[imagesource: Claire Hayhurst/PA]

It has been 40 years since Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding, where there were 23 official wedding cakes.

An icing and marzipan topping from one of the cakes, which features a detailed, sugared design of the royal coat of arms, has been making headlines recently.

That’s because a fervent fan of the British Royal Family recently dished out a fair penny for this piece of the royal couple’s wedding cake.

Since the wedding, the piece of cake has done the rounds.

The BBC reports that the cake topping was given to Moyra Smith, a member of the Queen Mother’s household at Clarence House, who managed to preserve the topping after all these years with some cling film:

Mrs Smith kept the slice in an old floral cake tin and taped a handmade label to the lid, reading: “Handle with Care – Prince Charles & Princess Diane’s [sic] Wedding Cake,” which she signed and dated 27 July 1981.

The cake piece then journeyed to a collector in 2008 after her family sold it, and now it is in the hands of Gerry Layton, who described himself as a monarchist, reports The Guardian.

After a flurry of bidding from across the world [the UK, USA and several countries in the Middle East had shown interest], the cake piece was sold on Wednesday to Gerry Layton for several times over its estimated price of £300-500.

Layton bid online and bought the cake for a delicious £1 850 (around R37 500).

Here’s a close-up for your consideration:

Image: PA

Layton said that he will be adding the cake to his collection and it will be going in his will, too:

“I thought I would like to add it to my estate, which will be going to charity after my death,” he said.

“I also thought that I could put it up as a raffle prize with some of the money going to Centrepoint, which Princess Di was patron of.”

A royal memorabilia specialist at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester, Chris Albury, said he was “amazed” at the interest in the auction:

“It seemed to get far more attention than when we sold it with a Charles and Diana thank-you letter 13 years ago.”

…”This was an irresistible piece of royal memorabilia history for many.”

Great that it lasted this long, but I’d bet it’s not quite as tasty as it once was.

[sources:guardian&bbc]