The royal family is undoubtedly grieving the loss of Eddie Spence, their former chief royal baker, who passed away at the age of 91 in early July.
Over his 71-year career, master cake decorator Eddie crafted numerous confections and wedding cakes for senior members of the royal family.
As their trusted baker, he orchestrated Charles and Diana’s lavish wedding cake and once spent an entire day whisking eggs for the late Queen Elizabeth’s wedding cake.
Additionally, he created splendid cakes for the late queen’s Silver and Diamond Jubilees, crafted a special commission for Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s 70th wedding anniversary in 2017, and designed a wedding cake for Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew.
His favourite creation was nonetheless the cake he designed for Princess Margaret’s wedding to Antony Armstrong-Jones. “I remember receiving a letter telling me she wanted it to be traditional, so that’s what we did,” Eddie told the DailyMail. “The detail on that cake was amazing and it took a lot of hard work.”
In 2000, Eddie was awarded an MBE for services to craft sugar in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list.
“When the letter offering me an MBE first arrived in 1999 I wasn’t going to accept it, because I was feeling very down after my first wife had sadly passed away just the day before,” he said. “Eventually though my son talked me round and we went up to accept it. It was really amazing, because the Queen knew all about me, and we actually had quite a long chat.”
He finished by adding: “At the end of getting my medal and to thank her, I said ‘Thanks pet’. I always call everybody “pet” and of course, right away she laughed and she wrote it down on her book. That was the biggest and most enjoyable moment.”
The veteran cake decorator retired in 2018 at the age of 85. At the time he said his hands would shake too much, preventing him from doing detailed piping work.
