Princess Diana’s Wedding Cake Auctioned Off

It might come as no shock that Princess Diana memorabilia — from the late royal’s iconic attire to her car, and even her private letters — are in excessive demand with royal collectors. However this perishable piece often is the most uncommon collector’s merchandise but. Greater than 40 years after Woman Diana Spencer and Prince Charles tied the knot, a slice of Princess Diana’s wedding cake was auctioned off for £1,850.

Per the Guardian, the slice was purchased up by “ardent royalist” Gerry Layton, from Leeds, after a flurry of bidding from internationally. It was initially thought to promote for wherever between £300 and £500.

Layton informed the Guardian: “I believed I want to add it to my property, which might be going to charity after my demise,” he mentioned. “I additionally thought that I might put it up as a raffle prize with among the cash going to Centrepoint, which Princess Di was patron of.”

UK-based auctioneers Dominic Winters had their arms on the massive slab of cake icing with marzipan base from one of many 23 official wedding ceremony truffles made for the Royal Wedding ceremony in 1981 for quite a few years.

From the appears of the photographs, the beneficiant slice continues to be in (comparatively) good condition after being preserved in cling-film, though the auctioneers “advise[d] in opposition to consuming it.”

On high of the white icing, you possibly can clearly make out an ornamental coat of arms made out of a “sugary overlay”, colored in gold, crimson, blue, and silver. The intricate cake design additionally sees a small silver horseshoe and leaf spray adjoining. Whereas nothing is alleged the way it might have tasted again in 1981, it’s suspected that the massive slice got here from the facet of a cake, or from the highest of a single-tier cake, from one of many 23 truffles made for the royal couple’s massive day.

In accordance with the UK public sale home, the slice had beforehand belonged a Moyra Smith, an worker to the Queen Mom at Clarence Home, who had wrapped the cake in cling-film and saved it secure inside a cake tin together with a “hand-made manuscript paper label signed by M[oyra] Smith taped to lid.”

“This slice of 40-year-old cake icing was acquired from Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 27 August 2008 (lot 301) when it was offered on behalf of Moyra’s household,” said the auctioneers on their web site. “It seems to be in precisely the identical good situation as when initially offered, however we advise in opposition to consuming it, and the royal letter and bottle of commemorative beer that accompanied the lot aren’t current.”

The royal cake was accompanied with printed packages for the St. Paul’s Cathedral ceremony, in addition to a program for a Royal Wedding ceremony Breakfast at Buckingham Palace.