AN ASPIRING Bromsgrove baker has been thanked by Her Majesty the Queen for designing a cake to celebrate her becoming Britain’s longest serving monarch.
Inspired by the Victoria Sponge, rumoured to have been created for Queen Victoria, Leah Ramsey, from Romsley, has invented the Elizabeth Rose Cake to mark the monarch’s marvellous milestone.
The 15-year-old first decided to design a cake which included all of The Queen’s favourite flavours and colours when a teacher at her school told her she needed to come up with a new dish for her first GSCE catering exam.
After spending many hours researching, creating and baking the perfect cake she decided to write a letter to The Queen including the recipe and pictures of her new invention.
And, last week, she was thrilled to receive a response from Her Majesty’s lady-in-waiting, thanking her for thoughtful gesture on The Queen’s behalf.
It said The Queen would like to thank her, and although she was unable to reply personally, she greatly appreciated all the effort and skill it had taken to prepare the special tribute cake for the anniversary on Wednesday (September 9).
On that day, Queen Elizabeth II will have served 63 years and 217 days – overtaking her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria.
Leah said when her mum first saw the letter and told her about it she could not believe it.
“At first I was like ‘no it can’t be’ and after my mum read it to me, I had to read it for myself – I was so happy.”
When she first decided to make the cake, Leah went away and researched Her Majesty’s favourite foods, colours and about her preferred styles.
Leah said she found out The Queen liked raspberry jam but as that already had links to the Victoria Sponge, she continued to look for something else.
She then found The Queen had a liking for lemon curd so decided to use that.
In the end she decided the first layer of sponge would have lemon curd on it and the layer after that would have chocolate butter-cream and fresh raspberries.
The last and final layer of cake was then decorate with a butter cream flower.
Leah said the lemon curd, butter icing and raspberries all had links to The Queen’s favourite colours.
She added she noticed The Queen also wore a lot of purple, red and green and also tended to wear flowery hats and brooches.
“I thought if she was quite a colourful person, then why not make the cake the same.”
Leah said after making the cake she shared it with her family who all really enjoyed it.
“It was really nice, you could really taste the different flavours and it was really light and fluffy,” she added.
