Claire Ptak first heard about Meghan Markle through Ms. Markle’s former lifestyle blog, The Tig, a so-called hub for the discerning palette she started in 2014.
After Ms Ptak, the owner of Violet, a cafe and bakery in London, published “The Violet Bakery Cookbook” in 2015, she sent a copy to Ms Markle, who later asked to interview her.
“Great questions,” Ms Ptak, 48, said of that conversation.
Mrs. Ptak then lived in London for about ten years. Raised in Northern California, she moved to England shortly after marrying a Briton in 2005, and opened her bakery in 2010. (She’s now divorced.)
In 2018, Ms Ptak was asked to create what has probably become her most famous dessert: a lemon and elderflower cake served at Meghan and Prince Harry’s wedding. Last year, Ms. Ptak made a version of the cake for a birthday party for the couple’s daughter, Princess Lilibet Diana.
“Claire’s desserts are more than just the end of a great meal; they are morsels of special memories for me,” Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, said in an email. “Her cakes were the focus of some of our most cherished family moments.”
The wedding cake recipe is in Ms. Ptak’s new cookbook, “Love Is a Pink Cake.” (The cookbook, Mrs. Ptak’s fifth, shares a title with a series of drawings by Andy Warhol.)
While home bakers may now have the recipe for the dessert, few will be able to prepare it exactly as Mrs. Ptak did for Harry and Meghan. Mrs. Ptak baked it at Buckingham Palace, using ingredients such as a Elderflower Syrup made at Sandringham, the royal family’s private estate in Norfolk, England.
The liqueur, Mrs. Ptak said, tasted “better than any other elderflower I’ve ever had.”
While Ms. Ptak’s royal wedding cake is arguably her most talked-about dessert, another one she made more recently for makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench’s birthday also caused a stir. The cake was shaped like a penis, covered in silver fondant and decorated with sterling silver leaf.
“We made it in the bakery window, and it really made people laugh,” Ms Ptak said.
Like the cake she made for Mrs. Ffrench, “Love Is a Pink Cake” offers a glimpse into Mrs. Ptak’s personality, as well as her personal life.
The cookbook’s sections, California and England, are based on the two places she’s called home. For some recipes, she took inspiration from dishes made by colleagues in the food world, such as a chocolate hazelnut cake inspired by her favorite dessert at London’s River Café, where Mrs. Ptak answered phones when she moved to the city.
Other recipes in the book came from moments in her life: hungover mornings in Paris, a granola mishap at Violet’s, and advice Ms. Ptak received from the actress Frances McDormand — to “stick with tequila” instead of drinking wine. — which partially inspired Mrs. Ptak’s recipe for a tequila pumpkin pie.
Ms. Ptak teamed up with two photographers, Maren Caruso and Pia Riverola, to create the cookbook, which features images rich in color (a pistachio-green plum cake with candied violets) and texture (a “hairy” coconut glaze, like Ms. Ptak said so).
Mrs. Ptak likes to use seasonal ingredients in her baking and has regular contact with the farmers who supply the fruit. It’s an approach that dates back to her childhood, when she hunted for wild blackberries and blueberries and used them to make pies with her mother.
Decades later, she refined her baking philosophy as a pastry chef at Chez Panisse, a restaurant in Berkeley, California, recognized as a pioneer in the farm-to-table movement.
Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse, described Mrs. Ptak as someone obsessed with fruits when they come in season. Ms Waters said Ms Ptak will compare, for example, the taste of apricots grown on different farms, or how the sweetness of berries changes from week to week. “It’s this kind of curiosity that makes her such an attentive cook,” Ms Waters said.
Before opening her bakery in London, Mrs. Ptak sold pastries from street stalls in the city’s Broadway Market. In the years since she opened Violet in Hackney, a neighborhood in the East End, the neighborhood became one of London’s trendiest areas.
The fashion designer Simone Rocha, who used to live down the street from Violet, said she had been a fan of the bakery for years before meeting Ms Ptak. Mrs Rocha often uses Mrs Ptak’s recipes for plum scones, banana bread and Victoria sponge cake.
Christopher Kane, a fashion designer who lives and works near Violet, is another fan. This year, he and Mrs. Ptak designed a purple carrier bag that is sold in the bakery; it says “more cake.” There are plans for a pink version in honor of the new cookbook.
Ms. Ptak said that after arriving in London she was surprised to learn that people there loved cake so much. “I think that’s why I like it so much here,” she said.
