Traditional Cream Tea

After Joanna (and Judith) returned from a sleepless night at the A&E, and got settled in for a well needed nap, the rest of us headed off for a traditional Devonshire Cream Tea.

This is probably the most fancy version of Afternoon Tea that the English do. Ironically, High Tea is not a very fancy meal at all (despite what Americans think). The "cream" in the name refers to clotted cream, which I thought, when I have read about this in the past, was something like a very thick whipped cream. It's not. It has a taste and consistency much closer to unsalted butter.

Anyhow, Devon is known for their clotted cream so we were all excited to try it out. It was a huge amount of food (mini quiches, crustles sandwiches, scones and assortment of little cakes). Plus most of us opted for the option of a glass of champagne. It was a wonderful day and we had plenty of leftover cakes to share with Joanna and Judith.

The hotel where we had tea was an old mill and had a very medieval ambiance.Read more