The prestigious endorsement of baking for royalty has proven insufficient to shield a celebrated London pastry chef from the harsh economic realities facing British businesses under Sir Keir Starmer's Labour administration. Claire Ptak, the artisan behind Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's stunning organic lemon, elderflower and buttercream wedding cake, has been compelled to make a public appeal for financial support to rescue her beloved bakery from imminent closure.
A Royal Seal of Approval Meets Political Reality
Selected by the Duchess of Sussex herself after previously featuring on Meghan's lifestyle blog The Tig, Ptak enjoyed what many would consider the ultimate culinary endorsement. Her connection with the Sussexes deepened further when she was commissioned to create their daughter Lilibet's first birthday cake four years after the royal wedding. The wedding creation alone required five meticulous days of preparation, with ingredients including elderflower syrup sourced directly from the Royal Family's Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
The Crumbling Foundation of Hospitality
Despite these prestigious commissions and her reputation as a six-time recipe book author who trained in her native California before establishing Violet Cakes in Dalston, east London, Ptak finds herself confronting the same devastating business rate increases that have prompted pub landlords across the country to ban Labour MPs from their establishments. "We are really struggling in silence with the same problems pubs are talking about and are truly in trouble," the baker admits with concerning candour.
Her online appeal reveals the desperate measures being considered: "Trying to find a way out of this like so many in hospitality. I want to save my business for myself, my daughter and my 20 beautiful employees and, of course, for all of you. Considering crowd-funding as well as investment. Any thoughts? Would you support a crowd-funding campaign?"
Government Response Leaves Small Businesses Behind
While the Labour government has announced a rebate scheme specifically targeting pubs, this lifeline has not been extended to other hospitality businesses like Ptak's California-style bakery. This disparity highlights what many critics describe as a piecemeal approach to the broader crisis affecting small and medium enterprises throughout the United Kingdom.
Ptak's predicament underscores how even businesses with royal patronage and celebrity clientele – she also baked pop star Charli XCX's wedding cake last summer – remain vulnerable to policy decisions affecting operational costs. Her situation represents a microcosm of the challenges confronting the wider hospitality sector, where rising overheads threaten to extinguish unique, independent establishments that contribute significantly to local character and employment.
A Broader Pattern of Entertainment Industry Revelations
Meanwhile, in unrelated entertainment news, comedian David Walliams faces renewed scrutiny over controversial sketches from his Little Britain live tour. Despite his claim that "not a single person ever complained" about the "Hide the Sausage" routine performed across 250 shows, a 2007 BBC documentary contradicts this assertion, showing Walliams reading a fan letter that stated: "For me, this was not a joke... it went too far, I was molested when I was very young."
In happier romantic developments, model Roxy Horner appears to be in full "bridal era" preparation for her upcoming wedding to comedian Jack Whitehall. The 34-year-old recently road-tested a £615 white sheer lace gown from Nadine Merabi's wedding collection during a Burns Night dinner at Rosewood London, hinting that Whitehall will be "pleasantly surprised" by her final choice for their ceremony.
Substantial Legacies and New Beginnings
Elsewhere in society circles, the remarkable legacy of Joe Saumarez Smith continues to draw attention following the publication of his will. Described in obituaries as "horse racing's last great gentleman," the former British Horseracing Association chair, who died of cancer last year aged 53, left a fortune of £52 million to his wife Wanda – wealth accumulated entirely through his own betting acumen and instinctive brilliance.
In aristocratic news, Viscountess Chelsea (Davina Cadogan) and her husband George have welcomed their first child, a son named Henry. The 29-year-old social editor of Tatler magazine, married to the heir of the £6 billion Cadogan estate, shared the joyful news online with thousands of followers, describing the baby as "our beautiful boy."
Finally, culinary icon Dame Prue Leith has revealed one remaining showbiz ambition following her departure from Bake Off. The 85-year-old author of eight novels confessed: "I, egotistically and perhaps not realistically, think that a couple of my novels would make wonderful films. So that's what I'd like to see before I die." Meanwhile, Lady Mary Charteris has raised health concerns after falling seriously ill following a Kenyan holiday, questioning on social media whether her symptoms indicate malaria or influenza.
