This Is Kate Middleton's Favorite Dessert
With all of the rules the British royal family has about food, fans might guess that the Duchess of Cambridge doesn't often eat desserts. But if we were to say Kate Middleton has sworn off sweet treats altogether, we'd be very wrong.
Chef Rody Warot told People in 2011 that the Middleton family used to go to his pub, the Old Boot Inn in Berkshire, England, on a regular basis and that she had her go-to dishes. The chef divulged that her favorites were "pate on toasted brioche or the roast figs on parma ham with spicy apple chutney, followed by the tiger prawn and wild mushroom linguine."
Middleton would have dessert at the restaurant, too, and her sweet of choice was a sticky toffee pudding, which Warot describes as "moist and spongy." While other members of the royal family have different go-to dessert preferences, the duchess can't resist this classic British dessert.
Sticky toffee pudding is tricky to perfect
Every English chef worth their salt has a go-to version of this classic dessert, which features a cake studded with bits of pitted date and sweetened with two types of sugar. To create her sticky toffee pudding, Nigella Lawson uses brown muscovado and black treacle or a type of molasses (per BBC). Mary Berry's version leaves out the dates but uses the same sugar mix (per All Kitchen Colors). Both are blanketed in a decadent dark toffee sauce.
While it might be tempting to dive into the pudding as soon as it's out of the oven (or, in Berry's case, emerged from a water bath), Lawson recommends pricking the top of the pudding first with a toothpick or cocktail stick and pouring some of the toffee on top — the way you would do it if you were making a poke cake — then giving the dessert a waiting time of half an hour before serving, with the remaining toffee sauce on the side.
Lawson notes that the dessert can also be eaten cold, but it will have a slightly different texture and flavor as a result.
Prince William and the queen share a love of chocolate
Kate Middleton isn't the only royal who's known to enjoy dessert from time to time, either. Former royal chef Darren McGrady reveal to Today in 2017 that the queen and Prince William, are partial to chocolate biscuit cake — a simple, chocolaty pastry that's refrigerated, not baked, before it's served, per The Royal Chef.
McGrady, who worked with both the queen and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, told Today, "This chocolate biscuit cake is Her Royal Majesty the queen's favorite afternoon tea cake by far. This cake is probably the only one that is sent into the royal dining room again and again until it has all gone."
There's another member of the British royal family who likes this biscuit cake, too. McGrady told Today that Prince William liked the cake so much, he made it his groom's cake when he married Kate Middleton in 2011. And for that passion, William has his grandmother to thank. "The reason he chose it is that he used to go to tea with the queen and he got a taste for it. That is when he started liking it," McGrady explained to the outlet.
William and Harry are partial to banana flan
While Prince William has a well-documented weakness for chocolate, a trait he shares with his grandmother, it appears he's also partial to another dessert. Former royal chef Darren McGrady has stated that William and Prince Harry are also partial to caramel banana cake, which features one of Harry's favorite fruits. McGrady's version features a basic banana cake dressed up in a decadent blanket of rich caramel frosting.
Per McGrady and Hello!, another William and Harry favorite is the chef's banana flan. "Whenever the boys were home, Princess Diana would write banana flan in the menu book. And then she'd write H or W at the top to let me know who was coming. The boys would come back from school on a Friday to Kensington Palace and come in the kitchen, 'What's for dinner, Darren?' They'd see the banana flan on the side and say, 'Yes!'" the chef recalled in a January 2021 YouTube video, via Hello!.
The flan is similar to a banana cream pie but is topped with freshly sliced banana. Whether it's banana flan, chocolate biscuit cake, or sticky toffee pudding, the royals definitely know how to indulge a sweet tooth.