13/09/2026
Fun facts… The Story of the Marie Biscuit 🦉
That familiar round biscuit found in so many South African kitchen cupboards has a history that began with a royal wedding in Britain in 1874.
The Marie biscuit was created by the London biscuit company Peek Freans to commemorate the marriage of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to Queen Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, on 23 January 1874.
The biscuit was originally known as the Maria biscuit, after the bride. It was stamped with the name “Maria” in the centre and decorated around the edge with a Greek key pattern. Its simple recipe and firm texture made it well suited to being served with tea, and the biscuit soon became popular beyond Britain.
The Marie biscuit eventually made its way to South Africa, where it became particularly well established. In Durban, J.M.L. Baumann had established a biscuit factory and, in 1895, acquired a second plant that allowed the company to produce a wider range of biscuits, including Marie biscuits.
At the time, keeping biscuits fresh in South Africa was not as straightforward as it is now. Marie biscuits were initially sold in tins because moisture proof packaging was not yet available.
Baumann’s business eventually became associated with Bakers, one of South Africa’s best known biscuit brands. During the First World War, the company changed its name from Baumann’s to Bakers in 1915, partly because of anti-German sentiment at the time.
The Marie biscuit became a familiar South African household product, particularly Bakers’ Blue Label Marie. Its popularity also extended beyond simply eating the biscuits with tea. Marie biscuits became a staple ingredient in home baking and were used in treats such as fridge cakes.
More than 150 years after it was first produced, the Marie biscuit remains one of those ordinary household foods with a history that is anything but ordinary. What began as a biscuit created to commemorate the marriage of a Russian grand duchess and a British prince eventually became a familiar part of South African food culture.