Between 2006 and 2023 I ran a traditional Tea Rooms with my brother in Ashdown Forest, Sussex, in the south of England.
Everything, where possible was homemade on the day. My customers were my keenest critics and were always very willing to try out my recipes – a ready made testing team!
Tea Rooms Recipes
We specialised in a number of classic English Tea Rooms recipes, which of course included sweet and savoury scones, English Tea Cakes, Welsh Rarebit, a range of Afternoon Teas (see my How to Make an Afternoon Tea guide) and a variety Traditional Cakes and Classic Desserts.
Tea Rooms Favourites
I have to say there were so many favourites at the tea rooms so it was quite hard to narrow it down to four – honoury mention must go to my The Best Apple Pie Recipe, which I believe is so special because it uses my mother’s ultimate rich Shortcrust Pastry With Lard recipe.
Popular Tea Rooms Scones
In busy periods at the tea rooms I was making 80-100 scones per day! In my experience these scones were probably the most popular, although it would change with the time of year.
Afternoon Tea
Afternoon Tea is of course an essential part of the tea rooms experience and we served a whole variety of options – from a relatively simple Afternoon Tea For One, which can be just a fruit loaf and butter or an Old Fashioned Caraway Seed Cake with Earl Grey tea, up to the full Afternoon Tea showpiece. This is traditionally an elaborate, elegant affair with dainty sandwiches and other savoury morsels, wafer thin bread and butter, scones and tea breads, followed by a variety of cakes and served with leaf tea made in teapot.
If you want to make your own Afternoon Tea at home and you don’t have a great deal of baking and cooking experience then you don’t need to feel intimidated. I believe the main element of an afternoon tea is the presentation – pretty plates, elegant tea pots and tea cups, lovely tablecloths and a table decorated with fresh flowers. So, if the idea of making everything yourself is a little daunting, just make one or two things yourself maybe and buy in the rest – you can then focus on the presentation.
