Navy chef baked Charles and Diana's wedding cake

From the Lancashire Telegraph, first published Wednesday 29th Aug 2007.

A FORMER Navy chef has recalled how he helped mark a major landmark in Princess Diana's life ahead of the 10th anniversary of her death.

East Lancashire man Dave Avery has told of his honour at baking Charles and Diana's wedding cake - and his sadness at her death.

Mr Avery said two dates connected to the Princess will always strike a chord with him.

One of them is July 29, the day she and Prince Charles were married at St Paul's Cathedral in 1981. The other is August 31, 1997, when the Mercedes she was travelling in collided with pillars in a Paris underpass claiming her life.

Mr Avery, 64, was born and raised in Mosley Street in the Infirmary area of Blackburn, and was a petty officer in the Royal Navy at the time of the wedding.

Due to Prince Charles' links with the navy, it fell to one of their members to make the wedding cake for the couple's reception at Buckingham Palace.

Mr Avery, who left school at the age of 15 and went to work for Blackburn bakers Kenyons, joined the Royal Navy at 19 and his cooking skills were put to the test in the run up to the Royal wedding.

And Mr Avery, who was 37 at the time, admitted that it was a nerve-wracking experience.

He said: "The cake was 5ft 4inches tall and stood on five separate tiers. It weighed two and half hundred weight, equal to 127kg.

"It took me 14 weeks to make and we had to make two exactly the same because we had to transfer it from the Royal Navy base at Chatham, Kent, to London, and were worried it might break. Thankfully it didn't."

The second cake stayed on display for a number of weeks after the wedding before it was cut up in to 2,480 pieces back at Chatham.

Mr Avery, who also made the cake for Prince William's christening, said trying to keep the project under-wraps proved to be a challenge in the weeks before the wedding.

He said: "It was a great honour but a lot of hard work and worry.

"The event came under world wide attention and the press were always trying to get a look at what we were doing.

"There was just a massive frenzy surrounding it."

Mr Avery told how meet Diana as he was preparing the cake.

He said: "I had to go and see whether my design was what she wanted.

"She said to me I want a wedding cake, not a monument.' I think that's what she got.

"I'll never forget her. I met her about 12 weeks before the wedding and she seemed more afraid of us than we were of her.

"She was very quiet and shy but was happy with my design."

After delivering the cake at 4am on the morning of the wedding to the Golden Room at the Palace, Mr Avery watched the ceremony on television on a ship moored in the Thames.

On the day she died, Mr Avery was scheduled to be doing an advertisement for West Kent college were he taught cookery, but he found himself reminiscing to Radio Kent about his role in the Royal wedding.

Mr Avery, who now lives in Surfleet, Lincolnshire, said: "It was strange really because I ended up spending all day talking about her and what kind of person she was.

"I'll always remember where I was in the day following her death, like many people do.

"For me, her death was very upsetting and still is.

"I don't know whether we'll ever really what happened on that night and it is something I think about every now and then, especially because I met her and knew how nice she was.

"We lost a lovely lady on that day and August 31 is when I always cast my mind back."

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