King Charles had a taste of Scotland when a well-wisher handed him a box of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes on the first day of his tour of Australia with Queen Camilla.
The royal couple arrived in Sydney to be met by a huge crowd bearing gifts including flowers and Kangaroo jerky.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was known to be a fan of the Tunnock’s Tea Cake.
She told Sir Boyd Tunnock – the inventor of the Scottish snack – she preferred the teacakes to the caramel wafers as she knighted him at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 2019.
Sir Boyd, 91, who runs the family-owned business in Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, said afterwards: “She said she prefers the teacakes and I said I’ll send her some over.”
And he joked: “I prefer the caramel wafers but only because we make more money from them.”
Sir Boyd created the Tunnock’s teacake – marshmallow on a biscuit base coated in chocolate – in 1956.
The royal tour is the King’s first visit to Australia since he became the country’s head of state in September 2022 and is the biggest trip he has made since starting cancer treatment in February.
The six-day visit to the Commonwealth country will involve meeting political and community leaders, and also celebrating the nation’s people, culture, and heritage.
Next stop for Charles and Camilla will be Canberra. There will be a welcome to country and smoking ceremony, after which the king will lay a wreath in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial. The couple will then greet the public on the way to the For our Country memorial, followed by a trip to Parliament House.
Later in the afternoon they will plant a tree each on the grounds of Yarralumla, then head to the Botanic Gardens where they will hear about the impacts of the climate emergency on flora.
On Tuesday they will return to the NSW capital for events including a barbecue in western Sydney and a public appearance at Sydney Opera House.
They will leave on Wednesday, when the king will fly to Samoa for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting.
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