Thursday 4 June 2015

The Queen and a cake

There was a moment while the Queen was cutting a cake to mark the centenary of the Women's Institute when the beaming face of little Lillibet, the princess who would grow up to become a record breaking monarch, shone through. The giggling girl of eighty years ago was clear for all to see as this woman who has come to define the British Monarchy sliced into the cake. There was a light in her eyes and a grin on her face that is hard to define. It was gleeful, glorious and just downright great all in one go. The Queen and a cake is already a highlight of the year.


 
 Maybe it was the angle of the cake which was propped up high on a table meaning the monarch's face was very close indeed as she got to work on it with a silver knife. Maybe it was the way her powder blue coat and hat - a fabulous look - sat against the white icing. Maybe it was the grand setting or the way her daughter, Princess Anne, and her daughter in law, the Countess of Wessex, gathered closer as she got to grips with the cutting process. But the moments it took to start slicing were filled with fun.

 
 
 The Queen seemed to work hard at getting through the cake and before she knew it the Princess Royal was joining in. Like many a daughter around the country, she dived in to help mum with a kind of 'this is how you do it, just let me get on with it' look on her face that won smiles from the Queen and a look of surprise from Sophie Wessex.

 
 
 And the icing on the cake of this royal display was the way in which the Queen fell into fits of giggles once Anne had hammered the knife into the pudding while all around her laughed too. It was a moment when Lillibet the chatterer was written all over the face of the woman she has become. That charm and happiness mixed with a deep sense of royal duty has helped the Queen win an unmatchable position in royal history. The black and white photo that captured her joy in her job, her family and life itself speaks volumes in itself.

 

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