The Princess of Wales has joked her children may boycott her pancakes after she branded her attempts at a Shrove Tuesday treat as unfit to eat.

Kate laughed as she struggled to free the batter mix from a frying pan, but successfully tossed it when she joined residents from a nursing home enjoying the annual event.

Before she started, the princess predicted a culinary mishap, telling Anna Wright, head chef at Oxford House Nursing Home in Slough: “I always seem to get my pancakes stuck either in the pan or the ceiling or the floor.”

After pouring the batter into a frying pan, Kate keenly watched it, spatula in hand, asking Ms Wright for advice.

Kate said: “This is where I go wrong, I obviously try and turn them too quickly.”

Conscious of the large number of residents, staff and press silently watching, the princess quipped: “I wish there was, like, music going on.”

Laughing, she added: “Maybe the children won’t want to do pancakes… ‘Mummy we’ve seen you do it – no way’.”

After finally prising the pancake free she held the frying pan with both hands and tossed the batter mix, to applause from the audience, before pointing at her efforts and saying: “Definitely don’t eat that one.”

Afterwards, Ms Wright said of Kate’s effort: “She did a very good job – I think maybe the mixture was a bit thick and she was under quite a bit of pressure.

“She said she will make them for her kids but I’m sure she will make better.”

Based in Slough, the nursing home looks after up to 34 residents, it also operates a domiciliary care organisation, Oxford House Community Care, which provides support to enable local residents to live independently in their own homes.

Kate had earlier spent time with the residents, kneeling down to talk to a number of elderly women, and affectionately held their hands as she chatted.

She met 109-year-old Nora Muchmore, born the year the First World War began, who had a card from the King and Queen Consort nearby congratulating her on her recent birthday – January 7.

When the elderly woman’s grandson, John Anderson, told Kate her date of birth, the princess replied: “That’s two days before me – a fellow Capricorn.”

Kate asked what her favourite food was and when the 109-year-old replied ‘kidneys’ the royal said “I love kidneys too” and when she left the resident to rest said: “Next time I come and visit I will make sure I bring some kidneys with me.”

Another resident the princess met was Margaret Partington, 87, who ran a former hat rental business in Datchet whose clients included Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

But she met her match when she challenged 87-year-old Jean Wilkinson to a game of table football on an omni-board – an interactive computer console the nursing home bought before lockdown to stimulate residents, which has proved a real hit.