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Friday, February 18, 2011

Slice Of History: World's Oldest Wedding Cake

It may not make your mouth water but this is thought to be the world's oldest complete wedding cake dating back to 1898.

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Slice Of History: World's Oldest Wedding Cake
 
The cake which was baked 113 years ago has now got brown icing because the sugars have seeped through to the surface.

It also has a crack in its side due to vibrations from a bomb blast during the second world war.
But tests with a syringe have shown the rich fruit cake inside the ornate icing is still moist - although not edible!
The four-tier cake was orginally displayed in a family bakery until it closed in 1964, then kept in an attic before being donated to the Willis Museum in Basingstoke, where it has just gone on show.

It was given to the museum by the baker's daughter.

Curator Sue Tapliss told Sky News: "The baker's daughter, who was unmarried, donated the cake towards the end of her life because she feared someone might discover it in her attic and think she had been jilted at the alter."

She added: "Pieces of Queen Victoria's wedding cake were auctioned off, but this is the world's oldest complete one."

"We hope it can be enjoyed for a further 113 years."

In 1898 Queen Victoria was on the throne and HG Wells' sci-fi classic War Of The Worlds was published.
It was also the year in which the 21st Lancers made the last ever British cavalry charge at the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan.

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