A BAKERY which is reputed to make the finest saffron cakes in the world is shutting up shop on Saturday, after a 141-year tradition. Pearce?s Bakery has been baking bread, cakes, pastries and fancies for 100 years at its shop in Kelly Bray but the business was first established in Callington in 1865. It has been featured in various books on Cornish food and is known far and wide for its Cornish tuffs and saffron cakes, baked as they were, by hand, in the 19th Century. Michael Pearce is the fourth generation of the Pearce family to run the business and for 50 years he has been sticking to the traditional methods and ingredients used by his forefathers. But at the age of 67, Mr Pearce, who starts work at 3am each morning, and his Margaret have decided to call it a day. ?We start work early and keep going until the shop shuts at 4.30pm whereas a lot of bakers finish at noon,? he said. ?When you get towards 70 and take stock ? you think maybe it?s time to take some time out.? Despite the hard work and long hours, the baker has not been tempted to change over to machinery-led methods. ?I wanted to carry on the tradition that was started generations ago ? that way the customers know what they are getting,? he said. ?We have been doing it so long because we have enjoyed it ? the effort that goes into it, the making and the presentation and the quality ? that is what it is all about.? Mr Pearce said the village baker was almost extinct now: ?There used to be village bakers in South Hill and Golberdon and Bere Alston but they have all gone. ?The times have changed and supermarkets are the in thing these days ? small shops cannot compete with them on price or choice.? Yet in the face of supermarket competition, Pearce?s Bakery has remained a thriving business and customers from Kelly Bray to New Zealand will still maintain that the best saffron cakes ever came from a little bakery in East Cornwall.