Afternoon Tease

Betty's Tea Rooms in York

2011-07-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

Not quite as exciting as it sounds this post! We did go to York and we did go to Betty's but the queue was massive and we didn't have very long so we bought some cakes from there and we had them with a lovely cup of tea when we got back to Paul's house.

They were fondant fancies in such a pretty shade of pink with gorgeous vanilla fondant icing and a pretty hand-piped flower on top! Wowsy. The had a little bit of jam inside and a layer of buttercream. Truly delicious! We will have one sat in next time.

Almost too pretty to eat - I am sure you will agree.

Edenfield Show, June 2011

2011-07-06T03:16:00.000-07:00

Goodness me it's been so long since I updated the blog but truth betold, we have been so busy at Fantasy Cupcakes making yummy cupcakes for the people of the North West, and winning awards.....that (scandal) we haven't had any time to ourselves to indulge our passion for tea and cake!

One thing we did do though, and it was absolutely MARVELOUS, was go to Edenfield Fete in June. It was such a lovely old fashioned event, and Paul and I really appreciated the traditional tea tent with a massive tea urn and huge teapots which nearly took two ladies to lift it! The treat on offer was a cream tea which included a lovely strong cup of tea and two (yes two!) scones with strawberry jam and cream.

OK so the scones weren't home baked which would have made the experience perfect but hey ho - the sun was shining and there were little vases of flowers on the tables!

Perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

P.S. Sorry Paul has his axe murderer face on in this picture! (Love you Paul xxx)

Queen of Tarts, Dame Street, Dublin. Feb 2011

2011-02-23T14:08:00.000-08:00

Well our recent wonderful trip to Dublin would not have been complete without a visit to a tea rooms, and my goodness we found a wonderful one in the heart of Temple Bar.

There are two Queen of Tarts shops near each other. A larger one on Cows Lane and the smaller one on Dame Street that we plumped for. It was small but very quaintly decorated. I loved the benches along the outside upholstered in vintage fabric. I also loved the chicken with a tray in the window holding a selection of cupcakes.

The tables were full - it was a very busy little tea shop. We were there about 12ish. The menu was very varied. I was particularly impressed with the 'scones for breakfast' idea! On the subject of their scones we were very tempted by the chocolate scone, raspberry scone and the blueberry scone which were clearly home made and looked huge and delicious. Very tempting.

They had some savoury items on the special board and menu (savoury tarts were a speciality). But we were most impressed by the huge choice of homemade cakes and tarts. Visually the cakes were very tempting and their home-madeness made them more-so. Its rare these days to find such a brilliant choice of homemade cakes like this.

I managed to narrow my choice down to the baked vanilla raspberry cheesecake tart, the chocolate pecan pie and the carrot cake. I finally plumped for the carrot cake which was deliciously moist and the cream cheese frosting was sprinkled with nuts and was creamy and not sickly at all. I'm still dreaming of it now.

Paul was undecided between the raspberry scone and the lemon meringue tart, but opted for the latter as its piled up meringue and a fresh strawberry on top was irresistible. Paul was really impressed with the pastry which was light and crisp. The meringue was soft and fluffy and there was lots of it in relation to the lemon. The lemon filling was to die for!

As if the cakes were not enough, we ordered a pot of tea with them and it came in a battered retro enamel red teapot which had threegood cups of tea in it. And they served it in mismatched china cups! Bingo.

At first we thought at 4.95 Euro each the cakes were quite pricey, but overall the tea and cakes cost 15 Euro and we were stuffed and fully replenished afterwards. Ready to seek out more of the craic in Dublin!! I would say full marks for both quality and value. It was all about the experience in a lovely little tea rooms eating home-made cakes and drinking tea in china cups. Tea and cake doesn't get better than this!

Go if you get the chance! We will certainly go again next time we're in Dublin.

Bibi's Cupcake Shop, Edinburgh Jan 2011

2011-02-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

Well this post isn't technically about an afternoon tea, but during our recent trip to Edinburgh we felt the need to eat cake.

We found a lovely little cupcake bakery called Bibi's in Hanover Street in Edinburgh. The shop was lovely and really cute painted out in pink. But more importantly the choice of cupcakes was excellent. They must have had at least 20 different flavours of cupcakes which I must say all looked very appetising. In fact it took us a few minutes of pondering to decide which cakes we were going to have.

I had chocolate cheesecake, and Paul had mint chocolate. The sponge on the chocolate cheesecake cupcake was really soft and it had cream cheese baked into it which had risen to the top and was a really sharp contrast to the topping which was really creamy and chocolatey. The cake was really neatly decorated and looked really sophisticated. I really enjoyed it with a cup of coffee outside the National Gallery. Paul's minty cake was nice and moist and fresh.

We would definitely go back to Bibis and would really recommend their cupcakes. At £1.50 an absolutely brilliant value treat.

I am afraid we didn't take any pictures of our cupcakes but there was a gorilla drumming in the street nearby! Random but true!

Blackpool Imperial Afternoon Tea

2011-02-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

Well our resolve to steam into our blog has lapsed I am afraid due to Christmas and busy times down at Fantasy Cupcakes.

So our review of our afternoon tea at The Imperial Hotel in Blackpool on November 14th 2010 is retrospective by a full 3 months! Whoops.

But no matter..........

We had had a lovely big full English breakfast at The Imperial that morning and so we decided not to have any lunch and to partake of the hotel's afternoon tea.

We ate in the foyer of the hotel which was very grand and comfortable. We were sat on comfy leather chairs and the waiter brought the afternoon tea on a dining trolley with a nice cloth on it. The tea consisted of a sandwich each (cut in half). I had tuna and cucumber, and Paul had ham and tomato. These were OK, nothing unusual but nice all the same. We got a bowl of crisps too.

Cake-wise there was the obligatory scone which was home-made and came with butter, jam and fresh whipped cream. There was also a fruit tart and a slice of chocolate loaf cake. The scone was very nice and seemed home-made but the other cakes didn't. Though they were pleasant enough.

We also had a pot of tea which was served in plain white cups (not china).

The afternoon cost £20 for both of us and it was filling and perfectly adequate. So value-wise we couldn't complain and it certainly filled a gap. But I wouldn't say it was worth a special trip!

The Adventure Begins

2010-11-15T14:47:00.000-08:00

For the love of 'the afternoon tea'. That's how the idea formed.

Actually......it began in the lounge of The Imperial Hotel in Blackpool during an afternoon tea this weekend. Paul and I enjoyed a lovely 'golden' weekend (decadant and child free - sorry kids!). We went for a bracing November walk into Blackpool and went to the top of Blackpool Tower (apparently the last people to do so until next September as they are renovating the top and building a glass-floored 'Blackpool Eye'), and we then made our way back to the hotel.

Having enjoyed a mammoth late breakfast we didn't really want a big evening meal so we decided to indulge in The Imperial's afternoon tea. We not only enjoyed the food and drink involved in the afternoon tea, we enjoyed the occasion and it occured to use that this was not only having some butties, cake and tea after lunch, it was as much about the experience.

Although we both love eating out and of course cake, our experiences of actual afternoon teas is limited.

So in view of the resurgence of the phenomena, and our desire to explore it, we decided it would be good excuse if we wrote a blog detailing our afternoon tea exploits.

So here it is................