Kate Middleton knows a birthday isn’t complete without cake!
The Princess of Wales has previously opened up about a special birthday tradition for her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis: baking and decorating a birthday cake…even if it keeps her up late.
“I love making the cake,” Princess Kate said on A Berry Royal Christmas in 2019. “It’s become a bit of a tradition that I stay up ’til midnight with ridiculous amounts of cake mix and icing, and I make far too much. But I love it.”
More recently, the royal mom and Prince William teamed up with the Great British Baking Show finalist Alice Fevronia to mark the 75th birthday of the National Health Service (NHS). Kate took the opportunity to pick up some tips from the expert.
“The princess was actually asking a lot of baking tips like ‘How did you get the buttercream so smooth?’ ” Fevronia told PEOPLE. “She mentioned that she’d been up quite late on a couple of occasions trying to decorate the kids’ birthday cakes.”
Princess Kate wanted to know “about how to get the sides of the cake straight and smooth,” said Fevronia. “I used to be a teacher, so I went into teacher mode. I was like, ‘Right, this is what you need to do.’ ”
“That was quite cool that I got to sort of give her some tips!” she added.
Prince William and Princess Kate, both 41, have talked about cooking and baking with their children. During the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth in 2022, marking the late monarch’s historic 70 years on the throne, the couple shared a look at George, Charlotte and Louis assisting in some making of vanilla cupcakes for a street party in Cardiff.
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Another birthday tradition is the release of new royal portraits. Ever since Prince George was a baby, Prince William and Princess Kate have shared a photo with the public to celebrate their children’s big days.
The Princess of Wales, who has called herself an “enthusiastic amateur photographer” and even had her photo of Queen Camilla on an award-winning magazine cover, often got behind the camera for her children’s snapshots through the years.
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It’s likely that the Princess of Wales will be up late in the kitchen again to celebrate Prince George’s milestone 10th birthday on Saturday.
Though the future king may seem shy compared to confident sister Princess Charlotte and carefree brother Prince Louis, a close friend tells PEOPLE exclusively, “He’s a cracking lad.”
While making sure that Prince George has a conventional childhood, Prince William and Princess Kate are also highly aware that they are raising a future monarch.
“It’s a massive balancing act,” one palace insider tells PEOPLE. “William and Kate are doing the right thing, protecting him so he can have as normal a childhood as possible, but he’s also dipping into duties as a future monarch. He’s getting firsthand experience of what it’s like to be a royal and a monarch and firsthand experience of being a normal boy.”
In the weeks since school let out for summer, Prince George has been busy with fun outings. In addition to a family visit to the Royal International Air Tattoo last week, the young prince watched the men’s final at Wimbledon for the second year running side-by-side with his sister over the weekend. Prince George and Princess Charlotte (in her debut at the tennis tournament!) cheered excitedly as Carlos Alcaraz defeated Novak Djokovic.
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