Yesterday, after a ‘we want to get out of the city’-type discussion we had on Friday, Laurence and I took a trip across the border to visit the tiny island of Lindisfarne and the beautiful village of Bamburgh on the Northumberland coast.  I’m mistakenly prone to thinking that England is hundreds of miles away from Edinburgh, but in actual fact, it’s little more than an hour’s drive in the car – closer than most of the rest of Scotland in fact.  If you have the radio on, or you’re with someone who you’re half-inclined to want to talk to, the time whizzes by.  Before we knew it, we were scooting across the border.

Lindesfarne is a tiny island off the coast of Northumberland, reachable by a causeway which opens only at low tide.  It’s a lovely little place, and it reminds me so much of the Katie Morag stories I was talking about last week.  For such a tiny island there’s a heck of a lot to see – it boasts the rugged remains of a monastery and a fantastic castle that sits perched atop some craggy rocks at the edge of the shore.  Only 160 people live permanently on the island and apart from a couple of pubs, a post office and a miniature harbour it’s deliciously quiet (if you subtract the swarms of tourists heaving about that is).  It’s all so very pretty – the houses are beautifully painted and there are flower beds and little gardens and appropriately-sited benches all over the place.  Particularly pleasing to me were the ‘boat sheds’ (see picture above) – literally sheds made from upturned boats, chopped in half and sealed into the ground.  These strike me as perhaps the ultimate in thrifty accommodation: ‘Yeah this used to be my boat but I’ve, like, made it my house now’.  Coolest thing you’ve ever heard?!

Lindesfarne is exactly the type of place to go if you need to forget the bustle of the city for an afternoon, listen to some bird song and look at stuff that’s easy on the eye.  We had a good walk around, followed by a home-made picnic (of left-over mackerel pasta, boiled eggs and tea) before heading back across to the mainland, and to Bamburgh in particular.

Bamburgh has an even more amazing castle than Lindisfarne (I’m becoming weirdly enchanted by castles in case you hadn’t noticed).  It also has a fantastic beach that stretches on for miles and miles and is nothing but pure, golden sand.  The village of Bamburgh itself is quaint and historic-feeling, and it packs in a surprising number of cafés and pubs, given its size.  We had a good old-fashioned cream tea at a lovely little place called the Copper Kettle Tea Rooms (a name to die for, I think) and my God was it delicious.  There’s something so right about tea, scones and Sunday afternoons.  They just go together, in a similar way to coffee, bacon and Saturday mornings.  The scones were warm, the cream was plentiful and the tea well-brewed.  It wasn’t overly expensive either – a drop in the ocean compared to some city-based tea joints.

All in all, we had a lovely day out.  It was just what I felt I needed to kickstart me into the week and it wasn’t the most expensive either.  Our costs were mostly confined to petrol and scones.  Not bad for a jaunt to another country is it?

Image above from Flickr – tugwilson.

As part of its fund-raising campaign for better and more affordable housing, the Shelter charity does an annual Spring event called ‘Cake Time’ (foams at mouth), where you basically bake a bunch of scrummy cakes and flog ‘em to friends, family, colleagues or complete strangers, in exchange for donations to Shelter.

A poster for Cake Time initially caught my eye in a Shelter shop window last year because of its cute and quirky advertising (glamorous fifties housewives, retro cake stands and pretty bunting ahoy – yay!).  I’d been hankering after a fun and easy way to raise money for a charity for a while and this seemed like the perfect thing, given my enduring and unqualified love for all things home-made.

So my friend Chloë and I hosted a Cake Time party at work last March which went down an absolute storm (give some people cake and they honestly will love you forever).  We raised around £65, of which I was rather proud, given the fact that my office is by most accounts miniscule.  And yes I did also take that princely return as reflective of the quality of the confection on offer!

I mention all this because I was contacted by Shelter earlier today about doing another event this year.  I agreed immediately, and have been avidly thinking of recipes ever since!  I might even expand this time and do some Del and Rodney-style flogging to friends and family as well as colleagues.

So if you enjoy baking and are keen to do a little bit for ol’ charidee, Cake Time is a totally brilliant way to get people together and have a bit of calorific and tasty fun while also raising some much-needed and hugely-appreciated cash for an extremely worthy cause.  You can register for your free Cake Time pack, which includes posters, stickers, recipes and a collection box here.  Oh and you get a nice certificate when you send your collected funds off to Shelter.

Job done!

Image above from Flickr: chotda.

If anyone fancies a spot of the old baking in the near future, might I suggest lemon drizzle cake…

I made one last night for today’s work coffee morning and I have to say that for such a tasty cake it’s absurdly cheap and easy to put together.  I used the BBC good food recipe which you can find here (a much more involved, but seriously tempting, recipe can be found here).  Basically, all you need for the simple version is flour, butter, sugar, eggs and lemons – easy, inexpensive and classic!

The sponge might, depending on your oven, need more than 45-50 minutes – mine certainly did, and I used the juice of three lemons (including the one I stripped for its rind) for the drizzle topping as opposed to the 11/2 suggested in the recipe I used.  The result is a much tangier lemony taste…delicious.

Image available courtesy of Flickr: alasam.

Readers may be interested to note that I’ve now reached the conclusion that Loopy Lorna’s tearoom on Morningside Road (http://www.loopylornas.com/da/86375) does THE finest Victoria Sponge I’ve ever tasted.

It is slightly pricey at circa £3.50 per slab but my oh my is the expense justified by the taste sensation that kicks off with every bite.  The sponge is light but deliciously moist – completely perfect in texture – and the butter icing and home-made jam that hold the thing together are both delicious and lathered on generously (nothing worse than a decent sponge with a stingy jam/icing quotient now is there?).

All in all LL’s VS constitutes one of the most pleasurable cake experiences I’ve ever had.  Washes down perfectly with a delicate china cup of delicious breakfast tea or a mug brimming with frothy latte.

*Image above courtesy of Flickr: wwilliamm – http://www.flickr.com/photos/benidormone/