Like any other mother, Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, is eager to make her three children’s birthdays special.
From a giant snowball gifted to the Queen to a ban on Monopoly because it’s all too competitive, the Queen has a long list of royal traditions.
So when one emerges that makes sense to use ordinary people, one that demonstrates they’re just as human as we are, it’s a moment that makes us all say “ahhh.”
And she has a sweet tradition that she follows every year the night before her children’s special days – which necessitates her staying up late, she explains.
That’s because after her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, have gone to bed, Kate bakes them their own birthday cake.
And, with Prince George’s eighth birthday coming up today, it’s likely she was in the kitchen last night.
When Kate and Prince William appeared on a special BBC programme with Mary Berry, A Berry Royal Christmas, in 2019, they revealed their adorable tradition.
She mentioned her love of baking and told Mary that she enjoys making the cake for her children’s birthday parties.
“It’s become a bit of a tradition for me to stay up until midnight with ridiculous amounts of cake mix and icing and make far too much,” she continued. “However, I adore it.”
However, it isn’t the only tradition in the Cambridge household – particularly when it comes to Prince George’s birthday celebrations – and it frequently causes Prince William to struggle.
Julia Samuel, the future king’s godmother and a close friend of Princess Diana, revealed that she buys “impossible” toys for the child, which his father William has to carefully assemble over several days.
“I do to George what [Diana] did to us, which is to give him impossible toys that are very noisy and take a long time to make,” she explained.
“William then has to put together for days.” Then you put all of the machinery together, and it makes horrible tooting noises and flashing lights and all of that.”
When she was a guest on the podcast How to Fail with Elizabeth Day – in an episode last year to commemorate Diana’s 59th birthday – she revealed the touching tradition.
She described her adorable godson as “amazing,” adding that her dear friend Diana would have adored him as well.
