General News
7 October, 2024
The Horsham Show on the world stage: looking back at world record attempt
The vanilla slice weighed in at an impressive 677.76 in 2014.
The Grand Annual Horsham Agricultural Show is always a highlight for the region, as shown by the competition of the 148th edition of the event.
But if we rewind 10 years, the show was put on the world stage due to the completion of a Guinness World Record.
James Henwood of The Oven Door Bakery has smashed the Guinness World Record for the world's biggest vanilla slice.
Mr Henwood made the slice, weighing 677.76 kilograms, at the Horsham Show on Wednesday, October 1, 2014.
It beat the record of 508.11kg set by Flinders Fish and Chips, in Flinders, Victoria, in June 2012.
"I did a bit of brainstorming and had the idea of maybe we could do a giant vanilla slice," Mr Henwood said.
"[I had worked out] who had the current record and what the size of it was, whether it was even doable."
Mr Henwood wanted the community to be involved in the process.
"I always wanted to do something a little bit different and had enjoyed doing things within the community with the bakery and doing a little bit to support events," he said.
"We thought that the Horsham show would be a great platform to be able to do it, where a lot of people would be able to see us in the process and to involve the community as much as we could.
"There was a good six months or more worth of preparation behind the scenes.
"We got a lot of sponsors from our suppliers to help out with the custom mixes [and to] supply the fondant icing that we used on the top."
Mr Henwood made 69 custard mixes for the slice, which were weighed and noted to comply with Guinness's rules.
He said he would send documentation to Guinness headquarters in London to make it official.
"I'm sure there won't be any problems," Mr Henwood told the Wimmera Mail-Times at the time of the event.
"We followed all the rules."
Mr Henwood said his project had created plenty of interest.
"We had a steady stream of people come through all day," he said.
"A lot of people went away with a piece of vanilla slice."
Then Horsham Agricultural Society secretary Andrea Cross said it was wonderful that The Oven Door Bakery chose the show as the backdrop for its world record attempt.
"It's received a lot of recognition, and we're grateful to be a part of it," she said.
According to the Guinness World Records website, the record is currently held by Adelaide's Dulwich Bakery, which crafted an 804.11-kilogram vanilla slice in July 2016.
Mr Henwood started baking as an apprentice, which turned into a 19-year career.
His family also owned the bakery for 11 years.