Tea at The Dorechester

A couple of months ago, I was invited to London to celebrate my mum's friends 50th Birthday, with afternoon tea at The Dorchester Hotel. We spent the morning visiting the Charles Dickens museum at 48 Doughty Street in London, a quick mooch around Harrods and then on to the hotel!

    

We were greeted at the lobby to the hotel then taken into the long gallery shaped space where the afternoon tea was served. At the entrance they had two huge floral displays with hundreds of lillies and roses that gave off the most amazing scent, they were so big they nearly touched the ceiling, and were at least twice the size of me!

As a large party we had a long table, and I sat on the comfiest squishiest sofa I have ever had the pleasure of sitting on. The staff will bring you extra cushions and plump them for you if needed (!) then it's on to the tea. (That's me on the left!)

First decision to make is from the baffling array of how many hundreds of types of tea you can think of. I had a gorgeous mint infusion that cam in a massive tea pot, quite possibly the most tea I have ever drunk in one sitting! And then on came the food. Those of you thinking that afternoon tea is far too expensive and you'll never be full up, think again! You can have 10 sandwiches, many scones, lots of cake and more tea than you can ever drink, all in the gorgeous surroundings of a very plush hotel. Some of the photos below show some of the amazing cakes, amuse bouches and all of the lovely crockery that we were presented with during our tea. I love the pretty green and gold china, so elegant.

The above was a little chocolate pot filled with a tasty chocolate coffee cream and a gold dusted coffee bean, so delicious!

The only downside to our tea was that you only get a one hour and 30 minute slot, and then they will bring you the bill wether you are ready for it or not! I was very happy to sit there with my tea all afternoon, but apparently that was not an option. Also, make sure that you have the right cash on you, as if you want to pay by card, you have to get up and go to the front desk to play, a bit annoying if you're still enjoying your last slurp of tea.

However as an experience it was perfect, and a wonderful way to celebrate a 50th Birthday. I think everybody should do this at least once in their lives. Go and soak up the atmosphere of one of the Great British institutions that is afternoon tea at The Dorchester.

My Birthday Cake 2013

Whoops! I have realized it's not just over a month since my last post, to be fair it was my birthday at the end of June so it was a little hectic, but now I have some time to sit down and show you my Birthday cake!

I have made my own cake for the last couple of years, so I decided that this year was no exception.

Inspired by a cake design I had seen in a Peggy Porschen book, I decided to create a domed birthday cake. I bought a special mould from Lakeland, and the following images show how the bake turned out!

1. I used a standard quantity of my favourite vanilla chocolate marble cake in the mould, however in hindsight, perhaps a quantity and a half would have been better, the overall cake was a little on the small side. I balanced the tin on a crumpet ring and put that on a baking tray in the oven to stop it rolling around.

2. I then cut the cake in half and filled it full of chocolate butter cream (one of my favourites!) Always easier to do this in a blender as then the icing sugar doesn't go everywhere and you can get it really soft and fluffy. I then used the other half of the butter cream to cover the cake completely, forming a crumb coat for the icing to stick to.

3. I also decided this year that I would cover the cake board which very simply meant covering it in a layer of icing. I did do this all in one day and quickly realised it would have been best to do this the day before and leave it to harden and dry, as it was very easy to mark with fingers or tools. I also think adding a border of ribbon around the side of the cake board would add an extra professional touch.

4. To make my scalloped border, I cut out a long strip of icing the correct width and length, and then used the plain side of a cutter to make the scallops. I found it was quite difficult to get the scallops the same all the way along, so I would recommend using a clean ruler to make a slight imprint along the rectangle as far down as you want your scallops to go, and then use that as a guide. Mine were a bit higgeldy piggeldy, but who doesn't love a bit of that!

5. I then used my little icing flowers that I had made the previous weekend. I added one to the point of every scallop, sticking them to the cake with a strong mixture of icing sugar and water. Tip: Don't make it too runny or the flowers will just fall off, and nobody has that many fingers to hold them all in place until it all dries! I then put my sugar roses and leaves on the crown, and used a couple as decoration on the sides at the base.

6. The finished cake was delicious, it cut well, held its shape, and there was just enough of everything to make it taste amazing! I kept the cake on its stand under a light wrapping of foil and it kept its freshness for a good week and half, and even after that it was still pretty tasty! All in all a hit I would say.