IT’s time for tea in Huddersfield. New ventures in Almondbury and Marsh have revived the teatime treats. Here KATIE EARLAM looks at how enterprising people are bringing back the days of scoens and crumpets and cakes.

THE Examiner’s favourite chef has turned his attentions to a new style of cooking.

Stephen Jackson, who provides our weekly recipes, has just opened T & Cake at Almondbury, with his wife Tracy.

The couple, who ran The Weaver’s Shed in Golcar, sold their famous restaurant to enjoy a more laid back lifestyle.

But as word has spread of the popular pair’s new venture and people smell what’s cooking, it seems life at T & Cake is blossoming.

Stephen said: “The idea is to do cafe food with a restaurant feeling behind it. For example with our ham sandwich, we boil the ham in the treacle, we roast it and we then make it into a delicately crafted sandwich.

“Herbs and vegetables come from the kitchen garden and anything that we can’t get we try to find within Kirklees.

“Anything that we can’t get there, we get from Yorkshire and if we can’t get it from Yorkshire, we will branch out to the North of England.

“Our cider comes from Holmfirth, it tastes fantastic and is only three or four miles away.

“We are really keen to get all our products locally. If somebody has grown too many blackberries and they want us to take them off their hands, we will exchange them for a nice cup of tea, we like the idea of a bartering system.

“We have a selection of our own teas that have been specifically blended for T & Cake.”

Tracy, who ran front of house in the couple’s fine dining establishment, is now more involved with the cooking.

Having always loved baking, she is now responsible for the huge selection of cakes and bars that delicately decorate the table in the front window.

They include carrot cake, brownies, fudge cake, Victoria sponges, classic Sachertorte and a Black Forest gateau, to name just a few.

She has even created an aptly named Almond-berry cake to suit the village.

Stephen said: “It probably is what I would recommend on the menu, it is fantastic.”

The cabana bars, which he kindly gave Examiner readers the recipe for, have proved very popular.

Stephen, who is responsible for the lunch menu, spent a year training at Pru Leith’s cookery school before he was taken on as a staff member.

He continued to work in London for several years before he took on a job at Yorkshire Water.

He said: “It wasn’t what I was expecting, I was working in the sewage works cutting pork pies in to eight pieces.

“So I then took on a job as an unpaid commis chef at the Weaver’s Shed, I worked my way up and eventually with the help of my parents bought it.

“We bought the website T & Cake some time ago as we were going to start a wedding cake business and the ‘T’ stood for Tracy but then we developed in to this and we fell in love with this spot.

“After 20 years running a fine-dining restaurant just five miles away, we wanted to do something a little more laid back and from the heart.

“We want it to be somewhere customers could dawdle over a pot of tea and a newspaper, or enjoy a quick one-course lunch with a glass of wine.”