A DORSET baker helped make a whopping 5ft wide Victoria Sponge cake which is believed to be the largest layer cake ever created.

Steve Oxford, who runs the Sherborne-based Oxfords Bakery, which has branches in Blandford Forum, Canford Cliffs and Westbourne, was commissioned to bake the special creation for the opening of the Royal Bath and West Show, on May 29.

To make the cake, which was 5ft in diameter and 15inches in height, Steve needed 500 eggs, 50lbs of flour 50lbs of sugar and a forklift truck to get it into the oven and then sandwich it together.

It was done made to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Royal Bath and West Show, which started around the same time that the Victoria Sandwich was thought up, but Steve said it was no mean feat.

He said: “The most complex tasks were finding an oven large enough and a cake tin to accommodate the cake.

He added: “We found an engineer to design a tin comprising a stainless steel base unit with forged channels to enable a forklift to lift it in and out of the oven.

“Other, than that it was down to the recipe I adapted, to which I added a liberal sprinkling of good luck.”

After the grand unveiling at the show, the cake was cut using a sword by the Bishop of Bath & Wells, and served to some of the 25,000 people who attended the event.

Oxfords Bakery is a family owned and run business, which has been passed down through the generations since it started in 1911.