Grandmother had the only cake in the contest - and still came second

That is, until she found out she was the only entry.

Officials at her village fete apparently felt her baking just wasn't worthy of a first-class ribbon.

The grandmother, 62, said she was a little taken aback at the decision.

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It was the first year the fete had held a cake competition and - judging by the way her cakes are usually wolfed down - she thought she was in with a chance.

'My friend came over to me at the fete and said I had come second,' she said.

'I asked her how many more entries there had been but she just started laughing and said I was the only one.'

She was let down, in the judges' eyes, by the indentations in the top of her sponge from the oven rack.

'I definitely wasn't annoyed about it,' she said. 'I thought my cake would do quite well but I didn't expect to get first place.

'I make cakes every week and no one has ever complained about them.'

Julie Dent, 44, from the competition's organising committee, said: 'The judges had an expectation and I suppose they didn't feel as though it qualified for first place.'

'This was the first year but the cake competition will become an annual event.

'And we weren't disappointed with having only one entry. From little acorns oak trees grow.'

She explained that her baking had once been subject to an equally bizarre decision.

'About 11 years ago I entered a show with some fruit scones. I was the only entrant but I came third,' said Mrs Dent.

'In your own mind you have got a level where you think first place should be. If you don't think something is worth first place, you don't give it first place.'

Mrs Brown, of Wimblington, Cambridgeshire, is intending to enter again and says she has learned an important lesson for next year.

'I will try not to turn it out on to the rack,' she said.

The blow of coming second this time was certainly sweetened by the fact that her cake was quickly polished off by friends - with not one complaint about the ridges.