Italians bake the world's largest cake

The giant cake, measuring 16.46 metres long by 13.94 metres wide, was decorated with a map of Italy and its most famous monuments. It had a total surface area of 244 square metres and weighed more than a tonne, Ansa reported.

The cake was made with a a large sponge base, topped with icing sugar. This was then decorated with intricate, icing sugar models of Italy's major landmarks, including the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Alps.

The cake was created by 300 bakers and designers from Italy's National Association of Cake Designers during the Hobby Show at the Milan Trade Fair on Sunday.

Bakers and designers worked tirelessly for four days to complete the impressive dessert, before Guinness Judge, Lorenzo Veltri officially confirmed it as the largest cake sculpture ever.

One proud Twitter user tweeted a pic of the final result.“My girl has set the Guinness record for the world's largest cake,” he beamed.

After the record was confirmed, the cake was cut into 12,000 individual portions and distributed to visitors at the Milan Trade Fair.

The previous record for the largest cake sculpture was set by the Procter & Gamble-owned dish washing liquid brand, Fairy, in London in November 2014.

Now the record is in Italian hands - continuing what has been a successful year of world record attempts in the country. Earlier this year, Italian teams broke the record for the world's longest pizza, largest tiramisu and even the tallest Lego tower.