IT WAS party time for a group of children as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee festivities hotted up.

Youngsters at the Station House nursery in Dunnington donned fancy dress as they held a celebration yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Jubilee has proved an open and shut cake for former solicitor Fiona Brook.

Until three months ago, her working life was all about corporate finance. But then she turned her back on lawbooks, offices and paperwork and set up business in her kitchen in Hollybank, Holgate.

Now her Diamond Jubilee cake will be on show at Beningbrough Hall on Monday as part of its Jubilee celebrations and Grand Tea Party.

She said: “You only get one chance in life so you might as well do something you enjoy. It’s fun. It’s a massive pay cut, but it’s worth it for the enjoyment I get from designing cakes and then making them and hopefully making people happy.”

The Diamond Jubilee cake took her an entire evening to handpaint and handmodel in edible food colours and sugarpaste.

She has also produced Jubilee cupcakes and a gingerbread reminder to the Queen saying “don’t panic, it’s your Jubilee”.