A KENDAL-based bakery has received a national accolade for one of its ‘lovely’ cakes.

Ginger Bakers collected a one-star Great Taste award for its vegan spiced fruit cake with pecans, bringing its tally of Great Taste awards won since 2006 up to 19.

Lisa Smith, owner of Ginger Bakers, said: “Great Taste awards highlight outstanding products to consumers, providing them the assurance that they have received a reliable stamp of approval.

“Winning an award like this is a great boost to every member of the team, and it’s hugely important because the as winning can open all sorts of potential business opportunities for a family business like ours.”

Judges described the fruit cake as ‘good-looking’ and a ‘lovely fruity tea-time cake’.

The Great Taste Awards- organised by the Guild of Fine Food-are recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike.

Every product in the judging line up is blind tasted.

This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations in Dorset and London, where a panel of more than 500 judges put the shortlisted products through their paces.

This year’s line-up saw food and drink products submitted from 110 different countries from across the world.

The panel of judges included BBC Good Food editor Keith Kendrick, Delicious Magazine editor Karen Barnes, Great British Bake Off contestant and author Chetna Makan, MasterChef Professionals finalist Santosh Shah, food and drink consultant Mallika Basu, restaurateurs including Kavi Thakrar, Dishoom, as well as journalists such as Felicity Cloake, The Guardian and Xanthe Clay, Telegraph, among many others.

This year the judges presented 5,556 products with either a Great Taste one-star “food and drink that delivers fantastic flavour”, a Great Taste two-star “above and beyond delicious”, or a Great Taste three-star “extraordinarily tasty food and drink” award out of a total 14,205 entries received this year.