PUPILS at a west Dorset school are hoping to bake their way to Buckingham Palace after teaming up with cheesemakers.

Year 5 students at Thorner's School in Litton Cheney will help create a birthday cake in honour of the Queen's 90th birthday. The cheese cake will be unveiled at a birthday party at the school next month.

The cake is being created in partnership with Ford Farm cheesemakers.

Ford Farm’s creative consultant, Tanys Pullin, will be helping the children to hopefully craft a genuine spectacle worthy of winning the coveted trip to Buckingham Palace.

The cake will comprise several tiers of cheese including a giant Coastal Cheddar base which has been hand-pressed by the children during a visit to Ford Farm last week. A cave aged cheddar layer will be transported to the Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset for maturing by the children. One layer will comprise a white iced fruit cake which will be baked by the children in school.

Each of the cheese layers will be dipped in red and blue wax and together with the white iced fruit cake, will produce a traditional British red, white and blue theme. The cake will also be decorated with red, white and blue flowers fashioned from wax by the children.

School staff hope the pupils can learn about alternatives to sugar in baking, as well as locally sourced produce.

Jyotsna Chaffey, headteacher at Thorner's School, said: "The purpose of the initiative, which has been set by the organisers of British Food Fortnight, is to teach children that there are alternatives to sugar in cake-making.

"It also encourages the use, wherever possible, of locally sourced ingredients. Ford Farm couldn’t be more local and the partnership has enabled our school children to fulfil both of these criteria so we really believe we could be on our way to the palace."

Each process of the ‘make and bake’ will be captured on camera. The photos of the top five winning cakes will be made into a montage and presented to The Queen as a birthday souvenir.