Some say their cakes are the best in the country and now this family bakery has a huge online fan club.

Customers of Hume’s Bakery in Halstead hope to have put the town on the map by setting up a page on the social networking website Facebook.

The page entitled Hume’s of Halstead has 273 members who have gushed about their favourite pastries.

But the bakery owners, who are both in their 70s, are still in the dark over the internet praise.

Owner Ann Hume, 70, said: “We’re not computerised, but this Facebook thing is lovely. It’s super.

“Our son Adrian mentioned it to us. I said to him I’d like to have a look at it because I don’t know what it’s all about.

“I don’t go on the internet. We have got a computer but we don’t use it.”

Mrs Hume and her husband Dennis, 71, have run the High Street bakery for 50 years and live above the shop.