Royal fan collects £1,850 piece of Charles and Diana’s wedding cake

A royal megafan has collected a piece of the Prince and Princess of Wales’s wedding cake after paying £1,850 for the confection.

Auctioneer Chris Albury handed the cake over to Gerry Layton at Kemble Railway Station, Gloucestershire after Mr Layton won the auction earlier this week.

The large piece of preserved cake features icing and a marzipan base from one of the 23 official wedding cakes made for the ill-fated 1981 marriage.

The design of the cake features a sugared design of the royal coat-of-arms coloured in gold, red, blue and silver.

Mr Layton made a 10-hour round train journey from Leeds to personally collect the slice.

He was delighted to be given a Charles and Diana royal wedding commemorative plate alongside the cake and programme for the first wedding of the Prince of Wales.

The auctioneers also gave Mr Layton a fresh fruit cake, which he devoured on his long journey home.

Mr Albury, auctioneer at Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester, said: “I’ve handled a number of bizarre things as an auctioneer and valuer over the years – going to Belfast to appraise photographs of the Cottingley fairies, to Vienna for historic photographs of the Cuban Revolution – but this royal cake story will certainly rank up there as one of my most unusual and memorable stories for a very long time.”