After being completely “wiped out” in the December floods, Kendal-based Ginger Bakers has reopened a kitchen and is back supplying clients across the UK.

Storm Desmond destroyed owner Lisa Smith's business premises, but the kindness of a fellow baker meant that the company could continue to operate.

The company lost 800 Christmas cakes, goods worth £10,000 and equipment worth £30,000, but while the entire kitchen and stock for the Christmas markets was ruined, the business continued to operate by using a local kitchen at night.

She said: “Everything was wiped out, all of our Christmas cakes and produce was gone, but our aim was to supply our regular customers and make sure that we fulfilled our commitments.

“We had a lot of markets planned in the run up to Christmas and we weren’t able to attend those because we didn’t have the stock.

“Aidan from Lovingly Artisan at Plumgarth’s said that we could go and use his space, it was such a generous offer and he let us use his space whenever they weren’t baking bread, so almost immediately we were working the night shift.”

Since working at Lovingly Artisan, Mrs Smith was able to find another unused kitchen to get the bakery firing on all cylinders again.

The baker said: “At Plumgarth’s we found a small commercial kitchen space that we found we could move into.

“So we’re there now but it’s a bit small compared to our original space and sometimes we do borrow the facilities at Lovingly Artisan.”

Despite the setbacks, Ginger Bakers is continuing to supply high status clients and building on its customer base, locally and nationally.

She said: “It’s taking a bit of time to get back into our old premises at Dockray Hall, but we’re looking at this as an opportunity to get bigger and better.

“We’re going to continue to do what we do, our products go to shops, delis and cafes across the county and nationally as we now have a number of national customers.

“We have started to supply Carluccio’s Restaurants recently and we have plenty of clients that we are working alongside to supply them with our cakes.”