In the United States, smashing some wedding cake on your new spouse’s face is an awkward but common tradition, but at the royal wedding, it could be dangerous. “[Traditionally] in England, the cake is actually a fruitcake, so if you threw it in somebody’s face, you’d probably break their nose,” chef Nicholas Lodge told Yeas & Nays when we caught up with him Monday night. Lodge was in town to judge the Des Alpes Chocolate Fashion Show at the Mandarin Oriental. The Heart of America Foundation’s Sweet Charity benefit combines volunteer service and literacy to support the needs of at-risk children in the D.C. area and across the country. Lodge is one of the 60-plus chefs who created confections for the charitable event.
He is the founder of the International Sugar Art Collection and has created and baked specialty cakes for many events, including Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding, the baby shower for Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth’s 80th birthday.
While Lodge thinks Prince William and Kate Middleton will likely go with the traditional torte (fruitcake), he anticipates the style of the cake (as well as the style of the rest of the wedding) will be much different than when the last royal couple tied the knot.
“We’re very influenced as cake designers by fashion trends, so I think the style will maybe be a little more simple,” he said. “The wedding will probably be a little bit more contemporary in style and maybe not so much lace and bows and things as when Diana got married.”
Proceeds from Monday night’s Sweet Charity event went to Heart of America’s Books From the Heart program which aims to provide books to D.C.-area children living in poverty.
