Piece of One of Diana's 23 Wedding Cakes Is for Sale

Large chunk of icing on marzipan base from 1981 nuptials could go for more than $400 at auction
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 3, 2021 9:08 AM CDT
40-Year-Old Piece of Diana's Wedding Cake Up for Grabs
Feeling peckish?   (Dominic Winter Auctioneers)

If the idea of saving a piece of your wedding cake to devour on your first anniversary grosses you out, you might want to skip the auction for this 40-year-old slice. However, if you're a Princess Diana fan, it may prove to be a sweet offer you can't refuse. The late princess had 23 wedding cakes created for her July 1981 wedding to Prince Charles, and a large piece of cake icing and marzipan base from one of them is now headed to the auction block, per NPR. The 28-ounce confectionary memento, set to be sold on Aug. 11 via Dominic Winter, features "white icing with a sugared onlay of the Royal Coat-of-Arms colored in gold, red, blue, and silver," with a small silver horseshoe and leaf spray also on display. Based on its size, experts believe the slice was likely taken from the side of one of the wedding cakes, or even served as a top tier.

Dominic Winter notes this layer of icing fell into the possession of one Moyra Smith, who'd worked for the queen mother. Someone sold it to the auction house in 2008 on behalf of Smith's family. The cake has been sitting in a tin, wrapped in plastic, ever since. It's believed the "partly cracked" cake portion with "slight damage to [the] shield of crest and other extremities" could fetch more than $400. Whoever ends up taking the decades-old treat home, however, may want to heed a warning from Dominic Winter: "It appears to be in exactly the same good condition as when originally sold, but we advise against eating it." The BBC notes that Charles and Diana separated in 1992, finalizing their divorce four years later. (More Princess Diana stories.)

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