Gluten free and dairy free lemon cake recipe

The other day Chef Frank was out and we had guests checking in who don’t eat wheat or dairy (you might already know that at Exmoor House we specialise in catering for special dietary requirements). So I adapted a recipe from the back of a packet of Dove’s Farm gluten & wheat-free white self-raising flour blend, in order to offer our guests something to eat with a cup of tea when they arrived. As an aside: interestingly, many ‘free from’ recipes are either wheat free / gluten free or dairy free, but not both.

Here’s what I did.

Ingredients:
125g gluten/wheat-free self raising flour
100g dairy-free margarine (we like the PURE sunflower one)
125g caster sugar (granulated also works fine)
2 eggs
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp poppy seeds
for the topping: juice of half a lemon; icing sugar

Method:
Put all the ingredients (except those for the topping) into a large bowl and beat or whisk really well. Pour into an oiled/greased and lined 500g loaf tin.
Bake at 170-190°C (according to your oven) for 45 minutes, or until the cake is springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean. Leave the cake in the tin, on a cooling rack.
Now for the topping. Add some icing sugar, bit by bit, to the juice of half a lemon, mixing all the time, until you get a light syrupy consistency and it tastes sweetish but still nice and lemony. Make lots of little holes in the top of the cake with a cocktail stick and pour the syrup over it; leave the cake to cool completely before turning it out of the tin.

Of course, for quality control purposes I had to try a piece, and then had to resist the temptation to scoff the lot…

Read more about the food at Exmoor House

Music and ponies - two festivals coming soon to Exmoor

Minehead & Exmoor Music Festival, Sunday 27 July – Saturday 2 August
The 51^st Minehead Music Festival includes (as ever) a good range of orchestral and chamber concerts. The programmes feature not only internationally-known soloists but up and coming stars including local young people. You can book tickets for all the concerts from the Regal Theatre Minehead. Here are the details:
http://www.mineheadmusicfestival.org/programme/


Exmoor Pony Festival, Saturday 9 – Sunday 17 August
There’s something different happening every day of this year’s Exmoor Pony Festival: for example rided, walks, special open days, safaris and pony shows. It’s a must for anybody who’d like to see these famous little horses in their native area – Exmoor’s wild moorland. Find all the information here:
https://exmoorponyfestival.wordpress.com/whats-on/

Lunches and meetings at Exmoor House Wheddon Cross

Do you like the sound of a private lunch with friends or family, made especially for you? Do you need a local Exmoor venue for a small meeting, with catering? You could reserve exclusive use of the lovely dining room (or the comfy guest sitting room) at Exmoor House for your group.
Prices would depend on what you would like to eat and drink. We’ll cater for a minimum of four

The dining room at Exmoor House

people and a maximum of about twelve and we will design a menu around your requirements. Tailor-made food: quite appropriate, since Exmoor House was originally a tailor’s shop.
We take pride in our food, all properly home-made using good local ingredients. There’s more information here:
http://www.exmoorhotel.co.uk/food.htm
and here:
http://www.exmoorhotel.co.uk/specialevents.htm

And of course if you'd like to discuss your ideas, or come and have a look around, do get in touch.

On the Levels: visiting Somerset’s lowlands

Dunkery Hill, near Exmoor House Wheddon Cross

Somerset is – to use a very hackneyed phrase – a county of contrasts. Our guest house on Exmoor is more or less in the middle of the National Park and surrounded by rolling hills and moorland. Dunkery Beacon, Exmoor’s highest point, makes a great walk from here. The coast is less than ten miles away; to get there you go through farmland, ancient woods and very pretty country villages (more contrasts). Wheddon Cross, our village, is Exmoor’s highest – so we’re definitely in the highlands of Somerset.

If Wheddon Cross is part of the highlands then the Somerset Levels, about an hour’s drive from Exmoor House, are the lowlands. They have been in the news lately, although (sadly) for all the wrong reasons.

We decided it was about time we paid another visit, heading first to Martock. This small town is full of honey-coloured hamstone houses and is home to Yandles, an excellent place to buy wood and woodworking supplies. At Yandles you will also find a huge range of crafting books and materials, a very good craft centre and a nice coffee shop / tea room.

Muchelney Abbey on the Somerset Levels

Then on to Muchelney to visit the Abbey (a very atmospheric English Heritage property).  The nearby Priest’s House, owned by the National Trust, is also well worth a look but opening days are limited so do check before you go.

Muchelney means ‘great island'; it unfortunately became an island again for a while earlier this year. In the church we found a truly heartwarming display of cards and letters from people and organisations all over the country, offering practical and moral support to all the people who were affected by the floods.

On the village outskirts is John Leach’s Muchelney Pottery, with a showroom full of John’s unique pottery in lovely earthy colours (some of his work is on display at the Abbey too). The adjoining gallery features exhibitions by local and international artists and craftspeople.

That was just a taste of part of this very interesting area in Somerset, which is well and truly open for business again. You could easily explore the Levels during your stay at Exmoor House, or maybe visit on the way here or on the way home.

The Coleridge Way: a walk through Exmoor in Somerset and North Devon

The river at Lynmouth

Exmoor’s wonderful scenery has inspired many artists and poets, prominent among them Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In recognition of this, the Coleridge Way walk, starting at Nether Stowey in the Quantocks (where the poet lived for some time) opened in 2005, attracting many walkers to discover the area. Previously a 36 mile walk, entirely in Somerset and finishing at Porlock, it now continues to Lynmouth, taking in some of the North Devon part of Exmoor too.

The new section of the walk was launched on 21^st May, and I joined other people from the tourism industry, local communities and organisations including Exmoor National Park and local councils, to walk part of the route. The weather was absolutely perfect, with the waters of the Bristol channel looking as blue as I’ve ever seen them, and spring flowers blossoming along the route.

Starting at Broom Street, near Culbone, we walked down past Oare, taking a short detour to join more people at the Lorna Doone Inn, Malmsmead (more literary associations!) for a cream tea. There we met some very special guests: members of the Coleridge family, including the poet’s great-great-great granddaughter, who cut the ribbon to officially open the path.

The route notes now include the new section and they have been rewritten to make it easy to follow the walk

A glimpse of Cutcombe Church from the Coleridge Way

in either direction, starting at any point along the way. View and download all the details (with or without maps) from the Coleridge Way website

The Coleridge Way passes through our village, Wheddon Cross & Cutcombe, making Exmoor House an ideal place to stay whether you are walking all or part of the route.

Exmoor events: Simonsbath Festival

‘When the world comes to Simonsbath in the heart of Exmoor’

The third Simonsbath Festival started on 5^th May and continues until 20^th June. Taken place already (to give you some examples): the quintet Westcombe Brass in concert with children from local schools; the film premiere of How Many People see the Stars as I do? about remarkable Exmoor writer and artist Hope Bourne; a talk by Lord Douglas Hurd.

Still to come (to mention but a few): gypsy swing & jazz; traditional songs and stories about Exmoor; a Latin American evening; drumming and poetry workshops; talks by local authors; guided walks by the Exmoor Society.

Take a look at Simonsbath Festival for more information - and if you want a lovely place to stay during your visit, check out Exmoor House.

Exmoor and Somerset are always open for business

There has been much media coverage of the very unfortunate flooding on the Somerset Levels, and you might be forgiven for thinking that the whole county was under water. This, of course, is not the case.

 Without wishing to make light of the very real problems and hardships faced by people who did get flooded out, the Levels form a small proportion of the county of Somerset, and only part of the Levels has suffered from floods (which is something to be thankful for). It has been heartwarming to see how local communities, and the farming community nationwide, pulled together to help.

The latest initiative is headed up by the Porlock Visitor Centre and FLAG (Flooding on the

At Porlock Visitor Centre. Photo by Maureen Harvey

Levels Action Group). Fifty or so tourism businesses on Exmoor – including us at Exmoor House - have got together to offer free two-night breaks (and other goodies such as visits to attractions) to some of the people directly affected by the floods. You can hear more on
Emma Britton’s BBC Somerset show of 26^th March (5 more days from today to listen to it) and watch out for other media reports.

Meanwhile, the other 97% of Somerset remained open for business throughout all the extreme weather. With motorways and other main road networks unaffected, visitors have been able to travel to and around the area as normal. 

But where were the visitors? Normally, Snowdrop Valley, here at Wheddon Cross, is buzzing in February. This year, only a fraction of the people we might expect came to see the snowdrops – which were looking wonderful - very disheartening for the many people in the village who work hard to make the event a success.  

Businesses throughout Somerset and the South West have been spreading the word via social media that it’s business as usuaI. If you take a look at the @SouthWestUK twitter stream or search for the hashtag #openforbusiness then you’ll see what I mean.  

On the plus side, from a tourism point of view, the whole sad affair has at least let people know that Somerset exists – too often the county is unjustly ignored in favour of Devon and Cornwall. Believe me when I say that Somerset has an incredible amount to offer, and that Exmoor is always a wonderful place to visit – come and see for yourself!