HIGH TEA has gone underground in Huddersfield.

Secret tea parties are being held for the initiated at an undisclosed location in Lindley.

Cafe Nouveau at Home is the brainchild of Marie-Claire Micuta, who is passionate about pastries.

Once a month, on a Saturday or Sunday, she holds a tea party for up to 10 paying guests in her Edgar Wood-designed home in Lindley.

White linen tablecloths and napkins accompanied by vintage crockery and cakestands provide the backdrop for gastronomic, home-made cakes and tea.

Marie-Claire was inspired to open her underground cafe (where individuals open up their homes to diners) after stumbling across a little tea room in the Rhone Valley in France.

She said: “We had fantastic cakes with champagne and the welcome from the host was so warm. It was an amazing and different experience, something I decided I would like to do in Britain.”

Marie Claire learned her baking skills from her mum and honed them on a course at Betty’s Cookery School in Harrogate.

She started making her own cakes and pastries and exchanging tips with other pastry fans on social networking sites. It was there that she learned about underground cafes.

She realised that this would give her the opportunity to open her own cafe in a small way without a large financial investment.

At the beginning of the year she started out by tentatively inviting family and friends. The feedback was so positive that she opened it up to the public and is now about to hold her third monthly secret tea party.

She promotes the parties, for which each guest is charged about £12, on her website www.cafenouveau.co.uk. Once people have booked a place at the party they are given the location. The events usually have a theme and the next one, on Sunday May 8, will be ‘cake and wine matching’.