If you were listening to Radio 2 last week, you might have heard baking queen Mary Berry on Chris Evans’ show.

She popped onto his breakfast show on Friday (Sep 13) wielding a ginger cake. And the DJ, who’s a big fan of a proper brew, mentioned that all that was missing was a cup of Yorkshire Tea.

He’s quite right - ginger cake and tea go together very well indeed. And we’ve got a different spin on that same idea.

Our sister company, Bettys, runs a lovely cookery school - and their classic carrot cake is always in high demand.

It also lends itself to being spiced up with a little ginger, for some extra zing. If you like the sound of it and you’re in a baking mood, we’ve got the recipe for you.

Carrot and Ginger Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes a 20cm round cake

Ingredients

250g carrots
3 eggs (medium)
200ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g brown sugar
125g self raising flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground mixed spice
125g wholemeal flour
50g chopped walnuts
25g chopped stem ginger

For the lemon cream cheese frosting:
30g butter, softened
90g cream cheese
zest and juice of ½ lemon
200g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C (Non-fan assisted). Line the base of a 20cm round cake tin with baking parchment and grease the sides of the tin.

2. Peel and grate the carrots.

3. In a large mixing bowl, place the eggs, oil, vanilla extract and brown sugar. Beat to mix well. Stir in the grated carrots.

4. Add the self raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, mixed spice, wholemeal flour and chopped walnuts and stem ginger. Stir well to mix.

5. Pour the mixture into prepared cake tin. Bake for approx 50 minutes to an hour, or until a skewer comes out clean and the top of the cake feels springy to the touch when lightly pressed.

6. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool in the tin, before turning out. When the cake is cold spread the top with lemon cream cheese frosting.

To make the lemon cream cheese frosting:
Place all the ingredients into a bowl and beat together until smooth.

Notes
The cake will freeze well. Wrap the cake in cling film without the lemon cream cheese frosting.