Barcroft
A six year-old boy couldn't believe his mince pies when he saw the prize he won in a Christmas raffle – a £3,000 mince pie!
Mukund Soni won the luxury treat in a raffle at the Marvellous Mince Pie Manufactory at The Exchange shopping centre in Ilford, East London.
The delicacy is decorated with the highest-grade platinum leaf and ambergris sugar and the pastry bound together with holy water from Lourdes.
It was created over 25 days by luxury food designer, Andrew Stellitano, using vanilla beans and cinnamon from eastern spice markets.
He then brushed it with eggnog and gilded it with platinum leaf, dusting the dessert with ambergris sugar - a bile excreted by sperm whales that sweetens over many years floating on the ocean.
When he gets to eat it, the lucky schoolboy will find a coin made of 99 per cent pure platinum and worth £600.
"Winning the world's most expensive mince pie has been a big surprise this Christmas," Mukund's dad, Mahendra told the Daily Mail.
"Mukund loves watching MasterChef so when we heard about the Mince Pie Manufactory we had to come and take part.
"My wife and I have been thinking of buying gifts for the children so this is a fantastic additional present for them."