My husband planned a trip to London Town for myself, our son and my Mum. The reason to celebrate the fact that I was yet another year older, something I'd rather forget about, as age is just a number, but my family have other ideas.
This trip was not like one of our normal jaunts to the Capital City, where we take a packed lunch and wander around some of the HOT touristy spots. We were having Afternoon Tea in the Palm Court at The Langham Hotel. The hotel is situated north of Regent Street just off Portland Place and directly opposite the BBC's Broadcasting House.
Our tea table was booked for 3.15pm. The hotel has two afternoon tea sittings, one at 1.00pm and one at 3.15pm and at 5.15pm there is a sitting for High Tea which is slightly different to Afternoon Tea, because it includes several hot dishes as opposed to sandwiches, cakes & pastries.
Upon arrival at the hotel our coats were taken from us by a member of staff and taken to the cloakroom. We were then shown to our little round corner table where we would participate in that afternoon's session, along with other people, some were on a shopping trip, others like me were celebrating birthdays that they would like to forget and some were there just for the sheer fun of it.
When seated at our table we were each given a menu to peruse and choose which tea menu we wished to eat and which blend of tea we would like to accompany our forthcoming meal. We all opted for the "Wonderland Tea".
My husband and myself chose the "Afternoon Tea Blend", my Mum chose the "Decaffeinated Tea Blend" and my son who doesn't drink tea was offered Orange Squash or Hot Chocolate. He chose the Hot Chocolate. We were also asked if there were any dietary requirements within our party and our orders for tea were taken and whilst we chatted about the decor in the tea room as we waited.
A few minutes later a young waitress placed four small glass dishes on the table which were filled halfway with a creamy coloured concoction with a tiny flake of gold on the top for decoration. It was, in fact, Lemon Posset, a tangy fool, which is a traditional British Classic made with eggs, cream, sugar and lemons to produce a thick custard with a citrus bite to cleanse the pallet.
When we had all finished the tiny dishes were collected and the drinking tea was served quickly followed by plates of savoury sandwiches and small bread rolls.
The small round rolls were filled with a mixture of prawn and crabmeat in a seafood sauce. The finger rolls were filled with egg mayonnaise and cress. The sandwiches were roasted beef with tomato, salmon on rye, and roasted chicken with coronation sauce on granary malted bread.
At the end of the sandwich course we were offered more, but we all felt that we had to leave some room in our tummies for the scones, cakes and pastry delights that were to follow so we declined.
The entertainment for the afternoon was provided by the Hotel's pianist who played a good mixture of tunes, old and modern including a recent hit from Pink, to which my son happily sung along to, he was a hit with the young waitresses and several complimented him on his singing voice.
The next course was a basket of freshly baked plain and fruited scones. They were still warm when they were placed on the table and there were enough for two each.
These were served with soft strawberry preserves and Devonshire clotted cream. They were as light as feathers and tasted divine.
When we finished the scones with the jam and cream we were offered a wonderful assortment of desserts, cakes and pastries. The tall rocket shapes were like strawberry mousse rockets topped with tiny meringue buttons. There were mango and vanilla pastries on shortbread bases, which my son referred to as the "egg yolk cakes". The poppy seed cakes were unusual and to be honest I wasn't awfully keen. The deep dark chocolate boxes were made from chocolate pastry and filled with a dark chocolate ganache, topped with fresh raspberries, they were very rich and I was glad that they were small and dainty.
For the cakes that we didn't eat at the table the hotel provided a very classy 'doggy bag', shaped like a golden handbag for us to transport them home in.
Our Afternoon Tea was priced at £40.00 per adult and £20.00 per child, we thought it was good value for the money, and a nice way to spend some time with the family and celebrate a birthday.
