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There’s even more to sink your teeth into! From exclusive offers and tasty competitions to sweet surprises and extra foodie fun – be sure to explore around the town.

Willow Walk in Wimborne with a large marquee tent and trader stalls, with a large crowd of people walking and browsing. Trees and clouds are visible in the background.
George Williams and Christian Orner cut into large cakes at a food festival, with various cakes and strawberries on the table, behind a sign that reads 'Wimborne Food Festival'.

Cake Competition

Calling all chocolate lovers, star bakers and kitchen creatives!

Create your most delicious and visually stunning chocolate cake and bring them to the Marquee on Willow Walk near Waitrose between 3pm and 3:30pm on the day (19th September 2026).

The competition will be judged by a panel of experts, including Great British Bake Off contestant Maggie Richardson and top Dorset chef Colin Nash, who will be casting their keen eyes over flavour, creativity and presentation.

The top prize is a stunning Neff pan set, worth over £100 generously donated by Dacombes of Wimborne.

As well as an adult category, this year’s competition features two junior categories: 7–11 years and 12–16 years, with book token prizes for the triumphant younger bakers.

try Colin’s Perfectly Rich Chocolate and Peanut Tart

From 2026 Headliner, Colin Nash

  • This is my favourite tart recipe taken from a famous chef called Nico. We have changed the recipe slightly over the years to suit our needs. We serve this in our restaurant and our customers always comment on how good it is. It’s quite easy to make providing you let the sable pastry rest for a few hours in the fridge. This is to let the glutens rest and prevent it shrinking. You can even bake it the day before and it will stay crisp. You will need a 30cm round pie tin 3-4 cm deep, a piece of parchment paper and some baking beans for blind baking the pastry. You can substitute baking beans with raw rice, it’s only to hold the pastry down during cooking. Try to get the best chocolate you can afford. We use a 70% cocoa chocolate.

  • Sable Pastry
    100g butter
    100g icing sugar (sieved)
    1 egg +1 yolk
    2 tbs cream
    240g plain flour (sieved)
    2 tbs cocoa powder
    Butter for greasing the tin 

    Chocolate Filling
    150g peanut butter
    300g dark chocolate
    200g butter
    4 whole eggs
    60g caster sugar

  • Make the pastry by creaming the butter and icing sugar in a mixing bowl. When its smooth add the whole egg and the yolk and beat in. Finally add the cream, cocoa powder and flour and beat until smooth. Wrap in clingfilm and place in the refrigerator for at least two hours (it will last a week in the fridge).

    Roll out your pastry on a lightly floured top to a 3mm even thickness. Grease the pie tin with a little butter and gently line the tin with the pastry. Cut off excess pastry, place your parchment on top and fill with baking beans or rice. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160°C for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and beans and bake for another 5 minutes. Leave to cool.

    Meanwhile whisk the eggs and caster sugar for the filling until light and fluffy and holds a peak on its own. Microwave the chocolate and butter until soft and whisk to make a shiny velvet chocolate sauce. Spread the peanut butter over the cold pastry case evenly. Add the chocolate sauce to the fluffy egg mix and fold in with a spoon (don’t whisk as you will loose the bubbles). Pour over the peanut base and bake for exactly 10 minutes at 180°C. It will appear not to be cooked, but trust me it is. Ten minutes allows the chocolate to be velvety on the togue. Leave to cool and refrigerate until ready to eat. We slice with a clean knife for every cut and serve with clotted cream in the restaurant.

    It’s also nice with stewed forest fruits or fresh berries.

    I hope you enjoy.

A slice of chocolate cake garnished with powdered sugar, served with a dollop of whipped cream, some berry sauce on a white plate.

try Colm’s Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

From Colm McKavanagh

  • For the cake:
    100g plain flour
    6tbsp cocoa powder
    ½tsp salt
    ¼tsp baking powder
    ¼tsp bicarbonate of soda
    150g unsalted butter
    225g sugar
    1tsp vanilla extract
    2 eggs
    150ml sour cream

    For the icing:
    2tsp instant coffee
    250g dark chocolate 1
    50ml double cream
    20g unsalted butter at room temp

  • For the cake:

    1. Grease and line 3x15cm (6 inch) sandwich tins.

    2. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

    3. Sift the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl.

    4. Cream the butter until fluffy, beat in the sugar and vanilla extract.

    5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.

    6. Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream.
      Pour into the prepared tins and smooth the tops.

    7. Bake until the cakes start to shrink from the sides of the tin.

    8. Cool on a wire rack. 

    To make the icing:

    1. Place the cream into a heavy based saucepan, dissolve the coffee in 1½tsp hot water and blend into the cream.
      Heat the cream and bring to the boil.

    2. Remove the heat and add the chocolate to the hot cream, stir until it melts.

    3. Whisk the room temperature butter into the ganache, taking care not to over whisk.

    4. Sandwich the cakes together with some of the icing then cover the cake completely with the remaining icing.

    5. Decorate with chocolate curls and meringue

  • Use something like sour cream as it keeps it moist. Make sure it is made up quickly and the ganache can cover the cake immediately.

    The chocolate shapes have been made using food grade acetate sheets in shapes cut in advance, bent to the amount of curl you want and refrigerated before removing acetate. 

    Use Italian meringue which you can pipe more easily into shapes and doesn’t need to be cooked, just blow torched to required colour to match ganache. 

Chef Colm, holding a chocolate cake decorated with chocolate pieces and whipped cream in a kitchen.