The Royal Chef Walked Us Through Kate Middleton's Very Favorite Dessert Recipe — Sticky Toffee Pudding

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Darren McGrady was the personal chef to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Princess Diana, and Princes William and Harry—a family with notoriously specific food needs—for 15 years. In 1998, he moved to the U.S.A. where he wrote best-selling cookbooks and founded Eating Royally, a fine-dining catering service based in Dallas, TX.

In this limited series, Chef McGrady walks Delish through the royals' favorite recipes from his Dallas test kitchen...while spilling all the most glorious royal tea. First up: Her Royal Highness Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge. Or, you know, Kate Middleton.

If the world knows anything about Kate, it's that she has managed to balance all the trappings of a royal lifestyle with the ability to stay pretty freaking normal on all fronts. A prime example? She could have current royal chefs cater her every meal, but she instead chooses to grocery shop and cook for her family on her own. Another example? She loves desserts she can make on her own.

Enter: Chef McGrady's sticky toffee pudding.

The chef starts by coating chopped dates with baking soda, as the base works to soften the chewy fruit. In the meantime, he melts Muscovado sugar for what will ultimately become a sticky-sweet glaze.

While that does its thing, he puts together a somewhat typical cake batter—eggs, butter, flour, sugar, and the like. That now-liquid date combination gets added in as well. Chef then coats the bottom—or top, I guess?—of a deep cake tin with the Muscovado stickiness before pouring in the newly formed batter. Parchment paper and aluminum cover the tin before he steams the whole creation over high heat for about an hour.

More sauce, whipped cream, and boom: Sticky toffee pudding "how we prepared it at Buckingham Palace." The chef confirms "the Queen loved this at Sandringham Palace when it was really cold outside, when she was at Balmoral Castle, and the rest of the royal family did too." Especially dear Katie Kate, who loves her some sweets in between raw food stages.

Royals: They're so very nearly just like us!

Find the recipe in full here.

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