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Queen Elizabeth Loves Cake So Much That She Travels With It

Queen Elizabeth Loves Cake So Much That She Travels With It
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II leaves the National Army Museum in London, Britain March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Hannah Mckay / Reuters
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II leaves the National Army Museum in London, Britain March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Eyes on the prize!
LEON NEAL via Getty Images
Eyes on the prize!

Queen Elizabeth is a serious dessert lover, according to her former personal chef for 11 years, Darren McGrady.

McGrady, who also worked for Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry, recently spoke to Recipes Plus about one of the Queen’s favorite desserts: chocolate biscuit cake. According to the former royal chef, the queen usually takes just a slice of one of the many cakes that are prepared for her, but not this masterpiece.

“Now the chocolate biscuit cake is the only cake that goes back [to the queen] again and again and again every day until it’s all gone,” McGrady told Recipes Plus. “She’ll take a small slice every day until eventually there is only one tiny piece, but you have to send that up, she wants to finish the whole of that cake.”

McGrady, who accompanied the family to Windsor Castle, Sandringham House, Balmoral Castle and the Royal Yacht Britannia, said that the queen loves the cake so much, she has even traveled with it. To ensure that Her Majesty didn’t leave a slice of cake behind during, say, a trip to Windsor Castle, McGrady said a senior chef would bring the cake with them on a train following the queen’s. Sometimes he would do it as well.

“I use to travel on the train from London to Windsor Castle with the biscuit cake in a tin on my knee,” McGrady told The Huffington Post via email. “It was half eaten.”

All the cake, please!
WPA Pool via Getty Images
All the cake, please!
Proof the queen LOVES her cake (though this isn't the chocolate biscuit cake).
POOL New / Reuters
Proof the queen LOVES her cake (though this isn't the chocolate biscuit cake).
The queen presenting a Dundee Cake.
Pool/Tim Graham Picture Library via Getty Images
The queen presenting a Dundee Cake.

In a previous interview with The Huffington Post, McGrady also revealed the queen’s love of anything chocolate.

“The queen’s a chocoholic — she loves chocolate,” he told HuffPost in 2014, while promoting his cook book, Eating Royally. “Really anything with chocolate on the menu used to get passed. She liked the chocolate mousse, and chocolate perfection pie was probably her favorite dessert.”

McGrady also left HuffPost his recipe for chocolate biscuit cake, if you’d like to see what all the fuss is about:

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Makes one 6 inch round cake -– 8 portions

Ingredients:

4 ounces dark chocolate (for the cake)

4 ounces granulated sugar

4 ounces unsalted butter (softened)

1 egg

8 ounces Rich tea biscuits

1/2 teaspoon butter for greasing

8 ounces dark chocolate (for coating)

1 ounce chocolate (for decoration)

Method:

1. Lightly grease a 6 inch by 2 1/2 inch cake ring and place on a tray on a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Break each of the biscuits into almond size pieces by hand and set aside.

3. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture starts to lighten.

4. Melt the 4 ounces of chocolate and add to the butter mixture whilst constantly stirring.

5. Beat in the egg to the mixture.

6. Fold in the biscuit pieces until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.

7. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake ring. Try to fill all of the gaps on the bottom of the ring because this will be the top when it is un-molded.

8. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

9. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and let it stand while you melt the 8 ounces of chocolate.

10. Slide the ring off the cake and turn it upside down onto a cake wire.

11. Pour the melted chocolate over the cake and smooth the top and sides using a palette knife.

12. Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature.

13. Carefully run a knife around the bottom of the cake where the chocolate has stuck it to the cake wire and lift it onto a tea plate.

14. Melt the remaining 1 ounce of chocolate and use to decorate the top of the cake.

To find more recipes from McGrady, get a copy ofEating Royally: Recipes and Remembrances from a Palace Kitchen.

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