A shrivelled 30-year-old piece of confectionery, said to be from Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding cake, has sold for €214 on a New Zealand internet auction site.

Christchurch woman Katrina Greenslade auctioned the slice of royal history on auction site Trade Me, claiming it had been in family since 1981.

The winner, known only as Paul, fought off numerous bidders for the cake, which attracted 40,000 hits on the site. Greenslade said the bite-sized morsel was obtained by her father, a sergeant in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, when a tier of the royal wedding cake was sent to the air force after the ill-fated marriage in July 1981.

“It was dragged out often and admired and its story was told many times to family and friends,” she wrote on Trade Me.

“For the last four years it has sat in a plastic container in the back of a drawer in my china abinet. The icing had faded and yellowed and I decided to sell it, but not for the money.

“I wanted to share the story, the icing on the cake is that it’s going to a fabulous new home and I hope the auction will feature in a book on the website’s most memorable auctions.”

The auction attracted dozens of online comments, including one browser who remarked: “Who would have thought the cake would last longer than Diana?”

Another suggested sending it to Prince William and Kate Middleton for their upcoming nuptials.