It's Queen Elizabeth II's 96th birthday!
Let's find out how Britain's longest-serving monarch's foods are prepared, what are her favorite indulges, and let's drool at its sumptuous descriptions as revealed by her former personal chef, Darren McGrady.
The Queen has four servings of meals in a day: Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. She enjoys a modest diet and likes to keep herself healthy. She has little interest in fatty food (though she likes creamy stuff). However, she loves chocolates, especially during tea time.
One of the Queen's personal indulgences is eating chocolates. She is known to her staff as a chocoholic and loves everything about chocolate goodness.
This sweet treat even goes with her when she is on official overseas tours. Darren McGrady traveled with the Queen on official visits to cook her meals and the ultra-favorite cake that she seems cannot live without - the extra decadent Chocolate Biscuit Cake.
According to McGrady, “This cake is probably the only one that is sent into the royal dining room again and again until it has all gone. If there is anything left when she has it at Buckingham Palace, it then goes to Windsor Castle so she can finish it there”.
McGrady revealed that this luscious chocolate cake has a crunchy texture due to the addition of English cookies called Rich tea biscuits. The cake has a finishing touch of decadent chocolate frosting.
Brands of Chocolates in her table
The Queen does not actually reveal her favorite food. According to a former royal correspondent, Gordon Rayner, who has covered more than 20 royal tours, a palace insider confided why Her Majesty does not divulge her favorite food.
"She's afraid she would never get served anything else if she would say she has a favorite meal", said one of the palace sources.
However, despite keeping her favorite meals a secret, some of Her Majesty's favorite indulges have been revealed in public, including her favorite brands of chocolates.
Charbonnel et Walker is one of her known favorite brands of chocolates. And she favored the floral and creamy tastes - the English Rose and Violet Creams varieties. Each box can cost up to £280 The Queen's great-grandfather, Edward VII, also loved this brand, and would often order it directly from Paris, France.
In 1875, the chocolate maker, Madame Charbonnel moved to London from Paris at the request of the chocoholic prince, the future Edward VII.
Due to its long years of dealing business with the royal family, it was granted by the Queen Royal Warrant of Appointments which made the company able to display Her Majesty's Coat-of-Arms in all its packaging.
In February and March this year, the Queen's other favorite chocolate brands were captured in her sitting room in Windsor Castle placed on a small table.
Bendicks Mint collection. Flavors include Bittermints (richly covered dark chocolates), Elizabethan mints (dark chocolates with peppermint fondant center), Mint Crips (crisp handmade in honeycomb pieces in rich dark chocolates infused in peppermint oil) and Dark English Mints (dark chocolate baton infused in peppermint oil.
The Fortnum & Mason's Milk & Dark Chocolate Selection Box contains an enchanting mix of creams, caramels, marzipan and fruit & nut clusters in flavors from stem ginger to rose. Fortnum & Mason's Milk & Dark Chocolate Selection Box, which costs up to £220 (US$299.80)
Fortnum's boozy, silky Marc de Champagne Truffles. Made in England to an exclusive recipe, each truffle features an intense centre of Marc de Champagne, coated in creamy milk chocolate and finished with a dusting of icing sugar. These truffles are bestsellers at Fortnum's.
The Royal Chocolate Birthday Cake
The royal family has a traditional birthday prepared by the palace chef. Each royal birthday celebrant receives this heavenly luscious chocolate cake.
The recipe was perfected by Queen Victoria's chef in the 19th century and was never modified by succeeding palace chefs until the present day. So it is an authentic taste of a classic Victorian chocolate dessert recipe.
According to Darren McGrady, palace chefs prepared this Chocolate birthday cake for royal family members simply without any elaborate details and decorations. Just a rich chocolate frosting and filling designed with "Happy Birthday"
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