FOOD lovers tucked into an exotic menu of courgette and lime cake, Mongolian fare and herbal punch.

But the eighth annual Huddersfield Food and Drink Festival also had the more down to earth fare, such as pies, sausages and cheeses as it got off to a cracking start..

Thousands of shoppers were able to indulge in cakes created in Marsh and farm produce from Hade Edge, alongside specially imported delicacies from the rest of the world.

For local producers it was a chance to show their skills to thousands of people.

For shoppers it was the chance to sample some of the best food and drink that Huddersfield and Yorkshire – and the wider world – has to offer.

Marsh cake maker Alison Whitmarsh has only been in business a month, but her special confections are already a big hit with sweet-toothed shoppers.

Her cappuccino and walnut cake sits alongside chilli chocolate and fudge cake, her courgette and lime cake and the popular banana and butternut squash cake.

Alison said: “I just throw ingredients together and they always seem to work.

“Everything I make is based on traditional recipes with a modern twist.

“It’s my first time at the festival and people really seem to like the cakes, which I’m really pleased about.”

Visitors were transported back to yesteryear as they bought sweets from an old-fashioned sweet stall.

They could also enjoy a Mongolian barbecue courtesy of Milnsbridge restaurant Temujin and homemade fare created by students of Kirklees College, created by the merger of Huddersfield Technical College and Dewsbury College.

There was also a range of cheese, meat, sausages, jam and preserves on sale at the various stalls along New Street and on the Piazza, as well as real ales, cider and wine.

Kerry Ainsworth and boyfriend Mark Caplin, both from Rastrick, were among the visitors on the festival’s first day.

Kerry, 26, a primary school teacher, said: “It’s great just walking around and seeing all the variety.

“It’s amazing that so many stalls are selling local foods; it all looks so fresh that you could never buy it in a supermarket.

“I think they should do the festival more often, maybe with seasonal foods.”

Hade Edge butcher Brindon Addy was among those selling fresh meat, including his award-winning English breakfast sausage, which contains pork, bacon, egg and beans.

His mother, Aurea Addy, who works in the Penistone Road shop, said: “All our produce comes from local farms, so people know what they are getting is fresh and locally reared.”

The festival attracts producers and visitors from all over Yorkshire.

It will run until Sunday, from 10am until 6pm every day except Sunday, when the hours will be 11am to 5pm.