Princess Eugenie takes a leaf out of Meghan Markle’s book as she joins baking workshop at community kitchen for abused women

Princess Eugenie took a leaf out of Meghan Markle’s book this weekend as she donned an apron and rolled up her sleeves to join a community kitchen.

The mother-of-two, 33, teamed up with her Anti-Slavery Collective colleague Julia de Boinville at the Bramber Bakehouse in East Sussex this weekend, in her role with the charity which aims to end modern slavery.

In a photo shared on the Anti-Slavery Collective’s Instagram page, the Floodlight podcast co-hosts are wearing brown aprons with the Bramber Bakehouse branding, in a visit reminiscent of the Duchess of Sussex‘s involvement with a community kitchen at Grenfell in 2018.

The Duchess, 42, became involved with The Hubb Community Kitchen in North Kensington a year after the horror fire in Grenfell Tower which claimed the lives of 72 people.

As Princess Eugenie returns to her dedicated charity work following a few months of maternity leave after giving birth to her second son Ernest, she has evoked her cousin’s wife with her involvement with Bramber Bakehouse.

Princess Eugenie and her Floodlights podcast co-host Julia de Boinville visited an East Sussex cookery school 

The daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson announced her return to work last week as she and Julia took to the Anti-Slavery Collective’s Instagram account ahead of the release of the second series of their podcast.

In a photo shared of their visit to Bramber Bakehouse, the Anti-Slavery Collective explained the cookery school supports female survivors of human trafficking and modern slavery.

The caption of the photo explained: ‘The programme is designed to give women the confidence, knowledge and skills for a positive future.⁠’

In particular, the Bakehouse supports women using its services by providing therapeutic baking sessions, providing sessions with trauma-informed experts to focus on the wellbeing of the women, and teaching them transferrable skills that will help them rebuild their lives.

Eugenie’s visit to the cookery school evokes Meghan Markle’s charity work with the Hubb Community Kitchen in Grenfell

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex teamed up with the Hubb Community Kitchen in 2018, it marked the beginning of a long-standing relationship between the couple and the initiative to support families who had been affected by the Grenfell Tower Fire.

Meghan, who was praised at the time for rolling up her sleeves and getting stuck in with food preparation at the kitchen, also contributed recipes to a cookbook, Together, which was her first solo venture as a member of the British Royal Family.

Over the years, the relationship between the Sussexes and the kitchen has remained close, with Meghan checking in frequently despite now living thousands of miles away in Montecito, California.

In June 2022, the Hubb Community Kitchen posted an update on Facebook to confirm Meghan was still in touch with the community at Grenfell.

Voluntary staff at the kitchen shared how the Duchess of Sussex had been in touch asking about their welfare and sharing news of her own children, Archie, three, and Lilibet, one.

They wrote: ‘Today is a day spent looking back, remembering and reflecting. I just found this picture of us all, on the day our cookbook came out.

‘The Duchess had wrapped a book for each one of us and wrote a lovely message to each lady on the first page.’

The comment continued: ‘Always very thoughtful, today we received a lovely voice message from the Duchess, being the 5 years anniversary of the Grenfell tragedy, asking how we are, about our children and families and giving us news of hers. Just being her beautiful kind self.’

Meghan’s contribution to charity work through cookery has seen her contribute towards another cookbook this year, the World Central Kitchen’s Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.

The recipes in the book have been collated by Spanish-born chef José Andrés and feature guest entries from famous faces including the duchess, as well as former First Lady, Michelle Obama.

In a promotional video for the book, which was published today in the US and retails for $35, Andrés tests out some of the recipes – including Meghan’s cake.

As he holds a plate with a slice of the moist-looking dessert and puts a forkful in his mouth, he doesn’t say much to review the cake – but his very satisfied facial expression suggests it’s a triumph.

As he introduces the recipe in the promotional video, chef José says: ‘This is from Meghan. This amazing lemon pound cake.’

He then eats a forkful of the cake, which has been dusted with icing sugar and garnished with rosemary and what appears to be candied lemon rind, and nods as he tastes a bite of the dessert. He adds: ‘Oh, yeah.’

He then points to the cake, suggesting it’s something everyone should try.