The most amazing afternoon tea

So readers of this blog will know that for my 40th birthday I went for afternoon tea with Mr Birks at Selfridges.  Well, last week I had an afternoon tea experience with my best friend Paula, which made the Selfridges one look highly boring in comparison even though it was served on a picnic bench!  On a Friday afternoon, we experienced the Science themed afternoon tea at The Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington.  The hotel's proximity to both the Science Museum and The Natural History Museum explains the science theme and it featured dinosaurs, fossils, planets and spacemen.

When the afternoon tea arrived, I didn't think I could be any more excited, it had little jellies served in a petri dish, a chocolate spaceman and rocket ship, a planet balanced on chocolate cake and a series of test tubes with different toppings inside.  However, I was wrong.  When the waiter magically made the dry ice appear, I was like an uncontrollable child with excitement.


The food was delicious.  The plate of savouries featured a crisp parmesan basket with chicken caesar salad filling, a bonbon of crab (I mean, who really eats bonbon of crab?), a small, beautifully short, quiche with goats cheese filling and crayfish and asparagus served on tiny toast.  We savoured each item tasting everything and tried to decide what our favourites were - I still can't decide now, everything was so nice and felt really special.  The science theme wasn't obvious here but trying tiny, yummy food is always going to be exciting, right?


The tea was again English Breakfast and I really enjoyed it and later had a second pot.  We also had champagne and a little cocktail later on which was all a bit spendy but we had such a fantastic time and spent several hours 'taking' our tea, it was well worth the money.

We saved the scones until last knowing that we might not be able to eat everything we had been given (in fact, we did take away a doggy bag and I ate a scone for breakfast the next day), so we continued with the top and most exciting tier.  I loved the crescent fondant fancy which looked so pretty (such a lovely colour) and yes, in this picture a macaron!  This really was perfect - no dry macarons here!



A lovely surprise was the minty flavour of the planet on chocolate cake, it was filled with mousse and had a very light and refreshing taste.  I have got a huge sweet tooth but it was nice to have something with a fresh taste.  There was something hidden in the middle of the planet but we couldn't agree on what it was - something nutty or crispy?


I haven't yet mentioned the dinosaur box.  It was so, so cute!  The little biscuits were almond shortbread and hidden underneath were two chocolate fossils which we found by brushing away the 'earth'.  Again very exciting - everyone likes playing with their food right?

So having said in my last blog about afternoon tea that I would like to try lots more, I think this one will be very hard to beat.  It was so very special (I haven't even mentioned all of it!) and both the sweet and savoury pastries were so delicious, I'm not sure I'll find another to compete.  I will (obviously) keep trying though!

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