The Prince of Wales was notably missing his wife during a visit to a pasty shop in Helston, Cornwall, as he celebrated St Piran’s Day.

Known locally as the Duke of Cornwall, he gamely participated in activities at the Gear Farm Pasty Company, even stepping in to assist with phone orders from customers.

At 43, Prince William took on the challenge of making pasties, but found the art of crimping the pastry particularly difficult. In a light-hearted moment captured on video, he joked about his lack of kitchen prowess.

The video, shared on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), shows William attempting to follow the instructions of a Gear Farm employee. She guided him through the process of pinching the pastry to secure the filling of beef and potatoes before crimping the edges.

“It’s a lot harder than it looks!” William remarked, adding with a smile, “Feels like I might be taking this one home, guys.”

Despite encouragement from the staff, William humorously confessed, “This is not my finest hour,” and acknowledged, “This is where I need my wife,” noting that the Princess of Wales “would be all over this.”

By the time he was done, the pasty looked like ‘a funny little crab’ as William said: ‘Not sure this is going to be sellable,’ he quipped.

William and Kate, 44, carried out separate engagements yesterday as the future Queen travelled to Leicester to mark the Hindu festival of colour, Holi.

The Prince of Wales was missing his wife as he visited a Cornish pasty shop in Helston in honour of St Piran’s Day yesterday

William, 43, tried his hand at pasty-making but found the crimping particularly tricky -as the future King joked about his limited culinary skills in a video from yesterday’s outing

One of Gear Farm’s regulars was also ‘delighted’ to discover Prince William had taken her pasty order over the phone earlier in the day. 

William was serving customers when he answered the phone at the family-run bakery and asked if he could take an order.  

The clip showed William looking puzzled asking what name he should put on the order for five fresh and 10 frozen pasties, repeating back to the caller: ‘Juicy?’

After she reassured him and repeated her name, the prince said: ‘The pasties will be juicy, you’re right.’

The woman was due to collect the pasties at 1.45pm, after William and his entourage had left to meet fire and rescue members at nearby Helston community fire station, and was told when she arrived who had been speaking to.

Apparently, she was ‘delighted’ and said she had been ‘quite concerned’ when he misheard her name that she might not get her special order of pasties on St Piran’s Day, the patron saint of Cornwall.

The Gear Farm team gave her the 15 pasties free as a thank you for being such a good sport.

A source said: ‘She said she’ll be telling this story for years.’

The lady later spoke to reporters, identifying herself as Josie Trounson, who lives a 20-minute drive from the farm.

‘I was flabbergasted when I found out,’ she said. ‘I had no idea who was answering my call, but the person on the line was a bit incoherent.

‘It’s St Piran’s Day, and I was really worried I wasn’t going to get my pasties.’

One of Gear Farm’s regulars was also ‘delighted’ to discover Prince William had taken her pasty order over the phone that morning

The lady later spoke to reporters, identifying herself as Josie Trounson, who lives a 20-minute drive from the farm

William’s trip to Cornwall came on St Piran’s Day, the county’s national day, and William heard how the community had come together during and after Storm Goretti on January 8, one of the most severe storms to hit Cornwall in recent years.

Winds of up to 123 mph left around 50,000 homes without power, 15,000 without water, and major highways and rural routes were blocked by thousands of fallen trees.

Emergency services and local volunteers worked around the clock to clear debris, restore essential services and protect isolated or vulnerable residents.

One local man in Helston was killed when a tree fell onto his caravan during the evening.

William was told by Helston’s on‑call fire and rescue team about the struggle to remove the 20-tonne tree from the caravan.

‘We did everything we could, but we couldn’t safely get to him,’ one firefighter said.

‘We returned the next day and it took 12 firefighters and three tree surgeons to get to him. It was not a nice thing.’

William told them: ‘Well done guys, good job and hopefully spring is here now.’

Katherine Billing, chief fire officer for Cornwall Fire Service, told him: ‘Then it’s wildfire season, and you’ll be back again!’

William took with him a large box of warm pasties from his earlier visit to share with the crews.

Gear Farm had hoped to share some with them during Storm Goretti but had been blocked by trees on the road.