Meghan Markle contributes cake recipe to a charity cookbook – and it gets the seal of approval from an award-winning chef
- The Duchess’s lemon olive oil cake featured in The World Central Kitchen Cookbook
- READ MORE: Meghan Markle tells Netflix docuseries how she became ‘close’ with women who survived Grenfell fire after watching news coverage of disaster from Kensington Palace cottage
Meghan Markle has contributed to a charity cookbook with a delicious-looking recipe for crowd-pleasing dessert – and according to the chef who collated the publication, it’s a winner.
The Duchess of Sussex, 42, has contributed her lemon olive oil cake to The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.
The recipes in the book have been collated by Spanish-born chef José Andrés and feature guest entries from famous faces including the duchess, as well as former First Lady, Michelle Obama.
In a promotional video for the book, which was published today in the US and retails for $35, Andrés tests out some of the recipes – including Meghan’s cake.
As he holds a plate with a slice of the moist-looking dessert and puts a forkful in his mouth, he doesn’t say much to review the cake – but his very satisfied facial expression suggests it’s a triumph.
As he introduces the recipe in the promotional video, chef José says: ‘This is from Meghan. This amazing lemon pound cake.’
He then eats a forkful of the cake, which has been dusted with icing sugar and garnished with rosemary and what appears to be candied lemon rind, and nods as he tastes a bite of the dessert. He adds: ‘Oh, yeah.’
He then points to the cake, suggesting it’s something everyone should try.
The cookbook, which is on sale from today, is described on its website as: ‘A captivating collection of stories and recipes from renowned chefs, local cooks, and celebrity friends of José Andrés’s beloved nonprofit World Central Kitchen (WCK), which feeds communities impacted by natural disasters and humanitarian crises.’
Award-winning chef José Andrés tests out Meghan Markle’s lemon olive oil cake, a recipe which she has contributed to his charity cookbook, and gives it his seal of approval
The Duchess’s Lemon Olive Oil Cake uses oil instead of butter for the fat element and is dusted with icing sugar and garnished with rosemary
Meghan first demonstrated her kitchen skills when she got involved with a community kitchen in west London following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017
Meghan first demonstrated her love for cooking and the power of food to help communities in need when she teamed up with a community kitchen in west London following the fatal fire in Grenfell Tower in 2017.
She regularly visited a group of women in a community hub for nine months, helping to feed families and even worked alongside them to launch a cookbook called ‘Together’.
In the Sussexes’ Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, the Duchess further explained how she became involced with the community kitchen and eventually released a cookbook.
In episode four of the six part series, the mother-of-two said: ‘I just loved these women so much.’
The day of Meghan’s first public engagement with the Queen in Chester, also ‘happened to also be the one year anniversary of the Grenfell fire,’ she recalls in the documentary. They took part of a 72 seconds of silence – one for every life lost.
‘It was really important to me because I had become so close to with so many of the women who had survived that, even though no one knew that at the time,’ Meghan told.
The Netflix documentary showed devastating images of the blaze.
Meghan said they watched the coverage from their home Nottingham Cottage, on the grounds of Kensington Palace.
‘The Grenfell fire left so many families displaced, outside of how many deaths it caused. I remember saying ‘can we do something? We need to go down there and do something’.
‘And so I connected with the women at Al-Manaar which is a mosque in Grenfell. They were living in these hotels and just given meal vouchers for fast food.’
The documentary hears from Munira Mahmud who started cooking in the local mosque ‘just to feel normal again’ following the tragedy. She would cook for members of the community twice a week – ‘up until the Duchess came’ she says.
Munira talks about how Meghan walked in to the Hubb community kitchen, put her gloves on and helped them cook – five kilos of basmati rice.
And over the course of the next eight or nine months, Meghan kept going back and visiting their community.
‘When I watched these women laughing together and grieving together, I said ‘why can’t you do this every day of the week?’ They said, ‘we don’t have the funds for it’.
‘I just looked around and said ‘we should make a cookbook.’
And so ‘Together’ was launched, and during its launch Meghan made her first speech as a member of the royal family.
She spoke about the ‘tremendous labour of love’ working on the cookbook had been, and viewers heard about how successful the book launch was and how it just kept ‘growing and growing’.
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