Royal wedding cakes of history that Harry and Meghan's confection will be up against

There are two ways to become known only by your first name. You can reach the absolute pinnacle of your field, like Beyoncé or Raffi. Or you can be born into royalty, your dominance over other humans asserted by fluke of birth.

Prince Harry chose the second method. Which was smart. Because not even Bono could get away with dressing as a nazi for Halloween and still have us care about his wedding cake.

And let's be honest. Based on what we know so far about the wedding cake for Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding, it's pretty basic. The lemon elderflower cake with buttercream being prepared by London baker Claire Ptak sounds like something we could find in a supermarket cupcake. But it's actually a refreshing break from royal family tradition, eschewing the expected fruitcake for a lighter dessert. And luxury is all in the execution. If Harry is anything like his ancestors (and thanks to inherited title and wealth, he is), the cake is likely to be an ostentatious extravaganza.

Here are some of the royal wedding cakes that Harry and Meghan's will be measured against.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1840

Harry's great-great-great-great grandmother Victoria became queen at 18 and married at 20. She enjoyed a circular, 300-pound cake decorated with orange blossoms, myrtle sprigs and figures of the bride and groom dressed in ancient Greek costumes. This was before photographs. But the cake was preserved as a lithograph. And slices of it still exist, stored in the Royal Collection.

Prince George, Duke of Kent and Princess Marina of Greece, 1934

McVitie's, which produces HobNobs and Jaffa Cakes, is a division of multinational British food manufacturer United Biscuits, but was once McVitie & Price. And the firm wasn't going to let a little thing like the Great Depression stop the construction of a 9-foot cake decked out in Grecian pillars for the wedding of these second cousins.

Princess Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, 1947

Again, McVitie & Price constructed a 9-foot cake for the royal cake, one of 12 at the wedding. It was cut with Prince Philip's ceremonial 'Mountbatten' sword, a wedding present from King George VI. One of the cake's four tiers, decorated in family crests and naval badges made of sugar, as well as silver-coated shoes, was saved for the christening of their child, Prince Charles.

Due to post-war rationing still in place, the dessert was made from ingredients given as a wedding gift from the Australian Girl Guides Association. Pieces of the 900-pound cake were distributed to charities and another tier was sent back to Australia as a thank you gift. Always trendsetters, the royals were virtue-signaling before there was a term for it, shipping a slab of cake halfway around the world as a thank you for saving a few bucks on sugar and flour in a pantomime of austerity.

Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, 1981

The five tiers of fruitcake with cream cheese frosting were adorned with lilies of the valley, orchids and roses as well as the Prince and his family's royal coat of arms. At a mere 5-feet in height, this cake was practically modest compared to Charles' parents'. The dessert, made by David Avery, head baker of the Naval Armed Forces, was laced with rum, candied fruit and nuts, "bound by marzipan" and was one of 27 cakes that fed 1,000 guests. The couple saved one of the tiers for the christening of their first child.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, 1986

David MacCarfrae made both the engagement cake for Andy and Sarah — fruitcake covered in marzipan with a portrait of the couple hand-painted on to royal icing —  as well as their more lavish wedding cake. For the main event, he went all out, building a 6-tiered tower of fruitcake soaked in rum, brandy and port, ornamented in patterns of royal icing, with ropes of fresh flowers cascading from its 12-foot peak.

Prince William and Kate Middleton, 2011

William and Kate maintained multiple family traditions, this time saving three of the eight tiers for christenings. Baker Fiona Cairns said that the tamarind fruitcake, garnished with gum paste roses, daffodils, thistle and shamrock, would be "even more delicious" 30 months later, when served again for the christening of the couple's first child.

Reaching further back into the family's cakestory, William had McVitie's cookies baked into a groom's cake. Working with guidelines from Buckingham Palace, chocolatier Barry Colenso created the tiffin cake, which is more candy bar than cake, a no-bake combination of crushed tea biscuits bound together by melted chocolate, and covered in white chocolate flowers that took six hours each to make

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Based on historical trends, the Harry and Meghan cake can go one of three ways. It can be the tallest, heaviest royal cake, for which it would need to exceed 12-feet and 900 pounds. It can be used to send a message about ethical consumption and inclusiveness, made with gluten-free buckwheat flour, without dairy or eggs, served on compostable plates and donated to a shelter. Or baker Ptak can attempt to transcend tradition by making a cake that tastes good, something wedding guests actually want to eat with a cup of coffee. And here I am not disparaging fruitcake, which can be delicious when well made, but royal icing, which is always hard and joyless.

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Corey Mintz is a food columnist for the Globe and Mail and TVO. Find him on Twitter and Instagram @coreymintz.