Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip tied the knot nearly 80 years ago, so it would be pretty reasonable to assume that the cake served at their reception is long gone — but apparently, that’s not the case. A slice of the cake recently went up for auction, and not only did someone pay well over $3,000 for it, but that person is also planning to eat it. (Yes, really.)
Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth got married in 1947.
Back then, she was Princess Elizabeth (she became queen in 1953) but her wedding was still quite a spectacle. She and Philip walked down the aisle at Westminster Abbey on the morning of November 20, 1947, in front of 2,000 guests.
They celebrated with a meal shared with guests at Buckingham Palace, which was, of course, followed by some time spent on the balcony to greet those who had gathered to wish them well.
The piece of cake sold in November.
According to People, 2,000 slices of cake were cut from Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding dessert, and surprisingly enough, plenty of them ended up in circulation, including the one auctioned off at the end of 2024 by the Reeman Dansie auction house.
This particular 4-inch slice of cake was originally given to Chief Petty Officer F. Lownes of the Royal Navy, who decided to preserve it and keep it for his son. The piece then changed hands and was given to Lownes’ daughter-in-law, and then, it was auctioned off, and a man named Gerry Layton won the slice for £2,700, or $3,669 in US dollars.
It was a pretty impressive wedding cake.
There were so many slices of the couple’s fruit cake to go around because it was 9 feet tall. Created by McVitie & Price, food rations after World War II were still in place, so making the 500-pound cake ended up being quite an undertaking.
Ingredients to make the cake were sent in from all over the world, and it featured both families’ coat of arms and sugar figures of Philip and Elizabeth. Aww!
The buyer plans to eat the slice of cake he purchased.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the buyer, Gerry, said he’s planning to put together a replica state banquet on the Royal Yacht Britannia in honor of his 65th birthday next year, and it’s there that he will celebrate by eating part of the cake slice.
“I will have a third of it cut off and flambéed in rum so that any bacteria will be killed off,” he said. “But if anything happens to me, then at least I will be going out in style on Britannia.”
Sounds like a memorable birthday to us!
