07-07-2025
Slice of late Queen's 77-year-old wedding cake sells for £2,700 ... and buyer's going to eat it
One of the last slices of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's wedding cake has sold for £2,700 after languishing in a drawer for decades.
The piece of perfectly preserved fruit cake from the 1947 celebration was bought by a royal fan who intends to eat it.
The 77-year-old slice of alcohol-laced cake was one of 2,000 from the wedding reception at Buckingham Palace.
The lavish cake, designed by the chief confectioner at McVitie & Price, stood at a 9ft tall and consisted of four tiers.
The 4in slice was given to Chief Petty Officer F Lownes, who served in the Royal Navy. He never ate the cake and it was left to his son, who kept it in a drawer. After he died, it went to his wife, Lownes' daughter-in-law.
The slice has been kept in its original box with a silver embossed crown 'EP' cypher and date on the lid.
Alongside it was the original paper packaging addressed to Lownes and stamped with the words 'On His Majesty's Service', in reference to the father of the bride, King George VI.
The slice was bought by Gerry Layton, 64, a royal fan and entrepreneur, who competed against international interest to buy it.
He intends to eat about a third of it at a replica state banquet he hopes to hold on the Royal Yacht Britannia to mark his 65th birthday next year.
He said he would have the cake flambéed in rum before he eats it.
Mr Layton, who also owns a piece of Charles and Diana's wedding cake, 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.'
The slice was sold by Reeman Dansie Auctioneers of Colchester, Essex, for a hammer price of £2,000, but with fees added on the overall price was £2,700.
