AFP/London

Phil Roberts puts the finishing touches to Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee cake at Worthy Down camp, Hampshire. Instructors from the Defence Food Services School are putting the finishing touches on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee cake ahead of the Diamond Jubilee Parade and Muster at Windsor tomorrow. The five-man team have been working in secret on the enormous 90kg commemorative cake for the past eight weeks at Worthy Down Camp in Hampshire. The hand-painted pastillage sugar crown has taken two weeks alone to make, and weighs a kilo. In total the chefs have used 30 kilos of icing sugar to dress the cake, while a bespoke cake tin had to be made especially to bake the vast 50kg bottom tier, with a reinforced cake stand also having to be made to withstand the weight of the mighty cake
A lunch for sovereigns from around the world celebrating the diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II was yesterday marked by a withdrawal, protests and controversy over the guest list.
Spain’s Queen Sophia has pulled out of today’s glittering event at Windsor Castle, west of London, amid tensions over Gibraltar, while there were protests over the reported attendance of Swaziland’s King Mswati III.
Bahrain officials also said King Hamad, whose country is in a state of civil unrest following a deadly crackdown on protests last year, should be attending, angering rights groups.
Buckingham Palace will neither confirm who is on the guest list nor comment on the lunch, being held to mark Queen Elizabeth’s 60 years on the British throne.
Queen Sofia cancelled her trip due to tensions with Britain over the tiny Gibraltar peninsula, which Spain ceded to Britain in perpetuity in 1713.
“The government considers it is hardly adequate that in the current circumstances, Queen Sofia take part in Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee,” a spokesman for the Spanish royal household said.
Last week Madrid protested to London over a planned visit to Gibraltar by Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex.
Edward’s June 11-13 trip is part of celebrations to mark the jubilee, with all Commonwealth realms and some British overseas territories getting a royal visit on the queen’s behalf.
On Wednesday, a group of Swazis living in Britain protested outside London’s luxurious Savoy Hotel, where King Mswati was said to be staying with an entourage of more than 30 people ahead of the event.