Claire Ptak is the owner of Violet bakery in Hackney, East London. She is from Inverness, California, and moved to London in 2015.
- We met the baker who made Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding cake.
- Claire Ptak is the owner of Violet bakery in Hackney, East London.
- She is known for her fruit desserts.
- She is from Inverness, California, and moved to London in 2015.
Claire Ptak is the owner of Violet bakery in Hackney, a quiet and residential neighbourhood in East London. She is also the baker behind Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding cake.
She is known for her love for fruits which she uses to make tarts, cakes, and other desserts. "I'm really inspired to bake by what I see in the markets," she told Business Insider. "Whatever fruit is in season, it draws me in and then I want to do something with it."
Claire is from Inverness, California, where she started baking as a child. She landed her first job at a bakery at 14 and continued working as a pastry chef in her 20s.
When she moved to London in 2005, she felt like she needed a change. "There was a new market called Broadway Market just opening and there were all these really cool, amazing food businesses that were just starting and I thought that I might as well just do my own thing."
Violet was originally a Saturday stall at the market, and then in 2010, it became a permanent bakery in Hackney.
The bakery remained relatively under the radar until Kensington Palace asked Claire to discuss some cake ideas for the upcoming royal wedding.
"It was really exciting, it was kind of really out of nowhere. It was a surprise to me completely."
The cake was a lemon sponge, with elderflower syrup, lemon curd, and buttercream. It contained 500 eggs, 200 Amalfi lemons, 44 pounds of butter, flour, and sugar, and elderflower from the Queen’s Sandringham estate.
Claire and her team made it at Buckingham Palace and had to arrange for a satellite team to keep Violet up and running in the meanwhile.
"The kitchen at Buckingham Palace was amazing. They just were a very well oiled machine and they really helped us too. It was pretty straightforward in a way. Weirdly."
Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo