May 9, 2019 By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read

The creation will be about six feet tall and weigh upward of 100 pounds, including its stand.

And it all will be edible.

“The artwork, the design work, everything that you’re seeing, you could stick your finger in and eat it,” Katlyn Doolin said.

The wedding department manager at Bethel Bakery has been working with her team to produce a queen of a cake to serve at the May 19 performance of “Victoria’s Secret: A Life in Music” by the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.

Those who attend the 3 p.m. concert at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Upper St. Clair have the added bonus of sampling the six-tier culinary marvel, which can satisfy the sweet teeth of 300 guests.

“Victoria’s Secret” celebrates the 200th anniversary of the legendary British monarch’s birth, and Bethel Bakery took the choir up on its request to supply a suitably majestic treat.

“The reason is that Queen Victoria changed the face of how we view weddings,” Doolin said. She noted the ceremony for Victoria’s 1840 marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had such a high profile that brides started to emulate what she did that day, such as wearing white and carrying a bouquet.

The Bethel Bakery cake will reflect some of the queen’s other decisions.

“It was very important to her to be a wife and a person before being a monarch,” Doolin explained. “She didn’t actually wear a crown on her wedding day. She wore a floral headdress of orange blossoms. So in the detailing of our cake, we will pipe orange blossoms to symbolize that choice that she made.”

Also, the cake will sit on a bed of myrtle, the green floral shrub featured in royal weddings from Victoria to Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. And everything will be placed atop a rotating stand, so that “Victoria’s Secret” guests can see the details from all angles.

“The tiers, while they’ll be similar in fashion, they’ll also be slightly different. So it will be of traditional Victorian style, but we’re throwing a little bit of a modern twist onto it,” Doolin said. “That way, if somebody should see this cake and say, ‘That’s the one that I love for my wedding day,’ we could absolutely redo it and pull in elements of those.”

She said preparing for the day of the concert has been a lengthy process:

“We’ve been planning and designing this cake for weeks. It’s a puzzle, sort of, where you’re saying, ‘OK, I like this part. But this part, I think we could do better. And what about this? And I think that will look nice.’ It’s really about making sure it’s the best fit and that all the elements work together.”

Plans call for the actual work on the cake to start four days in advance, with at least one full day to implement all the details. Then it’s time for a careful trip to Westminster.

“I will have the honor of delivering the cake and setting it up, and being the one to click the on button for the rotating stand,” Doolin said.

For the sake of comparison, Victoria’s wedding cake spanned nine feet and weighed 300 pounds. And pieces of it still exist: One sold for 1,500 British pounds in Christie’s 2016 “Out of the Ordinary” Auction. Victoria reigned over the United Kingdom for 64 years, from 1837 to 1901. Coincidentally, it’s been 64 years since Morris and Anna Walsh founded Bethel Bakery.

Now, that takes the cake.

For more information about “Victoria’s Secret: A Life in Music,” visit https://www.themendelssohn.org/.