AT the annual Twelfth Night festivity given on the stage of Old Drury last Thursday a Shakespearean actor cautiously declined the proffered slice. Quoting the reply of Hubert, he exclaimed "BADDELEY I fear!" And he did not "take the cake."
1886 40 Thieves Harry Nicholls, Herbert Campbell, Connie Gilchrist and Miss M.A. Victor. The pantomime began at 7.30pm and finished at 1am At one point there were 500 people on stage.
Contributing Photographer Sarah Ainslie & I made one of our rare trips up to the West End this week to join the excited throng at Drury Lane celebrating London’s oldest theatrical tradition, the cutting of the Baddeley Cake, which has been taking place on Twelfth Night since 1795.
After the performance, members of the cast of “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory” gathered for the ceremony in the palatial neo-classical theatre bar dating from 1821, in front of a large party of fellow actors and actresses who had trod the boards of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in former years, and Alex Jennings – who stars as Willy Wonka – cut the cake. Liberal servings of strong punch containing wine, brandy and gin, concocted by the Theatre Manager to a secret recipe handed down through the centuries, ensured that the evening went with a swing. In recent years, the cake has been themed to the show running at the theatre and we were treated to huge chocolate cake, cunningly baked in the shape of a Wonka bar by a Master Chocolatier.
Twelfth Cake was a medieval tradition that is the origin of our contemporary Christmas Cake. Originally part of the feast of Epiphany, the cake was baked with a bean inside and whoever got the slice with the bean was crowned King of Misrule. The Baddeley Cake is the last surviving example of this ancient custom of the Twelfth Cake and – appropriately enough – owes its name to Robert Baddeley, a pastry chef who became a famous actor, and left a legacy to the Drury Lane Fund to “provide cake and wine for the performers in the green room of Drury Lane Theatre on Twelfth Night.”
