"I noticed a downturn in baking some years ago and came up with the idea of a Christmas cake packet of ingredients. People were having to buy ingredients and only needed a tablespoon for example, so they were wasting a lot of what they bought. The cake I started to sell only needs a twist of orange and lemon, plus an egg, and it’s easy to bake yourself. It seems strange Delia Smith is now doing her own version!"

Delia Smith follows in the footsteps of Rushden shopkeeper Moira Lovell’s Christmas cake in a pack for £6.49, as the TV cook makes waves in the press for ditching her popular Christmas Cake recipe by launching a ’cake in a packet’