The Secluded Tea Party - March 2011

You may have noticed that this is my first post in a while. A combination of the start of summer holiday season and a few days away resulted in me taking a bit of a break from blogging for while but I've still been cooking and have accumulated a fair number of new recipes to tell you about.

I'm going to start, though, by writing about a couple of occasions where I haven't been required to do any cooking at all.

First up is a shamefully overdue post. You've probably heard about the ever increasing number of supper clubs popping up around the country where enthusiastic food lovers invite people into their home and provide them with dinner in exchange for a small fee. Earlier in the year, though, I heard about a very appealing new variation on this theme - The Secluded Tea Party.

Instead of dinner, participants attend an afternoon tea party hosted by the creator of The Secluded Tea Party, the lovely Miss Sue Flay (say it out loud!) and held in a secret location somewhere in Cambridgeshire or the surrounding area. Tea parties are held on a regular basis and each has it's own theme and special, secret, location. The lucky guests are served with a fabulous selection of goodies as you can see in the pictures above and below. Some of the many things on offer were savoury red onion tartlets, a variety of sandwiches (ham with garlic jam were my favourite), fruit & spice scones with jam and cream, Oreo truffles (yes, they were as good as they sound) and finally, the most enormous Victoria Sponge stuffed with vanilla buttercream and jam. All of this was accompanied by a glass of zingy lemonade and a wide selection of tea. Needless to say I didn't need much dinner that evening.

The location for this indulgent interlude was right up my street, being one of Cambridge's hidden gems - Plurabelle Books. Sitting right in the heart of Cambridge, Plurabelle Books is a second hand bookshop and an absolute haven for any book lover. And best of all, when the guests had finished tea we were invited to browse the bookshelves and take one or two books home in exchange for one or two of our own books that we no longer wanted.

For more pictures and Miss Sue Flay's write-up of the the event have a look here.

Since I attended the book-themed party in March, Miss Sue Flay has been very busy hosting other parties - the Vintage Tea Party and Zombie Tea Party (which sounded huge fun), to name but two. And there are many more to come - have a look at The Secluded Tea Party website to read more and find out how you can join in. Alternatively, you might want to take advantage of Miss Sue's new offering - the Private Tea Party.

All in all it was a fabulous way to spend a Sunday afternoon and I'd highly recommend it to anyone.