King Charles III and Queen Camilla's Woodhall Spa-made wedding cake up for auction

The cake, in its original cake tin and made by Dawn Blunden and her sister-in-law Mary Robinson at Sophisticake on The Broadway, is going up for auction on Wednesday (November 23) with Keys Auctions, and is expected to fetch between £400 and £600.

The wedding took place in Windsor on April 9, 2005, and was a civil ceremony owing to the couple both being divorcees.

Dawn said that it was her son, Darren, who was working as a chef at the various royal residences at the time, who was instrumental in her being commissioned for the job:

"He had overheard that one of the royals needed a cake and he suggested my little cake shop up here,” she quipped, “Then the next thing I know, I get a phone call asking to send a sample of a fruit cake down for His Royal Highness to try.

"He liked it and it all went from there – we then received a call asking for a meeting at Clarence House about baking His Royal Highness’s wedding cake.”

Dawn said she didn’t expect to receive the commission as many high profile bakers were offering their services for free, whereas she was not:

"I thought if I asked to be paid then he would respect me more as I am only a small business owner, and it worked as we were given the job – I couldn’t believe it!”

As Dawn was only given four and a half weeks to bake the fruit cake – and in total secrecy – she had to shut the business for a month to do it properly.

The cake needed 1,080 eggs (“The poor chickens were laying overtime!”), 383lbs (175kg) dried fruit, 139lb (63kg) sugar, 139lb (63kg) flour, 139lb (63kg) butter, 36 bottles of alcohol for the cake itself and to soak the fruit in, 220lb (100kg) marzipan, and 220lb (100kg) sugarpaste, and weighed a whopping 17 stone (110kg), taking approximately 130 hours to coat and decorate.

"It was such a big undertaking,” Dawn remembered, “the brief was that it had to be a fruit cake which would cut 800 to 1,000 slices as well as 2,500 slices of commemorative cake they would send to people to keep!

"We had to bake it over in Norfolk as we didn’t have the space here, and had to store it in Woodhall Spa’s Methodist church where it would be safe – we were icing it in front of the alter and luckily we didn’t get struck down for all of our cursing during that time!” she laughed.

The cake was unusual for a royal cake, in that it had to be understated given the couple’s romantic history, had an octogan shape on top and had four royal crests, as well as thistles for Scotland, leeks for Wales and roses for England to represent Great Britain.

The pattern around the edge of the cake was also designed to match the pattern on the outside of the tins.

Dawn said the Royal Family have continued to use her services ever since – including King Charles and Queen Camilla’s 60th and 70th birthdays, the christening of the Queen Consort’s granddaughter and more, which she said she was delighted with as it was a sign of a job well done:

"If people come back for a second time then it must mean they were happy the first time they came to me, and when they keep coming back it’s wonderful,” she said, “I’ve very lucky that I love my job and being a part of people’s special days as I am is such a joy.”

And now that the slice of cake in its original tin is going up for auction, Dawn said it is lovely to see a renewed interest in her cake for the royal couple.

To make a bid for the special cake and tin, visit key Auction’s website at https://www.keysauctions.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-237---tin-containing-wedding-cake-from-the-wedding/

To find out more about Sophisticake, visit https://sophisticake.co.uk/