~And The Winner Is...~

The winner of my knitting book giveaway...

using an internet random number generator, is....

Ronniie - would you email me your address to lavenderattic@hotmail.co.uk and I will post the book out to you.  Many thanks for your comments and entries!

~Knitting Book Giveaway~

As promised here is my first giveaway of 2013...
It's a lovely craft book called 'Vintage Knit Knacks' by Sue Culligan, and you can read more about it here

I was going to have a gardening giveaway, but as Spring has not sprung and the snow and cold snap are forecast again this week, what better than a bit of knitting by a toasty fire?
Along with basic knitting advice, there are patterns for 20 projects including socks, mittens, bottle cover, cafetiere cosy, bookmark, gadget case, to name a few.
To enter just leave me a comment below before 12 midnight on Friday 22nd February.
Good luck
x Sally

~Birthday Weekend~

Well, I turned 43 on Friday, which is a shocker, though I'm assured by 11 year old J that his mates think I'm waaaay younger looking than that!!  It's half-term, so for us lucky term-time workers that means a week off which I will use for Spring Cleaning, a bit of wallpapering and a lot of tea and cake and catching up with people.
I got some really thoughtful and great presents from friends and family...Do you think it's lovely that my little brother knows me so well?!?

I also received some lovely soap and bath truffles from The Yorkshire Soap Company in York, which smell divine and I've took them out of their pretty handbag-shaped boxes to display them in the bathroom on a glass cake stand...

The soap in the middle smells of violets which is one of my favourite scents, up there at the top of my fragrance top 10 with rosemary and geranium.

www.theyorkshiresoapcompany.co.uk
Twitter @ysoap
10 Blake Street
York YO1 8QG
Open 10.30-5.30 Mon-Sat, 10 - 5 Sun

Back tomorrow with a crafty book giveaway.
Sally x

~A Cup of Tea with Lynn Hill~

At the end of January I had the opportunity of a quick chat
over a virtual cup of tea (Yorkshire of course) with Lynn Hill, creator of the Clandestine Cake Club and author of it's new Cookbook.I wanted to find out what had inspired Lynn's love of baking...

What was your background; how did you come to love baking? 
The last job I had before I retired in 2007 was in the customer service sector of a bank. I worked there for about 12 years. I came to love baking through cookery classes at school and my mother always cooked and baked at home, even when my sister and I were very young. At a very young age I seem to remember my father used to come home with a rabbit or 2 and mum would cook them. Rabbit is a delicious sweet meat, I remember it well. She used to bake bread, pies and cakes, all the traditional home baking that I'm glad to say is still done in many homes today.

Did you have an inspirational family member who taught you?
 I think we often used to watch our mums baking, and I'm no exception, but most of my baking and cooking skills are self taught with the odd cookery school attendance here and there. And of course I have a great selection of cookery books to fall back on.

How did you come to have a secret tearoom and where did the idea for CCC come from? 
The Secret Tea Room came about in June 2010 when I had my first afternoon tea in my own home, although the original idea came in 2009. It was part of the supperclub movement at that time and Clandestine Cake Club, which I created in December 2010, is essentially a spin off from that where I wanted to bring people together with Tea and Cake but without me doing all the baking, so what better way than to start a cake club. Sadly I don't have time for The Secret Tea Room anymore because I'm putting all my energy into CCC.

Did you enjoy the book creation process - which are the best bits of writing a cookbook?
I thoroughly enjoyed creating the book, from the moment members started to send in their recipes, including all the writing, seeing the photographs coming in and gradually page by page, seeing the book take shape. It  was quite an emotional moment when I received my copy of the book.  The photo shoots were great fun. Some of which I attended were London, Bath and Leeds and some CCC members were invited to join in the fun as well.

Available here

~Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook~

I've got a bit of exciting news to share - this lovely book arrived in the post this week...

I'm so proud and a bit giddy that my recipe was chosen for the book...

It's available to buy mid-February...

My Battenberg recipe on page 43

I've blogged about the now well-known Clandestine Cake Club before, back in October 2011 (see here)   and also in August 2011 (see here)   

CCC; the clever invention of Lynn Hill from Woodlesford, Leeds, now has over 150 national and international clubs, all enjoying the simple pleasure of bakey cakey gatherings to meet people and eat cake (and you get to take some home too). 

CCC logo courtesy of www.clandestinecakeclub.co.uk

Lynn's Cookbook is really a thing of beauty - gorgeous vintage styling - lots of glass cake stands, vintage china and embroidered doilies as well as tried and tested, and tested again, recipes.I'll be back tomorrow to have a cup of tea and a chat with Lynn herself, but in the meantime, to read more about Lynn Hill and Clandestine Cake Club

• Visit the website and join in  www.clandestinecakeclub.co.uk
• Lynn's baking blog at www.bakelady.wordpress.com
• and there's a good article in Yorkshire Life here