Afternoon Tea at Thoresby Hall, Nottinghamshire

A couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure of sampling a lovely afternoon tea at the beautiful Thoresby Hall.

Thoresby Hall is set in the magnificent Victorian grounds of the Throesby Hall Estate in the Nottinghamshire countryside and is a stunning setting for a peaceful Sunday afternoon. The beautifully decorated Great Hall, where the afternoon tea is served, is fitted with magnificent chandeliers and has several large windows which allow you to take in the stunning views of the estate as you dine.

Very grand indeed! I momentarily felt like I’d stepped on to the set of Downton Abbey!

All the staff at Thoresby Hall were welcoming and friendly, right from the waitress serving our table to the hotel receptionist who greeted us when we first entered. Those of you who have been to Thoresby Hall before, will probably appreciate how enormous it can appear to a first time visitor and we did get ‘slightly’ lost trying to find the Great Hall, but the (several) staff we asked for help along the way were really approachable. In fact, even during the initial booking phone call I was impressed by how friendly and professional the staff were. Top marks from me for customer service :) 

So now onto the important bit…the food…

Immediately, after serving our teas (I opted for a traditional English breakfast tea this time) the waitress brought over our cake stand, which included the sandwiches, cakes and a separate tray of warm scones…

For the sandwiches we of course requested the vegetarian selection. While all the sandwiches were nice, I felt the fillings were a little on the unimaginative side consisting of standard cheese, cucumber or egg mayo fillings on white bread. Nothing to write home about, but I guess I should be grateful that there was a veggie selection at all!

As for the cakes they were scrumptious! We received a  Shortbread, Chocolate cluster slice, Lemon Meringue pie, Caramel slice and Blueberry cake. 

All the sweet treats were well made and a very reasonable size! My favourite one had to be the lemon meringue pie and followed by the more basic chocolate clusters, which are an all-time favourite of mine.

There was a selection of strawberries with cream - a surprising, yet pleasant addition to the  afternoon tea!

The selection of plain and fruit scones were equally generous and delicious. Unfortunately, I could only manage one as I was well and truly stuffed after gorging on the sandwiches and cakes. The waitress offered to pack our leftover scones in a box for us to take home, a really nice gesture and something which most hotels don’t do. A definite 10/10 for service! However, by that point we couldn’t think about having any more food, so we turned down the offer - thinking about it now I could really do with a cream tea while writing this post!

I just love how traditional the hotel looks, reminds me a bit of an Agatha Christie novel for some reason!

The waitress also told us we were free to stay and explore the hotels grounds after our tea experience. Thoresby hall has 30 acres of gardens, making it the perfect opportunity to shed some of those extra calories accumulated during the afternoon tea. But surprise surprise due to the British weather the outdoors felt more like you had been transported to Antarctica (I may be exaggerating a little) It would have been lovely to walk the hotel grounds on a spring or summers day, but unfortunately I couldn’t face an outdoor stroll on that particular day given the freezing weather conditions. I did, however brave the cold for a split second so I could take some photos! 

I admit ever since I went to the ever so posh Langham for afternoon tea I have become rather snobbish when it comes to afternoon tea. Yet, I genuinely think Thoresby Hall’s afternoon tea experience is just as amazing and much more reasonably priced. In terms of pricing I believe it is £39 for two people to enjoy the tea. If you want to go for a filling traditional afternoon tea located in beautiful quintessentially English surroundings then this is a perfect place!

See you next time for more of my ramblings 

xx

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Easter Nest Cupcakes

Happy Easter! 

Easter is one of my favourite times of the year, not only do we get an extra-long weekend the Easter bunny aka my mum always treats me to some yummy chocolate eggs. It’s a great excuse to indulge myself…not that I need one!

I hope the Easter bunny has been kind to you as well. If you haven’t received any chocolate eggs or still have space left after scoffing yours why not do some Easter baking. I, for one, don’t need an excuse for baking and have an infinite sweet tooth. Today I decided to make some really simple Easter Cupcakes. 

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:  
110g Butter
110g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
110g Self-Raising Flour
1-2 tbsp milk
For the topping:
Nutella
150g Chocolate
100g Rice Krispies (alternatively you could use shredded wheat)
3 tbsps Peanut Butter (my secret ingredient)
Packet of Mini Eggs 

Method 

For the cupcakes:

Step One: Firstly, preheat the oven to 180C

Step Two: Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl, then beat the eggs in a little at a time

Step Three: Fold the flour in using a metal spoon, then add the milk until the mixture is a soft dropping consistency.

Step Four: Spoon the mixture into some cupcake cases and pop in the oven for about 15 minutes. This mixture should make 12 cupcakes :) 

For the topping:

Step One: Once the cupcakes have cooled completely spread a smooth layer of Nutella all over the cupcakes, in order to stick the nests to the cupcakes. 

Step Two: Melt 150g of chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave at 20 second intervals. I feel this is the easiest way, but you can use a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water if you feel more comfortable doing it that way.

Step Three: Mix together the melted chocolate and rice krispie's.

Step Four: To make these cupcakes extra special add 3 tbsps of peanut butter and mix thoroughly. 

Step Five: Place 2 teaspoonfuls full of the rice krispie mixture onto each cupcake and decorate with mini eggs. I had alot of the mixture left, so I just placed them in some cupcake cases. 

Enjoy...

If you make this Easter treat be sure to tweet me a picture :) Hope you've all had a great Easter break!

See you next time for more of my ramblings! xx

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