Today Robyn and I had our long waited-for Trans-Atlantic Bloggers Breakfast High Tea. It was a real laugh. The two of us have been chatting for quite a while online, and at the suggestion of Robyn we both decided to share a meal together, albeit a few thousand miles apart! So our Trans-Atlantic Bloggers Breakfast/ High Tea was born. We both decided to share pictures on our respective blogs of what we'd done. This week's 'theme' was a truly British High Tea. A simple idea, with simple wholesome recipes. Basically a mix of tea, cakes and sandwiches, it has been devoured lovingly in England for many many centuries, and is the complete and utter height of decadence!

The quintessential High Tea (sometimes called a Queen's Tea) for me has to include a large cake, usually a buttery madeira or a light fruit cake, scones with clotted arteries cream and jam, a selection of simple sandwiches and something sweet-cakey. For ours we had a homemade slighly lemony madeira cake, freshly-made scones with clotted cream and jam, sandwiches (homemade fresh and wholesome), and a strawberry flan to finish (assembled by moi). The whole meal was accompanied by a good pot of strong tea (we didn't get 'round to drinking the Schloer pictured...) and enjoyed ourselves so much! It proved to be the perfect way to perk up The Fiancé who had spent the whole day in the garden digging a new veg-bed out of the lawn. Alot of the attraction of the food is the pomp and ceremony. Out came plates and my favourite teapot, delicate cups, napkins, and lots of spoons, which is for me, what makes it heavenly; going the extra mile makes it really special. All of the food pictured is either local, organic or free-range and homemade and gorgeous to eat.

Thanks to Robyn for the idea, and for being a really great email-pal! I hope you had a great high tea too :-) I'm really looking forward to learning about what constitutes a southern-American breakfast/tea!


[A full table]


[another full table!]


[heaven on a plate]


[still-warm scone]


[scone]