TURNING a cake into a scene from a children’s story would have been a big ask for most, but one Alloa baker happily took on the challenge.

After spotting the brief for this year’s Cake and Bake Show in Edinburgh, Dawn McGuigan shaped her frosting-coated masterpiece into her very own rendition of Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom.

Complete with all the trimmings, her design impressed the judges who handed her third place in the professional baking category.

Her placing is all the more impressive as Dawn has only been baking for a few years before setting up her homes business – Forgoodnesscake.

She told the Advertiser: “I had to enter the professional category because I had been trading when I entered. I’m self-taught and so I really wasn’t expecting to be in with the pros.

“I’ve always been creative; always putting my hand to anything arty, but baking was something I started for family and friends, that type of thing.

“Then one day I thought I would do more with it and it’s grown arms and legs since.”

When the idea came to enter the Cake and Bake Show, Dawn was certainly intrigued by the challenge right from the beginning.

But after the hearing this year’s theme had challenged contestants to recreate a scene from a children’s story, any doubt was settled.

Right away, she knew she wanted to be involved and envisioned her Room on the Broom cake wowing the judging panel.

Dawn (48) said: “When I saw the theme, I knew instantly I would chose that. I had it in my head from the start and stuck with it.

“I tried to do the whole story as best I could. It took four solid days to put together, so there were a few late nights.

“I’ll certainly be keeping the figures; there was a lot of work that went into them.”

She added: “It was really more of a decorative exercise than a cooking challenge. In fact, it probably would’ve been easier to make the whole thing out of cake.

“There was bits of polystyrene in there and things like that. So long as the surface coating was edible then that was fine.

“I would love to do more, and I’m actually in the middle of a Beauty and the Beast one.”

The winning entry in her competition was a James and Giant Peach collage, although notable mentions have to go to an outlandish Maleficient head bust.

Dawn will now get back to her home business Forgoodness Cake, which makes bespoke treats of any description.

She makes cakes shaped like games consoles and wrestling rings, along with cakes based on film characters themes based on Star Wars, Harry Potter, Despicable Me and just about every Disney princess.

For more information, visit www.facebook.com/forgoodness.cake.9 or email dawnmcg1@live.co.uk