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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Mother's Day Party

*hangs head down in shame* well that's my New Year’s resolution out the window. I'd like to apologise for not posting in a while, I just got caught up with A Levels.

With that said I'd like to wish all the amazing mummies out there a Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day is a time to treat that special lady in your life whether that's simply telling her to put her feet up for the day or treating her to a special meal. Unfortunately my mum is working today (boo) so we decided to be a bit different and celebrate Mother’s day on the Saturday.  Here are a few pictures from a little afternoon party we held for my lovely mum and grandmother.

I picked up these pretty pastel pink party plates and glasses from Asda for the party. I just fell in love with this range as soon as I saw it and they matched the flowers I brought for my Mum perfectly!

As my oven is currently broken (I think it’s down to baking cupcakes too often – oops!) we decided to pop over to M&S to buy an abundance of yummy sweet treats ...

And a few savoury treats to balance it out…

To add something a little healthy to the mix...raspberries with greek yoghurt …yummy!

You don't have to do anything fancy as at the end of the day it's the thought that counts and of course spending some quality time with your mum!

Hope you’re having a great Mother's Day treating your mummy :)

See you next time for more of my ramblings! 

xx

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A lovely gift...

Whittard Instant Tea Selection

If there is one thing about me that pretty much everyone around me knows it’s that I have 'slight' obsession with tea. So it was hardly a surprise when on my 17th Birthday I was inundated with tea inspired gifts: lots of cute mugs to enjoy my favourite tea in, afternoon tea vouchers and this lovely tea selection from Whittard’s courtesy of my friends :)

Whittard shops are a tea lover’s heaven, I love wandering around my local store and perusing all the items I would love to buy if only money were no object! So receiving this tea selection was a lovely treat for me. My birthday was back in November but I’ve only just got round to sampling all the teas and I thought I would share my views on the selection with fellow tea lovers out there :)

The one word to describe this selection of teas has to be ‘refreshing’. A couple of sips and I was left feeling re-energized and calmer- a perfect way to start the day or to unwind after a busy day writing a history essay!  As with any selection there were certain options that I definitely preferred over others:-

Dreamtime Instant Tea: This one is a blend of honey, apricot and vanilla. It was very soothing and would be perfect before bed (surprise surprise)

Cranberry & Raspberry Instant Tea: I could only taste the cranberry flavour in this tea. I found the cranberry flavour on its own rather sour.    

Turkish Apple Instant Tea: I personally don’t like apple flavoured drinks so this one was my least favourites. However, if you do like apple tea I’m sure you will like it better than I did!

English Fruits Instant Tea: This blend was one of favourites. Loved the fruity flavour: a combination of apple and strawberry. It also smelt amazing - I can’t get enough of it!

Blackcurrant & Elderflower Instant Tea: The blackcurrant flavour was very strong but I couldn’t taste the elderflower at all. 

Last but not least my absolute favourite flavour the Damson Plum - which I will definitely be repurchasing in the larger size! This one isn't as sweet as the others so perfect for a breakfast blend :)

On the packet it states how you should use 3 teaspoons of the powdered tea however I felt that was a bit too overpowering I found that 2 teaspoons were enough for the perfect cuppa!

The great thing about this selection is that it can be enjoyed all year round.  The tea can be drunk hot for a soothing treat during the winter months and cold for a refreshing summer iced tea. Would definitely recommend this selection as a gift for tea lover’s! 

On the topic of birthday presents here are some of the adorable mugs I received to add to my vast collection…

This Sunday I will be availing the afternoon tea vouchers for Thoresby Hall I received from my mum – can’t wait to share my experience with you all next time.

See you next time for more of my ramblings!

xx

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Afternoon Tea at The Pump Room in Bath

Happy New Year guys!

Been a while since my last post, so I thought I would kick off the New Year with an afternoon tea review. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, during my visit to the Bath Christmas Market last month I felt it was obligatory *wink* to have a spot of afternoon tea in one of Baths oldest and most elegant dining establishments. So as promised this week I will finally be reviewing my afternoon tea experience at the Pump Room in Bath!

The Pump Room was built above the roman baths in 1795 by Thomas Baldwin and John Palmer. Back in the day the Pump Room was a focal point of Georgian society – it was where the upper classes wined and dined after visiting the Roman Bath’s next door. The Pump Room is a Grade I listed building, which means the building is of exceptional historic importance.

The Pump Room really does live up to its reputation of elegance and class. As you can see from the pictures - it is an absolutely stunning building inside and out.

It has a definite old school charm and as soon you as enter the building it really does feel like you’ve been transported to a scene from a Jane Austen novel!

The Afternoon Tea is served between 2:30pm and 4:30pm and is priced at £21 for the traditional afternoon tea and £27.50 if you want to include a glass of champagne. During the weekend the Pump Room operates a queuing system so it is not possible to book in advance. We arrived at around 3pm and the waiter informed us that there was a 30 minute wait, which on an empty stomach felt like an eternity!

However, the wait did serve to increase the excitement and anticipation, as you edge closer and can see the relaxed diners in the restaurant and the queue getting longer behind you, you get the sense that you’re in for a truly special treat!

So what was the food like?

Sandwiches

Plenty of vegetarian sandwiches to go round, which were nice but nothing to write home about! If you don’t like cheese you wouldn’t be happy with the vegetarian sandwich line up as they were all traditional cheese fillings.

Scones

Cakes and Pastries 

There were four of us and two people shared a cake stand. As I have a quite an extravagant sweet tooth it was a little disappointing for me that there was only one of each choice so I couldn't try each of the sweet treats. I had to exercise a great deal of self-control!  I did however manage to sample each of the following yummy treats:

• Christmas Macaroon:  I have never tasted macaroons before so I was intrigued to see what all the fuss is about. This was one was certainly delicious, it had a rich chocolate ganache filling which was a pleasant surprise for me.
• Chocolate Éclair: Éclairs are my weakness so you can imagine the fight I put up to have this! And guess what…this one was shaped like a swan - very creative! I almost couldn’t bring myself to eat it but don’t worry I quickly overcame my hesitation :-)
• Fruit Tart: This was really refreshing and crumbly
• Cake: There was a lovely slice of chocolate cake topped with chocolate ganache which was very creamy and moist – a  perfect end to a lovely afternoon tea :) 

So did the Pump Room live up to the anticipation?

It absolutely did! The restaurant itself is incredibly posh and very quintessentially British. We were seated close to the pianist and really enjoyed the live classical music playing live. The service was brilliant and the food absolutely delicious.

It’s a great afternoon tea experience but a bit overpriced considering the amount and size of portions – but I guess you pay for the great service and ambience of the place. So overall I would definitely recommend a trip to the pump room if any of you ever take trip to Bath!

Hope you liked today's post :)

You can tweet me on twitter (@nishah_97) with any recommendations of afternoon tea’s you think I should try!

See you next time for more of my ramblings!

xx

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