A slice of the Queen and Prince Philip's wedding cake has sold for £500 at auction, 68 years after the couple got married and days before Her Majesty breaks the record as the longest-serving monarch in Britain. The fruit cake is wrapped in its original baking parchment and is still edible thanks to its high alcohol content.Standing at around 9ft tall, the 500-lb, four-tier cake was made with dried fruit from Australia and preserved with rum and brandy from South Africa, earning it the nickname of "the 10,000-mile wedding cake".It was a centerpiece of the wedding party held for the then-Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace on 20 November, 1947.
© Photo: RexThe freshly-auctioned slice is "wrapped in the original baking parchment and remarkably, still retains a miniature doilie and card inscribed 'With the best wishes of Their Royal Highnesses The Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh,'" according to auction house Gorringes.
Until now, the piece of wedding cake had been kept by an unnamed woman from Hove, East Sussex, whose father attended the royal wedding. It was bought by an unnamed bidder from Los Angeles for £500, plus £125 for buyer's premium and VAT.
© Photo: RexLast year a slice of Princess, Diana of Wales' and Prince Charles' 33-year-old wedding cake reached the grand sum of $1,375 (approximately £825).In 2012, a 31-year-old piece of wedding cake preserved from Princess Diana and Prince Charles's wedding was auctioned off in Beverly Hills by Julien's Auctions with a fresher royal cake from Kate Middleton and Prince William's 2011 wedding.While several slices of Prince William and Kate Middleton's famous wedding cake have gone under the hammer at auctions since their 2011 royal wedding, the couple made sure they saved the top of the eight-tiered wedding cake for Prince George's christening celebration, which took place in October 2013.
