Teacup and Cakes

I've been craving a proper Afternoon Tea for months now. Not just a cream tea with scones, but the full works with little cakes and dainty sandwiches, preferably served from a silver cake stand and posh tea in proper china. I think the craving was started on a weekend trip to York with Fiance (the tea room was too full of ladies of a certain age in their Sunday best for us in our jeans to squeeze in), and has been fed ever since by reading blog posts about other amazing tea establishments, too often in very posh hotels and almost always in London.

So when lovely Middle Sister came up for an afternoon of shopping in Manchester it seemed like the perfect opportunity to satisfy my craving, and after a touch of googling and a few Facebook recommendations we found ourselves in Teacup and Cakes on Thomas Street.

You can't say no to this sign can you?

Earlier in the day we'd already heartily raided Yo Sushi (hadn't been before but will definitely be back, having your food paraded in front of you in a never ending loop of tasty, genius!) so we opted for one Cream Tea and one Afternoon Tea thinking we were being all frugal. It's a good thing we did...

The Cream Tea came with a choice of Assam, Darjeeling or Earl Grey, we chose the latter. With the Afternoon Tea, however, you can choose any one from the boggling menu of loose leaf options. We were tempted by Jasmine Pearls (who wouldn't be with a name like that) but in the end went for the Heart of Love Blooming Flower Tea. When the many pots and cups arrived, along with little multi chamber egg timers to time your brew, we were somewhat guessing at the propr way to do things. Turns out the Earl Grey should be strained from one pot into another empty pot when the brewing time was up to stop it stewing, easy enough, then pour and serve. With the Heart of Love we received a glass pot full of hot water, an empty glass jug and a small glass cup containig a sachet with what looked like a dried mushroom in it. We guessed (correctly it turns out) that the same pot to pot method was the way to go. When removed from the sachet and dropped into the hot water, the little mushroom thing (which is really very cleverly tied white needle tea) starts to slowly bloom open, letting loose an amazing smell of jasmine and revealing another flower in the centre. This tea would be a winner for visuals alone but the taste was equally delicious, lightly floral with none of the bitterness I often find with white or green teas (perhaps I've just been brewing it wrong).  I wish I'd taken a picture at the time, but have googled flowering tea since and am now seriously coveting this set from Ebay

Look at all the different kinds you can get!

The reason we didn't take a picture of the tea is that we were far too distracted by the arrival of the food! If the table weren't already full enough with multiple tea acoutrements, it was groaning now! We'd already scoffed all of the sandwiches, which weren't the dainty crusts-off kind but chunky wholemeal bread utterly stuffed with hummous and flaffel, and shared the small cakes, devinely light chocolate mousse cake, ludicrously moist carrot and mandarin cake and one drippingly rich one that tasted of honey, before we even though of getting the camera phones out, so you'll have to take my word on how beautiful and tasy it all was. And whaddya know, it came on a silver cake stand too!

But the total show-stealers of the day were the scones. Oh the scones. Just look at the scones!

They're HUGE! No dainty little rounds here but big, chunky rustic scones served with generous amounts of proper clotted cream and really lovely jam.

They were dense but cakey at the same time and stuffed full of raisins and whole toasted hazelnuts which gave a very satisfying crunch. We both made a valiant effort but couldn't finish the whole lot and had some left over to take home, I promised my leftovers to hard-done-by fiance who had been working hard all day and not able to join us, but in the end I scoffed most of his share myself! Oops!
The Cream Tea was £6.50 and the Afternoon Tea £12.95, which is very reasonable for what you get and a whole lot less than a posh hotel, who probably would have disapproved of me in my jeans and trainers anyway. I'll definately be back into Teacup and Cakes to try some more of their amazing looking treats and teas, the atmosphere is very laid back and the staff very friendly. They also sell the Make us a Brew range of teas and accessories from Mr Scruff, Sister advises everyone to try the Mint and Chilli variety

I had a lovely day with my sister. Why can't every Monday be filled with half half price Birthday Shoes, sushi, shopping tea and cake?