The Victoria Sandwich Cake so named because it was Queen Victoria's favourite tea-time treat, was tipped to become the largest attraction at the 2013 Royal Bath & West Show. The Royal Bath & West this year celebrated its150th show so shares its roots with the birth of the 'tea time' era and the introduction of the Victoria Sandwich Cake.

To mark this momentous milestone in the Show's history, Dr Jane Guise, the Chairwoman of the Royal Bath & West of England Society, commissioned the creation of a record-breaking celebratory Victoria Sandwich Cake which spanned five feet in diameter. The cake was baked by Steve Oxford of Oxford's Bakery whose Alweston-based business dates back to Victorian times.

The planning for the cake has been a challenge of mind-boggling proportions. Steve explains: 'The two most complex tasks have been finding an oven large enough and a cake tin to accommodate the cake. An engineer has specially designed the tin which comprises a stainless base unit with forged channels which will enable a forklift to lift it in and out of the oven and a ring which is bolted onto the tin and is five feet in diameter.

Brook Food Processing Equipment in Minehead has kindly offered the use of an enormous oven for the bake. The 500 eggs required for the bake are being supplied by Blackdown Hills Eggs, Tiptree are providing the jam for the filling and Barber's the butter for the mix and for the buttercream.

Other than that it's down to the recipe I've adapted and a huge sprinkling of good luck! 'The baking commenced on the 15th May and took two days to complete. It was transported by Peter Green's a specialist in refrigerated transport, to a depot next to the Bath & West Showground.

On May 29th, the cake was carried on to the Showground and to the Village Green, which was the scene of a number of Victorian themed activities, for cutting by the Bishop of Bath & Wells at midday.

Dr Guise concluded: 'The first day of the show attracts up to 30,000 visitors and many of them came to share the rich and varied flavour of both the show and our delicious anniversary cake!'

Join us on the 6th of April at the new venue for the Poundbury Farmers' Market in Queen Mother Square by Little Waitrose.

To help celebrate the move the Farmers' Market mobile kitchen will be there with demonstartions from Tim Attril, chef from the Hive Beach Cafe, Adrian Spicer from L & C Game and Caroline Drever from Dorset Shellfish.  They will have some great recipe ideas on how to make the most of the local ingredients on offer at the market

There will also be live music through-out the morning.

A really great day was had by all on Tuesday 1st of May when the Queen came to visit Dorset as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebration tour. Although the heavens had opened in the run-up to her visit the rain stopped as soon as the Queen arrived in Sherborne.

HRH took a keen interest in all the local food producers on show outside the Abbey and asked how many markets Dorset Farmers' Market organised and was very pleasantly surprised at the variety of produce on display on the DFM stand.

These included 9 out of the 75 DFM members situated closest to Sherborne: Alice Hunter Honey, Dorset Down Mushrooms, AS Sushi, L & C Game, Oxfords Bakery, Peaceful Poultry, Silverthorne Eggs, Simply Cooking and Scrumptious Secrets.