Traditional fruit cake to sweeten royal wedding

Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton have picked an ornate multi-tiered fruit cake for their wedding on April 29, royal officials said.

The traditional cake -- which is usually made with candied or dried fruit, nuts, spices and sometimes spirits -- will be decorated with cream and white icing and will have "a strong British floral theme," Clarence House and St James's Palace said in a statement.

The website of the chosen cake designer, Fiona Cairns, who is based in a village in central England, shows cakes decorated with three-dimensional designs of roses, leaves and birds.

Prince William has also asked McVitie's Cake Company, now part of United Biscuits, to make a chocolate biscuit cake from a royal family recipe for the wedding reception at Buckingham Palace.

McVitie's has made many of the wedding and christening cakes for members of the royal family since the marriage of the future King George V and Queen Mary in 1893.