Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea at the Sanderson Hotel

As a 'twixmas' meet-up, my friends and I decided to go out for afternoon tea. I had done lots of research on the best afternoon teas in London (I had no idea there were so many!) and found a fantastic sounding Mad Hatter's Afternoon tea at the Sanderson hotel, just off Oxford Street. I booked a table and was glad that I did, as the traditional time of around 4 o'clock was completely booked up. I would definitely recommend booking if you are planning on attending afternoon tea anywhere, as this gives you the opportunity to let them know if you have any special requirements, like a birthday or a particular celebration.

When we arrived we were seated on a high table on stools with a view into the courtyard with a large fountain. Some people were sat outside in marquees with patio heaters having their afternoon tea, however I think being inside definitely had its benefits, as it wasn't long after Christmas! Once we were seated, the waiter arrived with a selection of teas to cheese from. The loose leaves were contained in small glass bottles with labels, and you were asked to smell them to make your tea choice. I chose peppermint and dark chocolate, however the other flavours sounded equally delicious with strawberry and cream and rhubarb and custard. 

Playful and beautiful crockery

The menu for the tea was displayed in a vintage book, and the sugar cubes were kept in a music box with a rotating ballerina that tinkled and played a song when it was opened. The tea arrived in a large teapot with a paper crown, and the beautiful crockery set it off perfectly. Next, the sandwiches and three tier cake stand arrived filled with all sorts of delicious goodies, and we spent a fantastic couple of hours exploring all of the different layers and devouring all of the delicious items.

The menu hidden in a vintage book

The 'Drink me' Potion: A mixture of passion fruit, mango and tropical flavours

Bottom Tier: The 'Drink 'Me' potion, dark chocolate edible cups with white chocolate and green tea mousse, savoury olive scones with herb butter and sweet scones with a hint of cinnamon with clotted cream and strawberry jam

Middle Tier: Victoria Sponge 'Clock' cakes and mango cheesecake served in a white chocolate curve

Top Tier: Marshmallow mushrooms and meringue carrots hidden in a teacup amongst green shoots

Savoury: Sandwiches and quiche of the day. My favourite was the smoked salmon and cream cheese on lime bread, absolutely delicious!

This was a fantastic place to go and experience afternoon tea. Not only was it an unusual and stunning concept, but you never felt rushed or uncomfortable. You were allowed to order unlimited tea, sandwiches and sweet scones, and nothing was too much trouble for any of the staff. The dress code was smart casual with groups of girls like us, families and even big birthdays catered for. The atmosphere was lovely and I would highly recommend it for any occasion you could think of. I'm already thinking of planning another trip...!

The Boxing Day Meet

On Boxing Day we headed to my parents house, and from then went out for a lovely walk to clear the cobwebs of Christmas Day. Our route took us over the fields, through a very muddy copse and along winding country roads. As we came up the hill towards Castle Ashby, we were met with the sound of hooves and barking, as down the hill towards us came the full Boxing Day meet, proceeded by a pack of around 50 hounds! 

I took the following pictures as they rode down the hill away from us, hounds first, then the leaders in their distinctive red jackets (Apparently these are the hunt staff, Male masters and those who have been given their hunt button) followed by the others in their equally traditional hunting jackets in navy, black and traditional country greens and browns. 

You can write the things I know about hunting and horses on the back of a postage stamp, but it was a great addition to our walk, and gave us something to tell the rest of the family about when we got back to the pub over a nice glass of Aspalls! 

A Weekend of Baking...Tunis cake and Chocolate and Apricot Pudding

For our first Christmas, I have been carefully meal planning for the big day, and today I have been making two of the not so traditional elements to our first Christmas dinner, Tunis Cake and an Apricot and Chocolate sponge pudding. Neither David or I are fond of the traditional fruit equivalents of these desserts, so I decided to make something different.

The Tunis cake was first baked in the 1930's in Scotland, a traditional sponge cake covered with a thick layer of chocolate. Subsequent versions had marzipan fruits added as decorations, however I stuck to a traditional recipe of a moist madeira sponge cake with almonds and lemon zest, a thick and luscious chocolate ganache topping and white chocolate piped decorations. They're rather rustic, but I like them!

The cake was very simple to make and was baked in a basic 8" cake tin. Once the cake had cooled completely I covered it with a thick layer of chocolate and cream and allowed that to set again. Then to finish it off I piped some decorations on using white chocolate and allowed it all to set completely before removing it from the tin and onto a serving plate. A cake lifter or a couple of fish slices are essential at this point, as you can't turn it upside down to get it neatly onto a cake board, you'd end up with a very chocolatey hand and ruin all of your hard work.

I came across the Apricot and Chocolate pudding on the internet, and thought that it would be a perfect end to our Christmas dinner. It involved soaking apricots in brandy, (Honestly, it's awful!) then putting half at the bottom of a greased bowl, then chopping the rest into the chocolate sponge mixture along with extra chocolate chunks and ground almonds. As this is a steamed sponge pudding, it needs a double layer of buttered greaseproof paper tied on with string then a layer of foil over the top. This is very challenging if you don't have another pair of hands and as I tried practically lying on top of it to keep the paper in place whilst I anchored it with the string, I thought of an idea!

Put an elastic band over the top of the greaseproof to keep it in place. Then tie your string tightly around the bowl to secure the greaseproof paper, pulling it taught like a drum across the top. You can then snip off the elastic band with a pair of scissors and you're all sorted! Then cover everything with a layer of foil and tuck the ends up under the greaseproof paper.

To steam the pudding you can either use a large saucepan, or I used my slow cooker. First pre-heat the slow cooker empty on high for 15 minutes, otherwise you risk the bowl cracking when you pour in the boiling water. Place the pudding into the body of the slow cooker and pour boiling water halfway up the sides, then put the lid on and leave it to steam on high for the time stated in the recipe. 

As I write the pudding is currently steaming away. This dessert can be made up to two days in advance, then on the day I shall add it back to the slow cooker, again pre-heating it and adding boiling water and steaming for an hour, before serving with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream, I can't wait!

Christmas party outfit...From sketch to dress

This year I organised our work Christmas party, and to be just a bit different, I asked my mum to make my outfit. I have always loved guipere lace, and wanted this to be the main fabric for the dress. I sketched out a design based on two amazing dresses I had seen, one by Oscar de le Renta and another by Sue Wong, and between my mum and I we found a pattern that could be adapted. 

Guipere lace can be very expensive, so I was thrilled when I found a listing on ebay for some beautiful silver guipere lace that wouldn't cost the earth and was being sold in this country. I was a bit dubious about not being able to handle it before I bought it, however I ordered a sample and rang the fabric shop to talk to them about it directly, which really put my mind at rest. My mum sourced the draping weight nude jersey to use as the lining from a trader in Kettering, which was a perfect base for the delicate lace.

 The original sketch for the dress had crystals around the neckline, which I took off a bodice that I beaded for my 6th form prom, and ostrich feather trim around the hem. However, when it came to sourcing all of the different elements, the feathers worked out to be very expensive, so I changed the design to include a double layer of silver fringe.

As with any project or design, alterations are made constantly throughout the process, and in the end, we decided to keep the neckline plain, as the lace was so beautiful we didn't want to clutter it with extra decoration. The fringe was also a great decision as it gave a weight to the hem that made the dress sit correctly, and it was fab to swish around when I was dancing. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year...Christmas decorations

Of all the things I have been looking forward to about owning my own home, decorating for Christmas has definitely been on top of the list! I have been collecting various decorations over the past year, and I was really looking forward to being able to display them, but it wasn't until we bought the tree that I really began to get excited. 

We bought a 4ft artifical tree (I can't be doing with pine needles everywhere) to sit under the velux window in the lounge which gave us some extra space, then laid out all of the decorations on the coffee table to make a start. The trend this year in Christmas decor has been for oversized decorations, so more by luck than judgement (but don't tell anyone...!) my decorations looked perfect! I love the Scandinavian look mixed with gold and silver, so with a mixture of white lights, silver tinsel and a lovely little glass angel that was a gift from my Nan, I think the finished tree looked perfect

I also wanted to buy a bower for the top of the bookshelves going up the stairs, and we found a beautiful one in John Lewis with frosted fir cones, shimmering branches and icy twigs. It was challenging and frustrating trying to attach the bower at the right angle to the wood, as we had to screw hooks into the bookshelf, and then twist thick garden wire though the bower to attach it horizontally to the wood. At first we couldn't get it at the right angle and it kept falling forward, but once it was attached and garlanded with battery powered white lights, I was more than happy with it. 

My new apron from Griff's

To get ourselves in the Christmas spirit, we visited the Castle Ashby Gardens Crafts for Christmas fair. It was held in the gardens outside the beautiful Castle Ashby house grounds, and promised a selection of local craft stalls as well as live reindeer for the children, although I think they were more of a draw for the adults with their jingle bell harnesses and tinsel garlands!

I was really surprised and happy to see how busy it was, as it is a fantastic place to visit and it was great to see so many different examples of local crafts and meet some of the fascinating people who make them. On our second time around the marquees, I spotted an apron stall in the corner. Griff's is a Northampton based company who make beautiful aprons based on the heritage of the towns shoemaking past. They have a fantastic section on their website which explains all about how they make, design and reference the heritage in each of their aprons, so why not go ahead and have a look. https://griffshomemade.co.uk

They had a lovely selection of very well made and designed aprons, all named after local locations. I chose the Stanwick, a gorgeous deep aubergine colour with a deep patterned front pocket with smaller pencil pocket and a clasp on the neck strap. I was so pleased with my purchase that I wore it the very next day to cook my first family dinner for seven in The Nest!

A Weekend of Baking...Yellow rose cake

This week it was my Nan's birthday, and to celebrate, I am holding my first Sunday lunch for the family tomorrow at The Nest! (Eeeek!) On the menu are four different kind of pies, Steak and Ale, Chicken and Sausage meat with caramelised red onion, chicken, smoked bacon and leek and a roasted vegetarian pie with humous (kindly made by my Mum) with mashed potatoes and vegetables, a perfect winter Sunday lunch.

As it is a birthday meal, it wouldn't be complete without a birthday cake, so this week I have been working on a square lemon drizzle cake which was requested by my Nan. She requested the flavour but didn't specify any decoration, so I was free to create! She has always loved yellow roses, so I decided to incorporate those into the cake design. I love making sugar paste roses, and any excuse to practice some modelling I can't wait!

I chose a pale buttercup yellow for the roses and a dark bottle green for the leaves, as naturally rose leaves are a glossy dark green. I made these using rose leaf cutters with veiners, and then made my roses using a plastic wallet to smooth out the petals and then hand moulding the rest.

As I have said before, my lemon drizzle cake recipe is very moist, and when it came to getting it out of the tin it did take a little bit of coaxing! Getting the crumb coat on was also a challenge, as when spreading the buttercream, crumbs were coming off as fast as it was going on. However patience is required at this stage as your buttercream will look uneven and lumpy if you don't get it right at this rage. An icing smoother will help, but a smooth base will give the best finish.

As you can see from the image above, there were a couple of bits in my cake that I wasn't able to smooth as parts of the cake had come away with the butter icing. It was a shame that I couldn't fix it, but with carefully placed decorations, no one will ever know!

Covering the cake was challenging, as I always find square cakes more difficult. To get a really clean and crisp square shape, you need to cut separate panels and then join them together at the edges and corners, however I prefer the slightly more rounded look, and once it is smooth, it looks good. 

Sometimes, the cake cards that you buy are bigger than your finished cake as they are measured against the size of the actual tin. Mine did show as you can see from the image above, however with my design, I was able to cover them up using my rose decorations which was very lucky! I was really pleased with the final design of the cake and how it turned out. I just hope it tastes as good as it looks and that my nan likes it.