The Queen's Twelfth Cake

Mr. Mawditt, the royal confectioner

1849

The Illustrated London News, 13 January 1849, p. 21

The Royal Family at Christmas 1848 and Twelfth Night 1849 participated in the old Christmas rituals and entertainments that had fallen into disuse until revived in the 1840s and strengthened by the introduction from Germany of the Christmas tree, the innovation of the Christmas card, and the publication of the literary masterpiece A Christmas Carol as the first "Christmas Book." [continued below]

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On the evening of 4 January 1849, the Royal Family went to the theatre — or, rather, the luminaries of the London stage came to Windsor Castle. The Queen, Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Princess Mary, Prince Edward of Saxe-Weimar, the Princess Amelie, and Elise of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, attended by the royal household, took in an evening's entertainment, consisting of three productions: Dion Boucicault's two-act adaptation from the French of Used Up, starring the incomparable Victorian comedian Charles Matthews; John Maddison Morton's celebrated one-act farce Box and Cox, A Romance of Real Life, starring John Baldwin Buckstone; and Shakespeare's Hamlet, starring the tragedian Charles Kean. A necessary adjunct to the Royal family's celebration of the close of the Christmas holidays was a twelfth cake, an oversized version of which Charles Dickens describes in A Christmas Carol, Stave 3, as part of the fruits, confections, and beverages composing the throne of the Spirit of Christmas Present.

In The Annotated Christmas Carol (1976), Michael Patrick Hearn describes this large pastry (not actually a cake) of flour, honey, ginger, and pepper as having a bean or coin baked inside: "whoever receives the slice with the prize becomes 'king' or 'queen' of the feast" (109) of the Epiphany (January 6th), a custom dating back to Elizabethan times. David Parker's Christmas and Charles Dickens (AMS, 2005) notes that, when the Dickenses celebrated Twelfth Night in Genoa at the Peschieri in January 1845 their Twelfth Cake, despatched from England by heiress Angela Burdett Coutts, "weighed no less than ninety pounds" (118; see LettersIllustrated London News, doubtless playing its part to revive Christmas traditions, described the Royal Family's Twelfth Night festivities by focusing on the command performance at Windsor Castle, and by describing in detail the Queen's Twelfth Cake:

We give a representation of the Twelfth Cake prepared for her Majesty, which graced the Royal table at Windsor Castle on Saturday last (Twelfth Night).

This superb Cake was designed and carried out by her Majesty's confectioner, Mr. Mawditt. The Cake was of regal dimensions, being about 30 inches in diameter, and tall in proportion: round the side the decorations consisted of strips of gilded paper, bowing outwards near the top, issuing from an elegant gold bordering. The figures, of which there were sixteen, on the top of the Cake, represented a party of beaux and belles of the last century enjoying a repast al fresco, under some trees; whilst others, and some children, were dancing to minstrel strains.

The repast, spread on the ground, with its full complemens [sic] of comestibles, decanters, and wine-glasses (the latter, by the way, not sugar glasses, but real brittle ware), was admirably modelled, as were also the figures, servants being represented handing refreshments to some of the gentlemen and ladies, whilst some of the companions of the latter were dancing. The violinist and harpist seemed to be thoroughly impressed with the importance of their functions, and their characteristic attitudes were cleverly given. As a specimen of fancy workmanship, the ornaments to the cake do credit to the skill of Mr. Mawditt, the Royal confiseur. [21]

Last modified 23 July 2010