Browsing Category

Food

A Tale of Peter Rabbit Themed Afternoon Tea in Essex

March 31, 2018

Cardamon Tea Lounge

With the recent release of Peter Rabbit we were super excited to try out A Tale of Peter Rabbit Themed Afternoon Tea at one of our favourite tea rooms in Colchester, Essex. Cardamon Tea Lounge & Coffee Shop host themed afternoon teas, each month brings a new theme. Running for the month of April 2018 ‘A Tale of Peter Rabbit’ themed afternoon tea is sure to delight any Beatrix Potter fan.

A Tale of Peter Rabbit Themed Afternoon Tea

Cardamon Tea Lounge pay so much attention to detail on their themed afternoon teas and ‘A Tale of Peter Rabbit’ themed afternoon tea is no exception. On arrival your table is laid with your very own grass mat, complete with flowers and carrot accessories, setting the scene for an exciting afternoon tea. We choose one from over 50 choices of tea to go along with our food.

The afternoon tea consisted of Mr McGregors garden goods, a selection of delicious sandwiches, wraps and bread rolls filled with delights straight from the garden. Cream cheese and radish sandwich, egg mayo and advocado roll, cream cheese and asparagus wrap, houmous pot with veg to dip and a wonderful fresh feta and spinach salad with blackberries and walnuts… Mr McGregor would have enjoyed this feast, it could also be suitable for vegetarians.

After the savouries we had Peter Rabbit’s hot cross bun, this made a nice change from the usual scone that is expected with an afternoon tea. It even came with a mini trowel and mini bucket full of jam to spread on top!

The sweets included a deliciously moist and tasty carrot cake, a chocolate pot served in a plant pot topped with a strawberry, a lemon tart with an edible cabbage moulded from nougat and a chocolate eclair finished with petals.

A Tale of Peter Rabbit Themed Afternoon Tea was so wonderfully put together, so much effort to theme each and every piece of food. It wasn’t your traditional afternoon tea, it was a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. So much fun to eat!

A Tale of Peter Rabbits Children’s Platter

Cardamon Tea Lounge do so many fabulous platters for kids! At just £6.50, the children’s platter includes a yummy milkshake, shaped sandwiches, along with lots of yummy biscuits, chocolates and even a few sweets! Eden absolutely loves the kids platters and the Peter Rabbit platter was no exception!

The Tale of Peter Rabbit Themed Afternoon Tea is running for the month of April 2018 and is £20 per head (at time of publishing). Children’s platter is £6.50. Pop over to their website or Facebook page to book or for further information.

To see a review of their Magical Wizards Themed Afternoon Tea please read here.

Thank you for reading ‘A Tale of Peter Rabbit Themed Afternoon Tea in Essex’.

Afternoon Tea, Eating Out, Food, Home

A Wizard’s Afternoon Tea in Essex

February 25, 2018

A Wizards Afternoon Tea

Cardamon Tea Lounge in Colchester, Essex has brought back the ‘Wizards Afternoon Tea’ for the month of November 2018 and it is bigger, better and even more amazing than before! Any Witch, Wizard, Muggle or true Harry Potter fan would be delighted by this ‘Wizard’s Themed Afternoon Tea’.

The Savouries

As always the sandwiches were freshly made and simply delicious, we enjoyed Turkey and Cranberry and Houmous and Vegetables sandwiches. We also received a bowl of warm French Onion Soup with lashings of grated cheese and our very own magical dragon eggs! The soup was really good and a lovely addition for the colder winter months!

The Sweet Stuff

Our Wizard’s afternoon tea was filled with so many magical and exciting delights. We were treated to our very own multicoloured potions (which tasted amazing), popcorn served in a cauldron, and we even had our own mandrake cakes! Each tiny mandrake is carefully moulded in fudge! The scones were freshly baked and pumpkin spiced. We enjoyed a butterscotch and raspberry tart and a spell book brownie, there was so much to take in. Alongside the Wizards afternoon tea you can choose from over 50 variations of tea. We opted for the Karak Chai tea and it is sweet and mildly spiced, really complemented the Afternoon Tea perfectly.

Children’s Afternoon Tea Platter

The Cardamon Tea Lounge offers lots of wonderfully themed platters for children and the Wizard’s platter is no exception. The sandwiches were accompanied by many magical treats, a broomstick, a spellbook, a cauldron of popcorn, veggie sticks, sweets and a drink. Any little witch or wizard would have a truly magical and enchanting time working their way through this Wizards feast!

The Cardamon Tea Lounge

A couple of years ago we found The Cardamon Tea Lounge in Colchester, Essex. We happened to be walking by and spotted this quaint little tea room and decided to give it a try. Since then it has been one of our firm favourite tea rooms. We aren’t the only ones that like it, it won the Essex Life Food and Drink Awards 2017 for Best Coffee/Tea Shop. Now its quickly becoming a popular spot for wonderful and imaginative Themed Afternoon Teas in Essex.

My daughter fell in love with this place right away and refers to it as the ‘Alice Cafe’. As you step inside there are so many wonderful trinkets and handmade crafts, many Alice in Wonderland themed and available to buy. There are teapots and cups as lampshades hanging from the ceiling and spoons as door handles. Every time I visit I see something new. My daughters favourite part is the little cupboard under the stairs, a cosy spot for the little ones to play.

The Wizards Afternoon Tea is £20 per head. All afternoon tea’s should be prebooked, please get in touch with The Cardamon Tea Lounge, 44 St John’s Street, Colchester, Essex CO2 7AD. Telephone number: 01206 504180.

OTHER THEMED AFTERNOON TEAS

To read our reviews of Cardamon Tea Lounge’s other fantastic themed afternoon teas in Essex. Please see below:

Wizards themed Afternoon Tea, for any Harry Potter fan.

A Tale of Peter Rabbit Themed Afternoon Tea.

Mary Poppins Themed Afternoon Tea, Practically Perfect in every way.

Sherlock Holmes Themed Afternoon Tea.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory Afternoon Tea.

Silly Old Bear Afternoon Tea.

Be Our Guest Afternoon Tea for any Beauty and the Beast fan.

The Cardamon Tea Lounge features in our list of the Best Afternoon Teas in Essex, please see here.

Thank you for reading ‘A Wizard’s Afternoon Tea’.

Written in collaboration with The Cardamon Tea Lounge, we were invited along to review their afternoon tea. Please note that all views and opinions are strictly my own.

Books, Crafts, Family Life, Food, Home, My weekly round up

My little loves December

December 17, 2017

My Little Loves for December

So it’s mid December and things are about to get crazy! It’s time to reflect on all my favourite parts of the month so far!

Read

We were kindly send a copy of Binx the Jinx to review. A rhyming story about Binx, an incredibly cute black cat looking for friendship! At first Binx struggles to make new friends and gets bullied by the other cats because he is different. Then he meets Gin who proves that Binx isn’t a Jinx at all but in fact the luckiest cat around! The book is written and illustrated by Michelle Hird, it is beautiful, bright and colourful. Eden really enjoyed the pictures and it was enjoyable to read. We have loved reading this book and have read it several times already!

Watched

We have watched just about every Christmas film this month. Our favourite Christmas films have to be:

Elf, The Polar Express, The Snowman and the Snowdog, The Elf Story & Arthur Christmas.

Heard

Eden told me the sweetest thing, she told me ‘Mummy do you know you’re my best friend? You are my BFF’.

Sometimes that girl is just too cute for words!

Made

This week I finally made time to make my Christmas rag wreath! Using a wire wreath frame and lots of torn pieces of fabric (about 1 inch x 5 inch in size). You simply tie each piece on to the frame. It didn’t take very long, was very simple to make and I think you’ll agree looks very festive.

Wore

Well this week we got lots of snow! This was Eden’s first proper snow that she can remember. The last time we had heavy snowfall was back in 2012 and Eden was just a few months old. So we wore… lots of layers! Unfortunately all of the gloves I’ve bought Eden are knitted and woolly, she doesn’t actually own a waterproof pair. I improvised, popping in one pair of gloves, a plastic bag to stop her hands getting wet and another pair of gloves on top! Sadly they slipped off her hand every time she threw a snowball so a bit of epic fail, lol!j

Ate

This week, I discovered a delightful little tea room in Brentwood Essex called Merrymeade Tea Room situated in Merrymeade House. We enjoyed a scrumptious afternoon tea and because we’re in December it had featured some yummy festive treats. It was brilliant value at £11.99 a head and Eden even had a kids one all to herself. One of my favourite parts of an afternoon tea has to be the sandwiches. The bread was so soft and fresh and had a good selection of fillings. The carrot cake and mini brownie Christmas puddings really were delicious. We can’t wait to visit again soon, we definitely recommend!

Visit their Facebook page for further details here.

And lastly

I have been busy every day coming up with new elf on the shelf ideas. I’ve been trying to use new ideas as Eden would remember if I repeated many of them from last year so the pressure has been on. Here are some of my favourites I’ve used for 2017 so far. They certainly are cheeky elves, Eden is so excited each morning to see what they have been up too!

Linking up with

Crafts, Days Out, Eating Out, Fashion, Food, Lifestyle, My weekly round up

My weekly round up with My Little Loves 12/08/17

August 10, 2017

My weekly round up

Well I have to apologise… it’s more like my two weekly round up (possibly verging on three!). Since the school holidays hit I’ve literally been on auto pilot and my feet have barely touched the floor. I’m exhausted to say the least. I’ve been juggling days out, working, the gym, volunteering, parenting, party planning and the odd bit of housework! So with all that going on I have to confess. Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat for the last couple of weeks.

So it’s been jam packed so far. We’ve had my husbands family come to stay for the first week. They travelled down from Scotland hoping for some sunshine sadly, all they got was rain! We soldiered on and went on plenty of days out braving the truly rubbish British weather! We still had a fantastic time.

Week 1

During the first week we visited the Fairies and Elves festival at Audley End Miniature Railway… it was a truly magical day. A ride on the train through the woods followed by lots of fun with the fairies, you can read about it here.

We also got some more use from our Merlin Annual Passes and visited Chessington World of Adventures. The rain meant few queues so was great news for us! Read our review on the Merlin Annual pass here.

We were lucky enough to be invited to the Barbican Centre to meet ‘Buttons’ the animatronic Cadbury Cow. We had a life drawing class with illustrator Rose Blake and stuffed our faces full of chocolate! My kind of day! It was part of Cadbury’s ‘Adopt a Cow’ campaign. You can read more about it here.

I’ve also recently been invited to try out our local David Lloyd club, so have been making the most of it. It’s been brilliant taking Eden along to the kids club classes and I’ve been able to train with my husband in the gym. It’s really taken the pressure off childcare during the school holidays. We even tried out the squash courts and I managed to hit myself with the racquet! The bruise is still going strong after a week. ha ha. Read more about it here.

Read

Well I’ve recently been enjoying reading a new blog ‘whinge whinge wine’. Fran has been making me laugh out loud this week and choke on my coffee. Not forgetting her amusing Facebook posts… the Ta Ta towels were quite an eyeful! I love looking out for Fran’s posts!