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Have you ever wondered how to eat your food correctly at a British dinner table, how Lord & Lady Grantham might have dressed for their guests at a formal dinner at Downton Abbey, or even why Lady Mary would have worn a tiara to dine, but poor old Lady Edith wouldn’t yet have done so? Well, our table of 22 guests at our “Dine Like Downton” event this weekend had all of these quandaries answered, plus many

I am off to spend my Friday afternoon playing Lady Grantham with my fabulous co-host, William Hanson.  Together, we are going to spend the afternoon geeking out about Downton Abbey, folding starched napkins, laying the table and lighting the candelabras in readiness for our table of 22 guests this evening for a 5 course event.  Our guests will learn everything from how to dress for dinner and navigate around the British place

Introducing a Guest post from a friend of mine, the lovely Marie Heyes, Director of  The Redbush Tea Co.  The Redbush Tea Co has been around for 15 years or so and are the only tea company in the UK that sells purely rooibos teas.  Rooi… what? I hear you say. Rooibos, (pronounced roy-boss), or literally red bush in Afrikaans. This tea has been offered at Miss Sue Flay’s events for the last couple of years now and has bee

I don’t know about you, but sometimes you can really just crave a simple finger sandwich! If I am home alone, I won’t usually make myself lunch (naughty I know!) as it always seems like so much effort just for me, so if I get hungry for something easy, I do usually crave a good old Egg Mayonnaise & Cress Sandwich. I’ve perfected this British favourite over the years, it’s a firm favourite with the mister and his egg mayon

As you well know, I love to geek out about tea & cake and I get more and more intrigued how people prefer their tea with more and more great quality blends on the market. Especially when it comes to your very own tea ceremony, be it in their favorite Cath Kidston or Emma Bridgewater Mug or in their best antique china service, I’m just intrigued as to how people enjoy their own afternoon tea or tea break at work. You may j

The new Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook is a must own book written by  my lovely friend and creator of the CCC, Lynn Hill  and what a book it is too! It’s a book literally all about cake.  Not cupcakes. Not brownies. Not doughnuts.  Not tarts. Not pies.  Just the good old fashioned (and more modern variations!) of the trusty cake. The book is a combination of Lynn’s tried and tested cakey creations as well as filled

   As some of you know by now, I am now offering up my Afternoon Tea Baking expertise in the form of my new Baking School.. in your OWN home.  You can read more about the plans for this here, along with my plans to get this  spot on, I have recruited a few impartial Secluded Tea Party friends to allow me to use them as *Test Students* to iron out all the creases before I started to release myself into your very own homes!  I p

D:licious is a hidden gem on an otherwise boring business filled location in a fantastic secluded location within Histon, just off the A14 on the outskirts of Cambridge. Situated literally on top of the picturesque duck pond in the middle of Vision Park on Chivers Way (yes, the home of Chivers Jam don’t you know!?) D:licious is a coffee & sandwich bar that has me and hundreds of other regulars coming back for more e

Last week I blogged about my photo shoot with the Cambridgeshire Journal Magazine and John Lewis in Cambridge, I couldn’t quite believe it was me in the mirror after my makeover. I was thrilled with it and I cannot wait to see the finished article in the March edition of this fabulous local magazine. In fact, after I blogged about it, I went and bought myself a pair of Spanx (See below as to why ; ) and the John Lewis gi