EIGHT-year-old Florrie Dalgliesh was crowned queen of writers with a book about the Queen's delicious secret.

The Malmesbury youngster won the Guild of Food Writers' Young Food Writer of the Year under 10s title with The Crown Jewels Cake.

Judge Tom Parker Bowles, a food critic and the Duchess of Cornwall's son, said it was "far and away the winner.

"This is almost Dahlesque in its language, wonder and whimsy. It flows beautifully and is filled with a childlike joy of sweets.”

The story tells how the Queen gets her chefs to bake her a crown jewels cake to wear as a crown for grand occasions, fooling everyone.

Diamonds are Fox's Glacier mints, the huge red ruby is an everlasting gobstopper given by Willy Wonka after she recognised him for services to sweets. The sapphires are blackcurrants and thegold is formed from Rice Krispie cakes sprayed with edible glitter.

Once she left the cake in a drawing room and returned to find the Corgis had eaten it all up. The chefs came to the rescue, whipping up another magnificent headpiece and now the corgis are always given a slice.

Claire Blampied, managing director of sponsor, food manufacturer Sacla UK said: “We care very deeply about the food lives of the future generations, and so it’s been a sheer delight to sponsor this writing competition.

"We believe that food is joy, and this has been wonderfully reflected in all the submissions we have read - bravi a tutti!”

The guild, which started in 1984, numbers around 600 writers, broadcasters and journalists. It ran the nationwide competition with magazine The Week.