Gerry Layton, an ardent royal fan from Leeds, has paid £1,850 at auction for the topping from a slice of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding cake, The Guardian reports. The piece of cake attracted a hectic round of bidding from across the world when it went up for auction on 11 August, going for well over its estimate of £300-£500.
The royal wedding took place just over 40 years ago, on 29 July 1981 at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, and was billed as the fairytale wedding of the century. The couple had a ceremonial wedding that was attended by many global dignitaries, and it attracted a worldwide television audience of 750 million.
Among the gifts the royal couple received was a large broach of gold, diamonds, and platinum from Canada, antique furniture from the US, and handcrafted silver platters from Australia. The Naval Armed Forces supplied one of the official wedding cakes, which was 5ft tall and took 14 weeks to make.
The Prince of Wales’s coat of arms and the Spencer family’s crest was used as decoration for the Naval Forces cake. A further 22 official wedding cakes were made, the BBC reports. The slice recently bought by Mr Layton features a sugared onlay of the royal coat of arms coloured in gold, red, blue, and silver, backed with a piece of marzipan.
It was originally given to Moyra Smith, who was a member of the Queen Mother’s household at Clarence House. She wrapped it in a piece of cling film and kept it in a floral cake tin until 2008 when it was sold to a collector.
Mr Layton said he will add the cake topping to his charitable estate and might consider putting it up for a raffle prize to raise money for Centrepoint, who the late Princess Diana was a patron of.
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