The Tearooms this year were run by Mary Sheehan, who hails from Lambertville, New Jersey and came to the Burren to work with us for the summer, enjoy Irish life and meet more of her numerous cousins. I am happy to say she is returning to the Perfumery for the 2008 season. With her many and varied years of experience as a professional chef, running her own vegetarian restaurant and catering company she is helping the tea rooms evolve into a destination lunch spot as well as providing a haven for our customers to enjoy a cup of fresh coffee and cinnamon cake hot out of the oven. Mary has a wealth of recipes and has introduced many delicious non dairy, non wheat options amongst the array of soups, salads, fresh breads and cakes. We found that the an increasing number of visitors and locals are returning on a regular basis to enjoy the type and quality of food that we offer. We are committed to organic principles and use organic and local produce wherever possible. In reality this means that all ingredients, including milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, flour, vegetables and wine etc. are organic. Only the occasional non organic item is used if the organic or local version is not available. Using local produce is very important to us as well as supporting local growers and businesses and we buy a lot of our ingredients from Galway market.

We feel that this commitment to local produce is vital to the business and social life of rural areas apart from giving fresher, tastier food. Whilst uncompromisingly using local, organic and best quality produce is a lot more expensive and often more complicated to source, we have never been tempted to water down our philosophy. We are proud to be recommended in almost every guide to food in Ireland as well as being member of Good Food Ireland. At the end of the day though, it's the appreciation of all of you who come into the Tea rooms that are the proof that we are right to set such high standards.

This year in the Tea rooms Mary and Emma made absolutely everything in our kitchen which put pressure on us and involved some reorganising of both staff and systems. This year we will have to replace the domestic oven in the kitchen with a commercial cooker able to take more than one cake at a time!

Mary has kindly let us share with you a few of her original recipes which were particularly popular over the summer. She will be returning at Easter with more recipes honed from 30 years of vegetarian cooking. Due to the frequent requests for her recipes last summer she will be putting together a special cook book of yummy organic recipes. This will be for sale at the Tea rooms and on the website.

Cinnamon Swirl Walnut Cake

Preheat oven to 180C (or 350F). In a mixing bowl cream together 1/2 cup of butter with 1 cup white sugar. Add 2 eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. In a separate bowl mix together:

• 2 cups of sifted white flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking (bread) soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder

Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add 1 cup of sour cream and mix until thoroughly blended, scraping bottom and sides. For the filling you will need to mix:

• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup crushed walnuts

Grease a tube pan or 10" cake pan. Pour half of the batter in, sprinkle with half of the filling, pour over the rest of the batter and top with the rest of the filling. Bake for 1 hour or until done.

Lemon Mint Pound Cake

Preheat oven to 180C or 350F. In a mixing bowl cream together 1 cup butter with 1-1/2 cups white sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs. In a separate bowl mix together:

• 3 cups sifted white flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking (bread) soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbl. chopped fresh mint

Mix dry ingredients with wet then add 1 cup whole milk, 2 Tbl. grated lemon zest and 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice. Blend thoroughly, pour into a greased 9" cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until done. Cool, remove from pan and ice with glaze. For the glaze mix together:

• 1 pound powdered (icing) sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 tbl. lemon zest
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Decorate with lemon zest and sprigs of fresh mint.

Carrot Cake

Preheat oven to 180C or 350F. In a mixing bowl blend:

• 1 cup sifted white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking (bread) soda
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt

In a separate bowl mix:

• 1 cup soy oil with
• 3/4 cup honey
• 2 1/2 cups shredded carrots
• 3 eggs

Combine wet and dry ingredients. Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1/4 raisins. Pour into a greased 10" cake pan. Bake for 1 hour or until done. Cool, remove from pan and Ice with cream cheese frosting. For this, mix together:

• 1/2 pound cream cheese
• 2 tbl. butter
• 1 pound powdered (icing) sugar
• 2 tbl. fresh lemon juice

Grate the rind of 1 lemon on top of the cake.

Non-dairy Chocolate Fudge Cake

Preheat oven to 180C or 350F. Mix together:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 tbl. dark cocoa
• 1 tsp. baking (bread) soda

Add:

• 1 tbl. white vinegar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup cold water

Pour into a greased 8" cake pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. Cool, remove from pan and glaze. For the chocolate glaze melt together 2 tb. soy margarine with 1 cup powdered (icing) sugar,then add 2-3 tbl. soy milk and 4 tbl. dark cocoa. Cool before icing cake.