ingredients could be taken as a mere reflection of contemporary socially conscious food preferences. But the fact that this cake is made to be eaten by guests on the day rather than tucked away to serve at the next religious ritual or auctioned off as a gaudy souvenir in a continuing of the wedding spectacle chimes to the warm humanity that people have come to love about Meghan Markle, her joyous defiance.
