Guests at royal garden parties eat an average of 14 treats, new statistics reveal, Deborah Johnson tests whether eating that much food really is a piece of cake.

I LOVE food. Sweet or savoury, you name it, I'll eat it, and in large quantities.

So the challenge of eating 14 of the sweetest, sickliest cakes I could find seemed like my dream job.

However, despite my very healthy appetite, I found my desire for doughnuts soon left me feeling green around the gills.

After more than 30 minutes browsing cake stands in local shops, considering what guests at a sophisticated garden party would eat - having never attended one myself - I settled on delicate- looking cream cakes.

As a royal garden party lasts about three hours, I decided to set myself a timescale to work to, and thought one cake every 20 minutes would see me triumph.

I set out with a fudge-topped cream slice. Delicious, and at that point I could easily imagine eating my way through the four boxes of cakes in front of me.

In the next 25 minutes, I ate three more -- a cream bun, a peach melba and a custard slice.

Accompanied by a cup of tea, they seemed to go down very nicely.

However, cake number four proved to be one treat too far. By the time I had taken two bites of the huge cream doughnut, which was by now smeared all over my face, I felt completely sick.

"Imagine you are in front of the Queen, you can't go leaving her cakes," my colleague urged. So, against my better judgement, I finished it.

In the next two hours, I managed to eat two more - a strawberry tart and a chocolate bun - and felt so full I struggled to move.

As tasty as eating 14 cakes may sound, after eating half that amount, I felt ill.

How guests in their posh frocks can do it, I have no idea.