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If you have about R18 000 lying around and have been waiting 66 years to try a piece of Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding cake, you could be in luck.
A small slice of a massive 2,75-m high fruitcake that was baked in 1947 when the former princess (now 87) married Philip Mountbatten (now 92), surfaced decades later in 2011 and will be auctioned off on 5 September, reports dailymail.co.uk.
The cake has a special significance for South Africans because of its ingredients – the rum and brandy that were used to make the four-tier cake were specially imported from South Africa in the 1940s.
Most of the about 2 000 guests who attended the wedding in 1947 were given a piece of the cake to take home in a 9 cm x 19 cm box. One such guest was a royal guard, CH Spackman. After his death he left the cake, still in its box, to the Princess Alice Home in Surrey, England, where it was only discovered in an old cabinet in 2011.
It was sold soon afterwards for £1 100 (about R16 500) but the owner has decided it’s time to sell it on. His asking price is a mere £1 200 (about R18 000).
“It’s slightly peculiar but this auction is a great chance to own a slice of history,” says Charlotte George, a representative of Christie’s which will auction the piece of cake in London, England.
“The cake was made using rum and brandy, which would explain how it has lasted so well. Remarkably, it’s still in one piece. I wouldn’t recommend eating it – but as a collector’s item it’s fantastic.”
? Christiaan Boonzaier
