A BAKER has paid tribute to the trading standards officials who made her rename her novelty pig tarts because they didn't contain pork - by making a bureau cake.

Val Temple, of Weymouth's Sgt Bun Bakery, baked the cakes as a thank-you for boosting her business.

Since Monday she has sold more than 400 pig tarts to customers who heard about the story after it first appeared in the Dorset Echo.

Usually she sells only 45 a week.

She said: "I have made the bureau cakes in honour of the trading standards people who visited my shop and made such a ridiculous decision.

"At first I did it as a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way of getting back at them.

"But their ruling generated so much publicity and ill-feeling it has led to more and more customers buying my pig tarts.

"So the bureau cakes are in honour of them and are my own way of saying thank you for bringing me more business.

"I'd also like to thank the person who made the complaint in the first place because it's obviously backfired."

Mrs Temple has run her Sgt Bun Bakery in Weymouth for nearly 30 years and has sold her novelty tarts for the last 18 years with no problems.

But a trading standards official visited her bakery after receiving a complaint about her labelling. She says they told her she must call her pig and robin tarts - made from jams, cream, fondant and a sugar paste - novelty cakes.

And her paradise slice has now been renamed 'almond, fruit and nut' slice.

Bill Jaggs, head of Dorset County Council's regulatory services, has defended the renaming of the cakes.

He said: "Consumers have a right to know what they are buying and there can also be an issue for people who have serious food allergies or special dietary requirements."

He said other foods with quirky names such as shepherd's pie, spotted dick and toad in the hole don't need to be renamed as they are so well established people know what they are.