Today would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday. Across Britain, the royal family is marking the centenary with a new memorial, a new charity, and a fashion exhibition at Buckingham Palace. King Charles and Queen Camilla are leading two days of commemorations, while Princess Anne is opening the new Queen Elizabeth II Garden in Regent’s Park. RegalFille
We mark it the way she would have wanted. With chocolate cake.
A Family Recipe, Improved
The royal birthday cake has a long history. Chef Gabriel Tschumi — royal chef to Queen Mary at Marlborough Palace — first made it as a vanilla génoise, the classic French sponge built on whole eggs whipped to ribbon stage, with no chemical leaveners. Light, but sturdy enough to hold generous layers of icing. The recipe passed down through generations of royal chefs.
Queen Elizabeth kept the cake. She changed the flavour. Darren McGrady, who spent 15 years cooking at Buckingham Palace before becoming Princess Diana’s personal chef, adapted Tschumi’s vanilla génoise into a chocolate birthday cake with rich ganache icing. McGrady has since shared the recipe publicly through his Royal Chef platform — which is how we know it with confidence.
Same structure. Same occasion. Decidedly more chocolate.
The Chocolate Was Not a Coincidence
This was not a casual preference. McGrady has confirmed the Queen favoured dark chocolate of at least 60% cacao. Her Chocolate Perfection Pie was a palace staple. The Chocolate Biscuit Cake was another McGrady recipe she loved at afternoon tea, later chosen as Prince William’s groom’s cake at his 2011 wedding to Kate Middleton.
The woman knew what she liked. For 96 years, she liked chocolate.
Bake the Centenary Cake
Both versions of the royal birthday cake are worth making. Start with Queen Mary’s elegant vanilla génoise to appreciate where the tradition began. Then make Queen Elizabeth’s chocolate version to understand why she changed it.
The Queen Elizabeth chocolate birthday cake recipe is below.
A fellow chocoholic. God save the Queen.
Queen Elizabeth's Royal Birthday Cake
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 pound good quality semisweet chocolate, chopped and divided
- 2 cups heavy cream divided
Sponge cake
- 6 egg yolks room temperature
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ½ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup plus 2 tsp. all-purpose flour, unbleached
- 4 tbsp. Dutch Cocoa Powder
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter melted and kept warm
Instructions
Prepare the Filling
- Prepare the filling least six hours before baking the cake.
- Put half the chopped chocolate into a mixing bowl. In a separate saucepan, bring half the heavy cream to a simmer. Pour the hot cream onto the chocolate, letting the chocolate melt. Whisk it until smooth and well incorporated.
- Refrigerate until it cools and thickens to the consistency of a spreadable icing.
Prepare the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan and line it with buttered parchment paper. Don't butter the sides.
- Set a metal mixing bowl over a saucepan half filled with simmering water. The water shouldn’t touch the bottom of the mixing bowl. Add the egg yolks, eggs, and sugar to the mixing bowl, and whisk together, allowing the heat from the simmering water to warm the mixture. Keep whisking the egg mixture until it reaches the ribbon stage, tripling in volume.
- In a separate bowl, sift the flour and cocoa together. Gently sprinkle the flour and cocoa mixture onto the batter and fold the mixture in 3 additions.
- Take a cup of the batter, mix it with the butter, and then gently fold in the butter mixture back into the main batter.
- Spoon the cake batter into the prepared cake pan, and bake for 20 minutes, or until the cake springs back slightly when pressed. The cake should have risen to the top of the pan. Remove the cake from the oven onto a cooling rack. I like to invert to help the sponge expand.
Prepare the Topping
- Put the remaining half of the chopped chocolate into a mixing bowl. In a separate saucepan, bring the remaining heavy cream to a simmer. Pour the hot cream onto the chocolate, letting the chocolate melt. Whisk it until smooth and well incorporated, and then set it aside while you assemble the cake.
Assembly
- Slice the cooled sponge cake into three horizontal layers. Place the bottom layer on a cooling rack. which will allow the topping to flow below. Using the refrigerated icing, top the bottom discs with a thick layer of icing, then add the next layer and repeat the with the filling. Place the top of the cake on the second layer of icing. I like to use remaining frosting to fill in any gaps between layers.
- Ladle the warm chocolate icing over the top of the sponge cake, allowing it to run down the sides.
- If you wish to add further decorations, allow the cake to cool for two hours so the ganache has had a chance to set.
