A ROSE by any other name would taste as sweet.

This cake, baked for a Valentine's Day-themed charity competition, was so realistic that when its creator brought it in, organisers wondered why she had brought a bunch of flowers to a cooking contest.

The loved-up bake-off was organised at Oxford Science Park on Thursday by pharmaceuticals worker Heather Wells from Wantage.

She is raising money for the Methodist Housing Association which runs elderly care homes.

In fact the cake contest was just a warm-up for her real fundraising this summer – her first London Marathon.

Just three people entered the bake-off, but with combined donations and the sale of the three cakes at the end of the day, she managed to raise £325 for her charity.

And if there were not a huge number of entries, it was more than compensated for by the startling standard of baking.

Mrs Wells, 53, who works at Circassia on the science park, said: "They were all stunning.

"When the lady arrived with the rose cake I thought 'why has she brought a bunch of flowers?'

"The second one was so smooth and had a little sprig of roses on top and the third one had Prosecco icing with strawberries and chocolate."

After some difficult decision making, the baker of the bouquet cake, Rachel Melville, was crowned the winner.