



After spending one beautiful summer in Cornwall as a child, my addiction for both tea and cream teas began. Everywhere we went, my sister and I would order the biggest, creamiest tea on the menu, piling the scones high with jam and cream, then taking huge bites into these wonderful towers of creaminess.





During my recent trip to Oxford, i discovered how the tradition of English afternoon tea began, and decided i'd add it to this blog because it's interesting :). So, it all began with Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford in 1840, who at 4pm everyday got that 'sinking' feeling we all experience between lunch and dinner (dinner and tea, for the Northerners reading this!). One afternoon, during one particular 4pm starvation, she decided to pluck up the courage to ask her servants to bring a tray of tea, bread and butter, and a cake to her room. After deciding this was an amazing idea and getting into a bit of a habit and telling all of her friends, the English afternoon tea was born, and I definitely celebrate this tradition!





The cream tea addict inside me didn't stop there, a trip to bath- cream tea (amazing), London- cream tea (even more amazing), Sheffield- cream tea... I sniff them out... And with a trip to Oxford with The Mother looming, I sense there will be another one on the cards , and now in retrospect i can say there was one and it was good! :o) (Win!).





So, last week, one morning when the sun was actually shining, I created some lovely scones, and despite having to settle for butter, due to owning no jam or cream, i was reminded of what is now known as 'The cream tea challenge'. This was developed over years, of meticulous, scone, jam, cream creations and always being left with the same dilemma, a lot of jam and a lot of cream, all left for the last half a scone and being told "you have to finish all of your cream" by my encouraging big sister, which brings me onto "The Cream Tea Challenge". The basic principles are that, 1. No scone or half a scone can be left (Easy) 2. No jam can be left, and 3. you guessed it, no cream can be left. If you think this is easy, think again...! When you get to the last half a scone and peer into your pot of jam and cream and wonder how you'll fit it all onto the small scone left?! Is the cream and jam never-ending? Well, believe me, it can and has been done before, although the final half scone will look like a towering monstrosity built with a mixture of jammy-creaminess. Delicious!





Good Luck!