A preserved slice of the cake served at the wedding of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1947 has been bought for the whopping four-figure sum by a royal fan at auction
A preserved slice of the wedding cake served at the wedding between the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip has sold for nearly £3,000.
The alcohol-laced fruit cake was made for the royal wedding in 1947, with the slice being one of the last pieces of the 9ft tall cake, which was designed by the chief confectioner at McVitie and Price, to exist.
The dessert had been kept in its original box, which featured and EP cypher and the date of the wedding, November 20th 1947. The box was also stamped with the words “On His Majesty’s Service”, in reference to King George VI – Queen Elizabeth’s father who was the monarch at the time of the wedding.
The slither of cake was originally given to Chief Petty Officer F Lownes, who served in the Royal Navy, in paper packaging. He never ate the dessert and instead gave it to his son who kept it in a drawer, according to the Telegraph. The publication said when Lownes’ son passed away, the cake had been left to his wife, Lownes’ daughter-in-law.
After going under the hammer at Reeman Dansie Auctioneers of Colchester, Essex, the new owner of the historic cake is royal fan Gerry Layton, 64, who brought the cake slice for £2,000, or £2,700 including fees.
Gerry is set to keep part of the cake untouched but he wants to eat about a third of it at a replica state banquet he plans to hold on the Royal Yacht Britannia to mark his 65th birthday in 2026.
According to the Telegraph, Mr Layton said: “I will have a third of it cut off and flambéed in rum so that any bacteria will be killed off. But if anything happens to me, then at least I will be going out in style on Britannia.”
Mr Layton is not the only royal fan to get hold of a piece of the iconic wedding cake, as another slice of the historic dessert sold last year for £2,200 to a bidder in China, who purchased the cake over the phone.
This slice of fruit cake was originally a gift from Queen Elizabeth II, who was a princess at the time, to Marion Polson, who was the housekeeper at The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh from 1931 to 1969.
According to the BBC, the cake was found under Polson’s bed when she died, with the housekeeper having been given the slice as she had brought a dessert service for the late monarch and Prince Philip as a wedding gift – something the late Queen appeared to love, as shown in a letter also given to the housekeeper.
The letter from the late Queen read: “My husband and I are deeply touched to know that you shared in giving us such a delightful wedding present. We are both enchanted with the dessert service; the different flowers and the beautiful colouring will, I know, be greatly admired by all who see it.”
The 9ft tall four tier cake was served to more than 2,000 wedding guests at Buckingham Palace after the Westminster Abbey ceremony more than 75 years ago.