Cake is on hold

It's January, the time when sad people everywhere give up cake, and fool themselves that if they join the gym again they will remember to go. If ever there was a time of year when cake was necessary, it is surely January. Even those of us inclined to a glass half full feel a bit gloomy in January (unless you live in Australia in which case substitute July) and a lovely piece of cake would work wonders. But here in Cornwall nearly everything shuts down around about the second week of January.  This week a few places are hanging on, as the New Year Holiday makers are still here for few days, but by next week almost everywhere will be tucked up for the winter.

I shall be out and about in search of, and in praise of , the valiant few who keep their doors open and keep the flag flying for hot chocolate and cake through the very dead of winter.

I'd also just like to point out that although in theory it is the very dead of winter, my geraniums are still blossoming with many fresh flowers coming through, and the first of the daffodils are brightening up the lanes and the fields.

Holiday makers should come to Cornwall all through the year - its mild, and lovely, and last Tuesday I watched a pod of dolphins playing in St. Ives bay.  And if you were all here, the cafes would stay open and I wouldn't be deprived of cake.

Watergate Bay and a Monumental Mushroom.

On Sunday, friend Eve and I decided to take a trip further afield. It's tempting to head straight to Godrevy to walk, but I had heard good things about Holywell Bay, and also that there was an excellent and easy walk from Porth to Watergate Bay.  As they are in the same direction from us we decided to go for a mini magical mystery tour.  Plus, Watergate Bay is famous for Surfing, Extreme Sports and Jamie Oliver, but also for The Beach Hut, which sounds to me like it should be clapper-board and quaint, serving steaming hot chocolate, and lobsters grilled in butter on an open barbecue.  I wanted to check it out.

Holywell Bay in Autumn is a big empty beach.  It is huge, and has a little stream running across it, so I should think it's excellent for birds and wild-life.  Access isn't easy and involved a climb over dunes, and I should think it makes a welcome respite from the commercialism of Newquay, but on Sunday there wasn't much to hold us.  No cafe, and both the pub and the two shops appeared to be locked down for Winter. It would be excellent for walking but we'd already decided on the Porth to Watergate Bay walk so headed that way rather than lingering.

Porth is a nice little beach.  Very accessible, and I can imagine it attracts older folk, and maybe families with young children, but for us it was a place to park.  We'd planned on coffee at Porth but again were thwarted by out-of-seasonitis.  The ice-cream hut only offered instant coffee (the devil's own work) or ice-cream.  Brownie points for Callestick Ice-cream - in my opinion the best of Cornish. The friendly ice-cream man said he thought the walk was 'about half an hour, but he'd never done it'.  Clearly - as an hour later we were standing above Watergate Bay, looking down on it in all its glory.  No complaints about that.  It was another dazzling Cornish Autumn day, and we were walking in T-Shirts (and jeans, obviously) in the warm sunshine. We saw this fabulous mushroom.  In the years before health and safety I'd have picked it, and fried it in butter, but now I'm too scared for such recklessness, so I just took a photo.

So to The Beach Hut.  It isn't covered in clapperboard, and it doesn't serve barbecued lobster on the beach - not in November anyway.  In fact, it's quite posh, and people reserve tables, and I am not sure it should be  reviewed in a cafe blog.  When is a cafe a restaurant?  I think I am going to have to pursue this line of enquiry and would welcome any thoughts.  We had burgers, they were excellent, and the straw fries were as good as Chez Guerard, and that is high praise indeed from an ex-Londoner. We sat outside in the sunshine watching the surfers across Watergate bay, which really does deserve all the eulogies.  I remember it in the 60's and 70's when it wasn't built up at all, and it was always this amazing breath-taking view as one swept along the coast road between Newquay and Padstow.  The view is still there.  I can't help thinking it's a shame its become so popular, but it's good for business, and it was cheering to see a busy Cafe as a contrast to all the closed places.  The coffee was good too, and even the choice of music (the Zutons) fitted in with the lazy Sunday afternoon feel of the occasion.  A brisk walk back to the car did only take half an hour.  Strange that, must have been downhill.

Sunset Surf and a Katherine Jenkins-loving Westie

What a lovely weekend it has been, despite the lack of cake.  Headed for Gwithian. The car park is free in Winter, and was packed and the sea thick with surfers.  The waves looked amazing from the terrace of the Sunset Surf cafe, the gold of the sun reflecting on the curl of the waves as they broke. I wandered along the Dunes for a while, but I'm a bit wary of wandering too deep into the dunes on my own.  I once got a litle bit lost walking from Hayle to Gwithian across the Dunes on a very hot day.  They dip and dive, and paths criss-cross through the  peaks and troughs.  There were some very dodgy people about and I stumbled upon two men pulling up their trousers and looking very shifty.  It occurred to me at that point that one could be attacked and left to rot and probably never be found in amongst the dunes.  It frightened the bejeesus out of me. It was a very hot day, and I didn't have any water, and I might have been slightly delirious. 
Yesterday was altogether less terrifying.  A potter across the Dunes, and on to the beach, followed by a couple of hours sitting outside the Sunset Surf Cafe in the sun, with a cup of coffee, a bowl of good chips, and my note-book. Pretty fine.  They thoughtfully provide a web-cam so see here  http://www.sunset-surf.com/Surf-Check and share the love.
On the way home, I popped into the Clubhouse Cafe in Gwinear to see Annette, half-hoping for Carribean Cake, but was distracted by tales of a Westie that loves Katherine Jenkins.  Apparently every time the Westie hears her voice on the TV, he rushes to the TV, stares at her lovingly and then bursts into song.  Whilst I was laughing merrily, I found I'd been volunteered to make sausage rolls for 80 children for the village Christmas party.  I am wondering if the Westie was a diversionary tactic.

Coffee or Cake scores..which way to go

No cafe activity today. Planning a walk around Holywell Bay on Sunday and I feel sure a cafe will be involved somewhere, and very possibly lunch, so watch this space.
In the meantime I’m contemplating developing my own entirely subjective scoring system. I would be interested in any of my readers’ views about how this might work.So here’s my thinking. It could be very simple , like stars or rosettes, but with little coffee cups representing shots. So an okay place would be a single shot, a good place would be a double shot, and a splendid place would be an extra shot. Easy to administer, easy to understand, but a bit boring and probably already been done.

Or – it could be much more complicated with classifications in the labels along the lines of:

Instant Coffee                  NEVER GO THERE
Single shot Americano     OKAY
Double shot Mocha         Good but mixed
Double shot latte              Always a good choice
Extra Shot Cappucino     Brilliant
Affogato                         So good you want to move in

Tortuous, very subjective, relying entirely on my not very reliable memory and probably completely incomprehensible to anyone but me. At the moment I’m veering towards the tortuous and subjective.

Alternatively, the scoring system could be cake driven:
Bought Battenburg                    NEVER go there
Pre-pack muffin                        Okay
Bakewell tart                            Good but mixed
Carrot Cake                             Always a good choice
Millionaire’s  Shortbread           Brilliant
Deborah’s Rhubarb Cake*       So good you want to move in

*This means nothing to anyone except me, and Deborah, but suffice it to say it is the best cake I’ve ever eaten, although Annette’s Carribean Cake comes a pretty close second and you, dear reader, could try that at the Clubhouse Cafe in Gwinear. This product placement has not been paid for. (Sadly).

OR – we could go the simple but not very exciting way with cake slices. Or tiny cup-cakes. Again, I veer towards the over-complication.

I need help. I need coffee. And maybe cake.

aiee - help

Thank you people for following and commenting. I'd like to comment on your comments in a truly interactive way but for some reason, blogger won't let me.
I'm not ignoring you.  Eventually I'm sure I'll figure it out.  Or maybe someone will tell me.

Fog across the Tamar - England cut off

Only very slightly weather obsessed.  Drove down the M5 in drizzle, and through Devon in thick fog, got into Cornwall and the sun came out.  It's always good to be home. Quick trip up to Glos to see the folks - somehow always seems to involve either a Garden or a Garden Centre.  From a cafe perspective I prefer a Garden - often very good I've found, cafes at Gardens.  The RHS Garden at Harlow Carr has a branch of Betty's of Harrogate and you can't get much better than a Betty's afternoon tea. Sadly Garden Centres, in my opinion , aspire to mingle gardening and cake but often seem to fall down on delivery, with cakes that look large and self-consciously mass-produced home-made.   So this time a trip to the Garden Centre in Cirencester.  A wander around the very large collection of plants was preceded by an anodyne panini.  Next time I think we'll go to Westonbirt arboretum http://www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt and see very fine trees, and real cake.
Noteworthy tho - the Costa at Taunton Dene services.  Stopped for breakfast early-ish on Monday.  I ordered a Latte but when it came it was suspicously light.  'Are you sure this isn't a cappucino' I said to the young gal.  I opened the lid, gave it a bit of a stir, and was about to say 'this is a cappucino you know' but before I could, one of the othe Baristas said ' I've made you another latte'  I was very impressed - I hadn't complained - she'd just noticed.  I thanked her but I didn't get her name sadly.  People like to bang on about poor customer service - it's good to wave a flag for the guys that go un-noticed, so well done Costa.  If thats part of your training programme - it works, and if it's just that she's good, I hope you promote her.

A glorious Godrevy day - Sunshine, seals and Carrot cake

Today the rain is battering at my french windows, and the sun is hidden deep under cloud. It isn't cold but it certainly feels like Autumn. Most of my favourite cafes have pulled down their shutters, brought in their A frames, and double locked the doors as the half-term visitors drove away, and I guess they won't be open again now until February half-term - or perhaps even not until Easter next year.
I sympathise with why they do this, but its a shame because there are lots of us still here, and I hear there has been a late burst in visitor numbers with several of my holiday property-owning friends reporting an unexpected mid-autumn surge in bookings.
As a new resident I can fully understand that. I used to holiday out of season, and now that I live in Cornwall, Autumn is still my favourite time of the year. Take last weekend for instance. The sky was blue brilliance, the sun shining with enthusiasm, the air crisp and clear and the sea shifting between turquoise and deep dark green with high white water sending spray up into the sun-light.  I had been busy all week and been deprived of quality sea time so when I awoke early (for a saturday ) to a beautiful day, I segued from being asleep to being on the beach with barely a breath in between.
The bottom car park at Godrevy was empty again and the nice men from the National Trust have left us until next season, so I parked there and meandered along the cliff top to the far beach steps, clambered over rocks and poked in pools, sat on a particularly fine boulder looking out to sea and thought, with gratitude and not for the first time, 'I live here'.  It is such a privilege and constant delight, and I hope that I will never take it for granted, or stop being breathless at the views across St Ives bay, or from Godrevy up the coast towards Porthtowan and beyond.
Another benefit of this time of year is the resident seal population, who take up their rightful place in their cove cleverly chosen for its inaccessibility to anyone but seals, from either land or sea.  They won't be crept up upon by humans or killer whales in this little cove.  On saturday I counted 100 - so allowing for missing some and double-counting others, I think that's a fairly accurate count.
After a happy couple of hours bumbling around I was in need of a restoring cup of coffee and a piece of cake.  Fortunately the Godrevy cafe is one that does stay open all year round, and I headed back to the car,and the cafe - both of which are in the bottom car-park.
Godrevy cafe cakes all look lovely -and I had in mind to have some carrot cake.  I was almost diverted by the gluten-free brownies or the apricot oatie slice, but stuck to my original thought and ordered  an americano and piece of carrot cake, and tray in hand, went up the outside wooden staircase to the terrace which overlooks Gwithian beach.  Sadly the carrot cake was a bit of a disappointment.  It's usually very good, and I wondered if they had had a new cook making the cakes last weeek.  The cake was a bit too thick in texture - almost rubbery, rather than rich, light and moist as a fine carrot cake should be.  The topping was unsatisfactory too.  It was a plain icing, not a cream cheese or marscapone based topping, so the contrast between cake and topping that makes carrot cake such an enduring favourite was lost.  Shame - I have had excellent carrot cake at Godrevy previously so I hope it was just a blip.  The coffee was lovely, and the cake was edible, just not excellent.  It was a mildly imperfect end to a perfect morning walk - but nothing could spoil the beauty of the day, and I will certainly go back to Godrevy cafe.  I'll probably go for the brownie next time tho!