Triggering a frenzy of excitement this morning, Kensington Palace made the momentous announcement that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would have an elderflower and lemon cake decorated with fresh flowers at their wedding on May 19.
The cakement, issued via the official Kensington Palace twitter account shortly after 10am, named the patissiere as Claire Ptak, a fashionable East London baker who was interviewed by Meghan when she ran her lifestyle blog The Tig.
The decision by Harry and Meghan to share such a harmless yet important detail about their wedding indicates an acute understanding of how to engage fans and win support, and shows them ready to use social media to make people feel included in the day’s events.
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The momentum is likely to have come from Meghan; Harry has previously spoken about how much he hates social media while Meghan was an enthusiastic digital native before she deleted her accounts after getting engaged to Harry.
The announcement was immediately retweeted on social media and Claire Ptak, who runs the Violet Bakery in the East End of London, quickly became a trending topic in the U.K.
Ptak praised Harry and Meghan on Instagram, saying: "They both share so many of the same values regarding food provenance, sustainability, seasonality and of course, flavour!"
The deliberate public engagement is in marked contrast to William and Kate, who have a reputation for attempting to guard the most insignificant details of their private life with an enthusiasm bordering on paranoia.
Kate famously refused to disclose the name of her dog, saying it was ‘private.’ She was later revealed it was called Lupo – when asked by a school child.
Harry’s biographer Penny Junor told the Daily Beast of the statement, “It says a lot about what different personalities William and Harry are. Harry is very straightforward and will just get on and do things like this.”
Junor said that the decision to tweet the cake news was a sign that Harry wanted to ‘involve the public’ in his wedding and added, “Meghan lives on avocados and quinoa so having a light cake like this is very her.”
