Teacake, Shepreth

Picture from Teacake, Shepreth

I've been keeping this little place from you, well, unless you follow me on Twitter, in which case I have been banging on about how great their coffee is for about 6 months now.

I'm very lucky and I know it. This tea room does amazing coffee, homemade cakes and sandwiches is 2 minutes away from my office. I know. So lucky.

Teacake is in a grade 1 listed building, which used to be the old village post office. There is a cosy little dining area and also a pretty tea garden for the warmer months - we've had meetings there which is a much more of an improvement than a boring boardroom, and it comes with cake! The owners, Christine and Maurice, are really interested in food and love to try out new ideas and try to source their ingredients as locally as possible, it is great to see people who really care about their food and it means there is always something new there.

Their coffee is what I really shout about - it is Monmouth Coffee and Maurice is quite the coffee expert, and knowing I'm a food blogger he loves to talk to me about how he makes his coffee and how a proper cup should be made.

Along with the coffee there are an array of freshly baked cakes - Victoria sponge, sticky date (my favourite), gluten free lemon - flapjacks, tiffin, scones and of course teacakes. They have a range of loose leaf teas which you can also buy to take home with you. For lunchtime there are also sandwiches (often made with their own home baked hams or smoked salmon), soups, salads and savoury muffins. For the locals they also handily sell basic groceries including the Cobs Bakery bread and Wobbly Bottom farm goats cheese, which I am a big fan of.

Teacake is just around the corner from Shepreth train station, so easy to get to if you're in Cambridge and a perfect place to go if you're visiting Shepreth Wildlife Park for the day. They are open Wednesday to Sunday, 9am to 5pm. Find them on Facebook. 

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Tiffins Tea Emporium, Long Melford

I do love a day in Suffolk, it is a very picturesque area of the country and not too far from us but feels like such a change from normality. We were booked for a morning 'Owl Encounter' at Lavenham Falconry, and this fortuitous turn of events meant we could visit nearby Tiffins, who I'd been following/admiring on Twitter for a while.

Long Melford itself is beautiful and the tea room definitely lives up to its surroundings. A pretty little building with a tower of scones in the window, an array of cakes on stands, tea pots and lovely vintage style furniture.

Tiffins is run by the very cheery Kirstie who made us feel really welcome. We started with savoury - a goats cheese and pepper ciabatta for Mr and the intriguingly named Suffolk Ploughmans for me, cheese scones instead of bread - but toasted so the cheese is all melty and lovely - served with 'cheeky chutney' which was a lovely fresh salsa like chutney made with tomatoes. I had some of the Tiffins Blend loose tea and Mr some Suffolk apple juice.

Of course we had to have some cake too - and it was a tough decision - there is such a great choice of sweets - chocolate, coffee, lemon drizzle, victoria sponges, flapjacks, brownes, tiffin (of course) and fruit scones. Mr had a slice of pleasingly orangey Chocolate Marmalade cake with little white chocolate stars, and I had a coffee cake which was tooth achingly sweet - perfect for me. I had a bit of a sugar high upon leaving and then a crash later on in the afternooon...

We really enjoyed our lunch at Tiffins, it is a beautiful place and very relaxed surroundings. You can find them on Twitter and they have a website too. Do visit if you are in the area - Long Melford has some pretty shops and neighbouring Lavenham is a must see.

Oh and here is a picture of one of the owls we met!

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Coffee & Hazelnut Cupcakes

I think I have a cupcake fixation. I think it is because they are a) really easy to make b) cute and c) great to photograph.

I have no less than 7 (now 8) cupcake recipes in my reasonably petite recipe archive. They are a bit like brownies (I have a lot of those blogged too), adaptable and everyone loves them. I don't always like icing or frosting, it can make the cupcake overly sweet for an everyday lunchtime snack, but for special ocasions you have to. My favourite cupcake is lemon drizzle, which is also my favourite cake.

These cupcakes are again super easy and people always swoon when you mention coffee cake in any form - have you noticed that? I played around with the traditional walnut and decided to sub hazelnut instead because I prefer them. There is a mixture of whole and chopped hazelnuts, along with one of the top which gave it a slightly er, protuding appearance - oops!

I am a coffee snob and I much prefer proper fresh ground coffee to instant, but instant is always the best thing to use for baking - unless you can find coffee extract. You can get a much stronger coffee taste, and I've tried using freshly made proper espresso before, than real coffee. Trust me!

Coffee & Hazelnut Cupcakes
makes about 12 cupcakes

200g butter, softened
200g white or brown sugar
4 eggs
175g self raising flour
4 tsps of instant coffee (dissolve about 2 tsps of powder in as little water as possible, approx 75ml)
dash of vanilla extract
chopped and whole hazelnuts - about 100g in total plus extra for the top.

Preheat your oven to 200c / gas mark 6
Cream together your butter and sugar with a spoon and then whisk in the eggs one by one, mixing well to incorporate each time. Add in your vanilla, coffee and then the flour, folding in, try not to overbeat. Then add in your hazelnuts.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake cases, and fill to about 2/3 full, top with hazelnuts. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes til cooked all the way through.

I did intend to ice them with chocolate and coffee icing but trying to eke out some leftover chocolate frosting with extra coffee and milk made it go all runny, whoops! I experimented with one but the chocolate just wouldn't set, but it was tasty when topped with more hazelnuts.

P.S. The other cupcakes in the picture are lemon cupcakes, recipe in the Hummingbird Bakery Book :)

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new toys

I've just realised you can see the reflection of the garlic I was using for dinner in the coffee maker!

We received this thing of wonder as a wedding present. Expect me to be more productive on the jewellery front soon, this will definitely be of use during the busy Christmas period...



I'd love any recommendations for good coffee beans, so far I've heard Monmouth Coffee Co. are a good place to go.

x

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