Kate Middleton and Prince William teamed up to try their hands at making Welsh cakes.
In the run-up to the national holiday in Wales, St. David’s Day on March 1, the royal couple headed to the nation to celebrate on Feb. 26. The outing marked the Prince and Princess of Wales’ second joint royal engagement of the year, following their attendance at a Holocaust Memorial Day service in London on Jan. 27. Kate, who had just announced she was in remission from cancer, made the last-minute decision to join her husband at the poignant event marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The royal couple appeared to arrive in Wales by train and posted footage showing themselves walking on a platform with the geotag “Cardiff, Wales” to their Instagram Stories. Princess Kate continued her tradition of flag dressing, sporting a vibrant red coat — representing one of the colors on the Welsh flag.
The Prince and Princess of Wales’ visit focused on Pontypridd in South Wales, which was badly hit by Storm Bert and Storm Darragh in November and December, the latest of the floods to blight the area. They caused major disruption and loss for families and businesses.
Prince William, 42, and Princess Kate, 43, began in the market, where they toured the thriving stores and dropped in on The Welsh Cake Shop. There, alongside owner Theresa Conner, they sported aprons as they learned more about the scone-like Welsh cakes.
The royal couple took part in kneading the dough and rolling it out before the flat cakes were cut. Conner then showed them how to cook the Welsh cakes on the cast iron flat stove.
Prince William was heard joking, “You’ll have to sell these for half price.”
Conner told PEOPLE before the Prince and Princess of Wales arrived, “Apparently, Kate is a very keen baker with [her children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6], and she is going to try her hand and make some with us.”
“It’s lovely and an honor for Pontypridd to have a visit. They are coming to visit Pontypridd where a lot of people have been affected here by the floods,” Conner adds. “And for them to do so will help boost people in the town and raise our profile. A lot of our customers are very excited about it and are here trying to get a glimpse of them.”
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The couple, who have a close affinity with Wales and lived on Anglesey in the first years of their married life, was made the Prince and Princess of Wales a day after one day after Queen Elizabeth died in Sept 2022 when William’s father King Charles acceded to the throne. They would also have been well-acquainted with Welsh cakes which are traditionally flavored with small currents. But, unlike scones, they are cooked on a cast-iron griddle or a “bakestone” on the top of the stove, not baked in an oven.
At the store, Conner and her team make every kind of flavor, from chocolate-chip-filled ones to coconut and, of course, the traditional ones (theirs with no spice, unlike many other outlets that add spices like cinnamon). There are also vegan and low-sugar options.
The couple then headed to the local Fountain Café to talk to a group of business owners about market life and its central role within the local community and hear about the recent flooding and how it has impacted them and other businesses in the area.
The floods were the second and third time in five years that the town has been badly affected and many homes on roads along the River Taff were flooded. The floods were also a disaster for businesses that lost valuable stock, like a local bookstore which saw $25,000 worth of books ruined, the BBC reported.
The Prince and Princess of Wales’ third major stop of the day was set to be at the Meadow Street Community Garden and Woodland, which was established in January 2021 to create an open space that welcomes the community to take part in everything from gardening to woodwork and weaving. The area had been filled with debris from a flood a year earlier. As they were shown around, William and Kate were told how large parts of the site were disrupted again after the floods of December 2024 but local volunteers brought it back to use quickly.
The garden both promotes the benefits of nature to well-being (something that is close to the heart of Princess Kate) while also helping to build resilience within individuals and forge connections between people.
Prince William and Princess Kate decided soon after they got engaged in 2010, that they’d spend the first years of their married life in North Wales, where William worked as an air-sea rescue pilot for the RAF.
Kate made her first official royal outing in Wales a few months after their engagement, when in February 2011 she joined William at the Trearddur Bay Lifeboat Station. There, she christened the new Hereford Endeavour lifeboat as William applauded his bride-to-be.
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