In a few hours, England along with the world would witness the most sought after royal wedding of this decade. I belong to the category of royal fans while my family remains erstwhile. As a girl I saw my parents follow closely Princess Diana’s actions. Her beauty resplendent with her actions had made her “the people’s princess”.I think the twinkle she left in my eye as a kid, has stayed with me. Monarchy is a debatable topic but not only England other nations too have a non-political recognised royalty associated with the nation’s identity. It could to be a lot of republicans a patriotic non-sense and could be a legit one. Lets concentrate on things which could be revolutionary about this wedding and a little change of progressiveness excites me.
There will be a lot of firsts this year which would break away from the Royal tradition and that excites me. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have decided to fuse the traditional with the contemporary for their wedding. In her vows, the bride will not promise to “obey” her husband and the groom will wear a wedding ring. As a food blogger this excites me quite a bit, as the cake is not going to be a heavy fruitcake with bullet proof icing rather a mushier Instagram friendly one. Loaded with Amalfi lemons and Elderflower cordial sponge and decorated with swiss meringue icing and fresh flowers. An African-American gospel-Choir singing y favourite song from our school choir days.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, shine, shine
Let it shine!
The invitations for the first time have been extended to the public with 1200 members of public will be able to witness the wedding from the grounds of the Windsor Castle. These members have been active participants in Charity work.The bride will walk unescorted down the aisle of the chapel nave, after being met at the West Door by a member of the clergy. It is also for the first time that the bride will break the tradition and give a speech. In the past Meghan Markle has been recognised for feminist stand and she is also an active voice for the #MeToo campaign. She stands out as a great orator hence her speech is something I am looking forward to.
I wish them all the good this irrespective of their royal identity. Lots of love and companionship as any married couple. As these are the core values for any relation.
I have baked this very British no-bake cheesecake having strawberry and elderflower cordial. I have used gelatine as a setting agent and refrigerator for freezing. I intended to experiment a little and wanted to make a lighter cheesecake with single cream so that its light and smooth for the hot summer days we are experiencing. Its delicate as velvet in your mouth and I can promise you that.
- 10-12 McVitie’s Double Chocolate Digestives , beaten to sand texture by daughter
- 100gm Unsalted butter, melted
- 2tbsp Belvoir Elderflower Cordial
- 250 gm strawberries, hulled
- 1 sachet of unflavoured gelatine
- 2 tbsp castor sugar
- 180 gm Cream cheese
- 150ml single cream
- 100 gm icing sugar
- 100 gm fresh strawberries for decoration.
- Place the digestive biscuits in a large plastic bag. Hold one end of the bag and using a rolling pin, crush until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.This activity was done by DD and she absolutely loved it.
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the melted butter to the crushed biscuits and mix it until fully combined. I do not add sugar to this as I feel the biscuits have enough sugar in them.
- Press the biscuit mixture firmly into an 6 inches round tin with a lift up base and place in the fridge for at-least 10 minutest.Here is a very important tip, I use a spring form cake tin and always cover the base with a cling film and and never struggle to separate the base from the tin later.
- In a saucepan add the strawberries, sugar and 2 tbsp of water and heat it until the strawberries have melted and have a saucy consistency. Then I whisk it with a blender.
- Ina small bowl add the 2 tbsp of cold water to the gelatine and allow it to bloom. Then pour the gelatine carefully into the hot the strawberry sauce and mix throughly until the gelatine melts. This is a very important tip that you should not mix gelatine into boiling liquid and it would affect its setting properties.
- Combine the cream cheese, icing sugar and elder flower cordial and use a electric whisk or hand whisk to mix it well so it becomes light and fluffy. Best to have the cream cheese placed outside the fridge atleast 20 minutes before making to ensure uniform mixing.
- Then mix the strawberry sauce into the cream cheese mix and give it a quick mix with a whisk.
- Now take the single cream give it a single whip and remember this is single cream it would not hold shape.
- Now the a rubber spatula, mix the single cream into the strawberry mixture. Once uniformly combined then pour it into the springform tin with the digestive layer. Then pound it on the counter for few times to get rid of any air bubbles and to get a smooth texture.
- Allow the cheesecake to sit in the refrigerator for atleast 4 hours and even better if overnight.
- Then quickly run a knife through the edge of the cheesecake before unfolding it. Then remove clingfilm from the bottom.
- Then cut the strawberries into petals and decorate it on the cheesecake to make a show stopper for your party.
A beautiful cake for a beautiful wedding. I am like you I was very keen to see the wedding while my boys could not really care. I found Harry and Meghan make a lovely couple. But I do believe that the only reason the head of the royals were so lenient on protocol with Harry was because he is not the next in line for the throne. With William, it had to be more towards the royal protocol. Harry’s was lighter more fun and suited their relationship!
You have done justice to the cake and the images are gorgeous.