~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

~Time for Tea - Jan event~

Six ladies sat down to tea today, for a lovely afternoon where we all tried (hard) to forget about diets just for a couple of hours...
Thankyou to all who attended and of course J for her help and donning her trusty apron again! Guests included Anne from Marmalade & Catmint blog, who has taken some photos and posted on her blog too here... Thankyou for the tulips Anne, seen on my new header, and also the wine encased in a cosy garter-stitched jumper!
The table was set with a red and green theme, using some of my favourite china and linens, including this Woods ware green cup and saucer.  Thankyou to Teapigs tea for their support too - guests took some teabags home too, along with polka dot packets of veggie seeds and leftover cake.

The theme was 'Comfort Food', so I had to include my favourite nostalgic treat - Battenburg!

Also a very rich Brownie Cake...

I ended up substituting Yorkshire Fountain's Gold cheese for Swaledale, also from Yorkshire and still as tasty with the green tomato chutney.

Looking forward to February's event - time to get my thinking cap on!

~Tin Duck SupperClub~

Firstly I shall apologise that my camera never came out of my bag.  Very remiss of me, but I was too sidetracked by the good company and excellent food. What a rubbish reporter I would make. Easily distracted...



Image from Tin Duck Supper Club website

 We arrived at the Tin Duck Supper Club at 7.45pm having received an email with details of it's York location a few days before.  The other guests were already uncorking their vino (BYO) and we were welcomed in by Rob who made us feel at ease.  Rob & Kirsty's period house is comfortable and cosy with a lovely woodburning stove in the through lounge/dining room.
Starter - Aubergine Parmigiana with homemade Pesto
I loved this...an individual (generous) layered stack of gorgeousness! The aubergine was substantial and meaty, if you know what I mean; the pesto was delicious and dotted around the tower of aubergine and tomato layers.
Main - Beef Shin Ragu with homemade Papardelle
Generous portion of ragu and papardelle - the beef had been slow-cooked until it shredded and fell of the bone.  Well seasoned with a rich peppery aftertaste. Delicious robust pasta. Served with a side plate of warm caramelised onion bread.  We were all stuffed after we'd cleared our plates, so had a break from the food and were joined by the hosts Kirsty and Rob before we had our dessert. Main topic of chat was food and wine and shopping locally. We recommended various York and North Yorkshire foodie places to each other, which was informative.
Dessert - Plum & Almond Tart with Vanilla Mascarpone cream
I'm a pudding-girl and a lover of all things almond; so this was heaven for me.  Rob had made a fantastic job of the pastry - crisp and very short, made with butter.  Very jealous of the pastry! The plums were sweet and tart, and I loved the soft almond layer underneath. 
Overall, great inventive menu, great tasting food and chatty interesting company.  Relaxed homely atmosphere.  Kirsty & Rob have an obvious passion and interest in food, wine and travel and are keen to source local Yorkshire ingredients, including their own allotment produce. Their events usually seat 6 and have a minimal donation of approximately £20. I would highly recommend a trip to this supperclub... The Tin Duck SupperClub website is here with details of menus and how to book. 

~Secret Dining Tearooms & Supperclubs~

 Time For Tea @ Lavender Attic, my pop-up tearoom is taking place on

 Saturday Jan 21st 2pm - theme Comfort Food

also Saturday Feb 25th 2pm

and Sat 24th March 2pm

I seat 8 at each event. For availablility and tickets (£12) visit the supperclub website here or click on the link on my blog sidebar.

You can attend as a lone diner, or in pairs or groups; all that's needed is a willingness and desire to meet and chat with fellow guests and enjoy sandwiches, savoury treats and cakes.  I create a lovely relaxed and nostalgic atmosphere with vintage china and linen, fairy lights, bunting and music.  

As I've written before, I'm a member of http://www.supperclubfangroup.ning.com/ where you can locate all the secret supperclubs and tearooms around the UK and beyond. This growing phenomenon is a fab way to eat excellent food for a reasonable price if you are at least a bit adventurous and like meeting people, and having a nosey at other peoples houses!  People that attend are usually like-minded foodies who are secret-dining their way around Yorkshire and beyond. The OH and I attended Dinner at The Manor in Leeds prior to Christmas for a Delia-Christmas food night, which was our first supperclub visit, and turned out to be a real treat. We bumped into Jini, who I'd met previously at Clandestine Cake Club. I never got round to writing about it before Christmas, but there's a good review of the evening and photographs of the food, which was delicious, (especially the broccoli soup and the pheasant terrine!) on Jini's blog - The Munchy Medic. Jini also explains a bit more about how supperclubs operate.
Tonight the OH and I are zipping over to York for an Italian-inspired meal at The Tin Duck Supperclub including beef shin ragu with homemade pappardelle and plum and almond tart with vanilla mascarpone cream. I promise I will take my camera and write about our evening. I am driving but the OH will be taking a nice bottle of wine to enjoy.