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Gertrude's crowning glory
By Naomi Gunasekara
"Who would believe this superb crown to be a cake, a marvellous achievement," wrote John Mardaunt from Buckingham Palace, signing Gertrude Nanayakkara's red souvenir book of photographs and newspaper clippings.

Running a school for homecrafts in Sri Lanka at that time, Ms. Nanayakkara's wish to bake a cake for the Silver Jubilee of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II brought her unexpected fame. Her crown-shaped cake, had pride of place at the Royal Banquet held for foreign dignitaries and heads of state at the Silver Jubilee celebrations.

Now 25 years later, as Queen Elizabeth celebrates the golden jubilee of her reign, Ms. Nanayakkara will present a rectangular cake with a replica of the crown, national flags of Sri Lanka and England and other decorations at Buckingham Palace.

Dressed in a grey and red saree, Ms. Nanayakkara was all smiles when we met her last week. "I wrote to the Queen and expressed my wish to bake a cake for her Golden Jubilee and sent her a photograph of the cake I did for the Silver Jubilee," she said drawing out a file of correspondence. "I still have the letters I wrote last time," she said with a tinge of nostalgia.

On that occasion, Ms. Nanayakkara was visited by hundreds of well-wishers. "I stayed with a friend and when I received letters with the royal emblem, word soon spread that I was baking a cake for the Queen."

A woman of many talents, Ms. Nanayakkara sketched the cake she plans to present this year seated at a table full of files and albums. In keeping with last time's recipe Ms. Nanayakkara will bake a rich cake this time too. The rectangular-shaped cake will have its four corners decorated with posies of roses and lily of the valley. The coronation crown in the centre will be flanked by the two flags of Sri Lanka and UK. The cake will have a cream background with gold, green, white and brown icing.

Ms. Nanayakkara mastered the arts of dress making, cookery and floral arrangements training during her stay in England in the early 1960s when her husband, Dr. P. Nanayakkara was attached to the Hamswick Hospital. Returning to Sri Lanka in 1965, armed with diplomas and certificates in cake decorating, floristry, hairdressing, beauty culture, scientific dressmaking, art, flower-making, costume jewellery-making, rug making, painting, photography and batik, she established her own home-crafts institute, The Gertlyn School of Home-crafts.

While in London, Ms. Nanayakkara took courses at the Hartley Smith Cake Decorators School in London, the Cordon Bleu Hammersmith Art School and Constance Spry School.

She also joined a 'cake bakery' and this was how her cake for the Queen came about. One of her jobs for Christmas was to make a cake in the shape of a Christmas tree for Buckingham Palace. "When my Christmas cake was accepted I was very happy and decided to follow it up with a cake for the jubilee celebrations."

"I didn't even tell my husband I was doing a cake because he would have thought that I was mad." When her husband who was attached to St. Luke's Hospital was requested to fill the vacancy for chief of staff at the Maharagama Cancer Hospital, Ms. Nanayakkara had stayed back in Surrey to look after her son Gihan, who was studying in London.

In 1963, she met the Royals at a garden tea party hosted by the Queen for the expatriate community. "I have always been fond of the Royal Family and collected their photographs as a child. Meeting them was an unforgettable and happy moment for me."

Having been introduced to the Royal Family, Ms. Nanayakkara felt like baking a cake for the Queen as the Silver Jubilee was the talk of the town at that time. "Not only was mine the smallest cake but the only cake kept by the Queen at the palace." Ms. Nanayakkara had wanted it to be the exact size of the crown and look its double.
Despite baking the Silver Jubilee cake in England, Ms. Nanayakkara plans to bake the cake in Sri Lanka for the Golden Jubilee. "It took me about one week to finish the cake last time, so I will do it here to save time. I have already bought the ingredients and ordered a rectangular mirror to display the cake," she said with child-like enthusiasm. Her daughter Geetha Rajapakshe will bake the cake this time.
"The cake will be made without flour so that it would keep and the recipe include fruit and brandy to add that regal flavour."

While her son accompanied her to Buckingham Palace last time, this time Ms. Nanayakkara will be accompanied by her grand-daughter Melina Nanayakkara. They left for England today.

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