One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, the old saying goes, and the cake baker at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding is certainly testing the adage to its limits.
Californian baking wizard Claire Ptak, who created an elegant elderflower extravaganza for Harry and Meghan’s 2018 nuptials and also made the first birthday cake for the couple’s daughter Lilibet, revealed this week that she is selling a selection of cafe furniture from her trendy East End bakery, some of which has been dubbed “modern art” by fans.
Among the bistro tables and chairs available at the “bittersweet” sale at Ptak’s Violet’s Bakery, which has been based in Hackney for more than a decade, is a “vintage French dining table”, which comes with a princely price tag of £400 and plenty of rust.
Have you seen better, chic times? Among the furniture for sale at Claire Ptak’s Violet Bakery in east London is what’s described as a “vintage French pot table” (pictured), with the arched, rusted tabletop priced at £400.
And these ‘Indian Blue’ bistro chairs are costing £100 a pair, as the bakery behind the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s 2018 wedding cake looks to replace its current furniture.
Much of the cream paint has worn off and the table has a battered appearance, with both surfaces slightly bowed.
Elsewhere, there are a pair of rickety-looking, rusty-looking “Indian Blue” chairs for £100, and several small zinc-topped bistro tables for £400, plus 25 IKEA chairs, also described as “vintage”, selling for £18 each.
The bakery said it was cleaning up after signing a new partnership that would see the stylish East End bakery get new sets of tables and chairs.
A message in the Violet Cakes Instagram Page This week, read: ‘Our beloved vintage powder coated steel and zinc garden bistro furniture is on sale! Quick clearance price!’.
In addition to selling the origin of the pieces, the company added that: ‘Books have been written, movie scripts edited, pictures painted, marriage proposals made and accepted, businesses conceived, and all sorts of creative ideas about furniture formed.
East London baker Claire Ptak made the couple’s wedding cake in 2018, and Harry and Meghan also asked her to make their daughter Lilibet’s first birthday cake in 2022.
Vintage Ikea chairs are on sale for £18 each, and several zinc-topped bistro tables, pictured right, are on sale for £400 each.
And fans of the modern bakery were surely keen on the idea of owning some of the furniture on sale – one vintage fanatic described the collection as “amazing”.
Another suggested not selling the Indian Blue chairs, writing: “They should stick with the chairs in the first photo. They look like a modern art painting.”
Ptak has been a popular choice for royal cake-making jobs in recent years, and once described the job Meghan Markle gave him ahead of her wedding to the Duke of Sussex as the best he’d ever had.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s cake used 200 Amalfi lemons, 500 eggs and 10 bottles of elderflower cordial, and was rumoured to have cost around £50,000 to make.
Now he has spoken out about the process of preparing the treats for the Duke and Duchess, revealing how Meghan tasked him with making the wedding cake.
East London baker Claire revealed a snap of a two-tier floral cake with strawberry buttercream that cost £244 and she made for Lilibet’s first birthday.
After the 2018 wedding, he told Tatler: ‘Meghan, she specifically said to me, “I don’t want to tell you what to do… the reason I chose you is because I love your baking and your work and your point of view and your ethics”… and I thought, “Oh my God, that’s brilliant. Best work report ever!”‘
The talented baker created six different options for the couple before settling on the lemon and elderflower option, which used 200 Amalfi lemons, 500 eggs and 10 bottles of elderflower cordial and was made at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Ptak worked with his team of six full-time bakers for five days in the grand kitchens of Buckingham Palace ahead of the big day.
Slices of cake were served to the 600 guests at the lunch reception at St George’s Hall and are believed to have cost £80 a slice, with the three-layer centrepiece rumoured to have cost up to £50,000 to make.
