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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Rebecca Russell

Prince Louis's first word inspired by Kate Middleton's love of Bake Off legend

The Great British Bake Off has been a family favourite ever since it hit our screens back in 2010. While the show is viewed by millions of people all over the world each year, it can also count members of the Royal Family among its fans.

Both The Prince and Princess of Wales have spoken out about their love of the popular programme in the past with Prince William reassuring children at a South London youth club that the show "will be just as good" when it made the jump from the BBC to Channel 4 in 2016. Kate has also confirmed her fondness for the show and admitted that she was "a big fan" of Dame Mary Berry when the pair met for the first time almost a decade ago.

Ever since their first meeting, Kate has been pictured with the baking legend many times and once revealed how she managed to inspire some of Prince Louis' first words.

The Princess of Wales is "a big fan" of Dame Mary Berry (BBC/Shine TV/Kensington Palace)

The Princess of Wales made the brilliant revelation during an appearance on the BBC One show A Berry Royal Christmas, alongside Prince William, Mary Berry and Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain.

While the royal couple helped to prepare roulades for a reception to thank all those working and volunteering over Christmas, including representatives from the armed forces, emergency services and NHS, Kate chatted to the Dame.

The Princess revealed that "One of Louis' first words was Mary, because right at his height are all my cooking books in the kitchen bookshelf.”

She continued: "And children are really fascinated by faces, and your faces are all over your cooking books and he would say 'That's Mary Berry' so he would definitely recognise you if he saw you today.”

The Princess of Wales is very close with Dame Mary Berry (PA)
Kate revealed the story about her youngest son (Getty Images)

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During their appearance on the festive show the couple were split up as Prince William was paired with Nadiya while Kate joined up with Mary and it became a competition to see who could roll and decorate the best Christmas roulade.

Before the bake-off commenced, William joked: "I’ve made hundreds of roulades, loads. I’m going to write a book about roulades and it’ll be a bestseller.”

As they began to spread the cream on their respective cakes, Nadiya reassured William that "if anything accidentally falls into your mouth, that’s OK… that’s what tends to happen to me!”

Berry then transformed from a cook into an interviewer as she asked Kate if William ever cooks for her.

The Prince and Princess of Wales went head to head in a Christmas bake off (BBC/Shine TV/Kensington Palace/PA)

The Princess replied: "He's very good at breakfast. University days, he used to cook all sorts of meals. I think that was when he was trying to impress me, Mary! Things like Bolognese sauce and things like that.”

The audience then got a glimmer of their competitive rapport as Kate was spying on how her husband was scoring his cake.

William said: "Can you keep an eye on your own roulade, please!”

As they put on the finishing touches of chocolate, orange zest and pomegranate seeds, William admired his wife’s cake and said: "You’ve got zigzags. Ours is more of a phwoar, look at that, I’ve got to eat it right away!”

In true form, Berry displayed her arsenal of classic humour and cheeky innuendos when she asked Kate if she wanted to have a "squirt on a cake” while preparing cupcakes for their guests - which, of course, sent the well-humoured royal into hysterics.

Finally it was time to come to a decision over whose roulade was the best. But the ever diplomatic judge couldn’t decide and declared the couple joint winners, saying: "I don’t want to quarrel with either of you.”

In 2020, it was announced that the TV legend had been invited to become a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Berry said at the time that it was the "icing on the cake" after a long career of cookery writing, but that she'll "still be the same person".

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