#41 The CHARITY CHRISTMAS TEA

The Charity Christmas Tea – Friday 16th December 2016      

Hawcoat Park Social Club, Barrow-in-Furness Cumbria £15 for Afternoon Tea

Initially I was a bit concerned about blogging about this Tea. Firstly because it was the start of our Works Christmas Party and therefore I was unsure if the attendees would be happy with my remarks going public, and secondly because as a charitable enterprise I felt that it was probably a bit mean of me to judge it against the other teas. However, due to popular demand on the night and having decided to just abandon the scoring system in this instance I felt I could commit myself to paper. I am also breaking with tradition as I don’t usually name names to spare the blushes of the innocent but in this case certain demands were made with regard to starring roles and I am ever one to try and please.

On arrival we were offered a glass of prosecco and our tables were already laid out with a fair mountain of food and decorated festively. Tea and coffee was in plentiful supply, but not one to mix my drinks I stuck to prosecco and managed to score 3 glasses from people not attending or not wanting theirs. Result!

As everything was already in front of us we tucked in with alacrity and soon wolfed down the sandwiches. I had cheese savoury and a prawn one which were both lovely and fresh and Joanna was very complimentary about the turkey and cranberry and insisted I told you she was. Lyn also was very impressed with the mixed bread ham and held it very carefully so I could take a photo to show you.

It was at this point my prosecco started talking for me and I was very insistent that people followed the ‘Way of the Tea’ and loudly berated anyone who dared to eat their scone before having cakes.

Sorry everyone, I was a bit over excited.

The cakes were lovely too. A good selection was on offer, and far too many to try one of each. So first off I had a crispy chewy mini meringue, which was lovely, a big-ish slice of bakewell and finished with a fruit tart, that was tangy and creamy. Sara, who is a girl who is quite choosy with her cake consumption, had a big chocolate cupcake with a malteaser cheekily perched on top and pronounced it delicious, moist and very chocolatey.

I was ready for my scone and I had already made allowance for the cream being whipped so was pleased to see butter and jam as well as the cream. A good show and plenty to make fat scones for all. There was some discussion about whether the butter was necessary. It is of course and anyone who thought the opposite was politely shown the error of their ways. It was a lovely scone too, fruity, moist and full of flavour.

There was festive music from a piano in the corner and a raffle to keep our spirits high. Joe won a diary and unsurprisingly Jo won a bottle of wine, which actually did end up coming home with me as it was looking very lonely and I have other bottles to keep it company. As a lovely festive treat at the end we were served with steaming glasses of mulled wine, a mince pie and Christmas cake. What excellent value for money.

So it was time to move on. The party animals were off to continue carousing into the wee small hours and piled into taxis in a scuffle of coats, bags and cheer. Kisses were liberally distributed, and festive wishes exchanged (and thank you Jack for telling me I scrub up well….) and another school term was over.

I think I need this break to recover…

Overall marks (out of 5 stars)

Service:

Amount of Food:               I’m not marking this one as it was for charity and it would seem mealy

Quality of Food:                mouthed if I did. The food was lovely, loads of it and the people

Value for money:              serving us were friendly and lovely and we had a great time.

Description:

The website is here for Hawcoat Park so you can keep an eye out for next year http://hawcoatpark.co.uk/

 

And my suggested track for today’s tea is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgiNWfLZH2A

 

 

#24 The DEFINITELY FESTIVE TEA

The Definitely Festive Tea – Saturday 19^th December 2015      

Roundthorn Country House, Penrith, £14.95

I had been looking forward to this one all week. My trusty Afternoon Tea finder and wedding photographer extraordinaire Steve Hillman (http://www.shphotographer.co.uk/) had shared this little gem after he photographed a wedding there. Although I am convinced he does it to ensure I stay portly, he very kindly shares some lovely venues for my blog that he has discovered. I was looking for a setting to help me imbibe a little festive spirit as I have been decidedly Grinch like recently and, needing a North Lakes location as I was meeting my long standing partner in crime S, this looked like it would fit the bill nicely.

After a bit of a kerfuffle finding the place (we drove past the driveway) involving a bit of a detour through a puddle and down a lane we arrived at the impressively fronted Georgian building. Inside it was warm and cosy with a crackling fire and a pretty Christmas tree. We were quickly served with drinks, hot chocolate for me and the Bird and coffee for S and her lovely daughter A. Beverages were plentiful throughout the afternoon and we had orange juice, decaf coffee and tea as well so we were well lubricated. Their coffee machine was playing tricks but the staff were prompt and apologetic with replacements so we were in no way inconvenienced.

Having notified them in advance of my lack of meat eating, when the cake stands arrived I was presented with my own plate of fresh sandwiches. This gave us an enormous variety to choose from, S and I tucked in heartily. The girls are a bit fussier and wouldn’t eat things with salad, things that looked a funny colour to them or generally anything resembling proper food. Typical teenagers! What a huge variety to choose from though. Forgive me if I don’t remember them all but we had chunky egg mayo, turkey and cranberry, ham and pickle, cheese savoury, brie and cranberry, salad and smoked salmon. All fresh, on springy bread and all very nice indeed.

As has been noted before S is a bit of a rebel to The Order of The Cake and went with the scone first. She loves her scones though and didn’t want to miss out having stuffed too much cake beforehand. And there was rather a lot of cake, perched on a precarious silver cake stand that wobbled every time we took something off so there was a bit of stealthy jenga strategy employed to ensure things didn’t leap onto the table.

I went with a slice of carrot cake first. It was moist and sweet with a nice cream cheese frosting covered with crunchy nuts. I followed this with some caramel shortbread that had lovely gooey thick caramel and a crumbly base. Next was a meringue with vanilla cream, fruit coulis in the base and fresh fruit on top. It was sweet, chewy and fruity and light as a feather.

So now it was my turn to be a bit of a rebel and go with the scone next. This was partly because I wanted to eat it whilst it was still warm and partly because I wanted to save the really festive part to the end. So rebel I did. It was not too big, with fruity jam and whipped cream, again with a hint of vanilla. I was almost prepared to forgive the lack of clotted as this scent of vanilla was a gorgeous addition to my feast, especially as my fat scone had a strawberry perched on top. But only almost, my love of the clotted remains intact.

As the afternoon wore on and darkened the Christmassy atmosphere intensified with twinkly lights and the small room became busy with a Christmas works party rowdy with alcohol and fattened with cake. I felt sufficiently festive and ventured a thick finger of fruity boozy Christmas Cake which hit the right note, and followed it with a warm, succulent mince pie. The pastry was oven fresh and buttery and finished the tea perfectly.

Our girls had eaten daintily, S and I had feasted mightily. There was quite a spread left over and the friendly staff kindly provided bags for us to squirrel away our best bits so I was able to enjoy a mince pie later that evening. As we weren’t quite ready to leave we adjourned to the bar area to lounge on sofas and embarrass the girls with singing songs from out past Youth Theatre triumphs including selected highlights from ‘The Matchgirls’ complete with dance moves, cackling and innuendo.

All too soon it was time to hit the dreary road back home, aqua-planing along rain drenched motorway squinting into the darkness whilst being buffeted by mighty side-winds over Shap summit. Not your traditional Christmas weather I give you. The long journey, even in that weather, was worth it though. Obviously to see S but also for the Tea itself which was plentiful and certainly a jolly start to the season.

 

Overall marks (out of 5 stars)

Service:                                ****        Friendly, helpful and patient

Amount of Food:               ***1/2    A generous amount, although the girls didn’t eat much

Quality of Food:                ****        Lovely fresh food, some straight from the oven

Value for money:              ****        Brilliant value

Description:                       ‘Very festive’ ‘Loads of cake’

Their website is here http://www.roundthorn.co.uk/

They are on Trip Advisor http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186328-d209907-Reviews-Roundthorn_Country_House-Penrith_Lake_District_Cumbria_England.html   they are also on Facebook and Twitter

 

And my suggested track for today’s tea is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A8KT365wlA