High Tea Weekend!

My sister has been talking about the Swissotel's TLSee Afternoon tea for months, so about 3 weeks ago I decided I would surprise her and reserve a table for 31 July and tell her to keep the afternoon free for a surprise.

About 2 weeks later, I read about a Cakey Perry pop up high tea happening over the same weekend as our trip to Swissotel. Not only was I fascinated by the concept of pop up shops/restaurants and now high teas, I was also intrigued by the theme - a high tea based on Katy Perry's California Girl video - and all the photos that I've seen popping up on my twitter stream over the past week. We just had to go! Two high teas in one weekend? Why the hell not!

On Saturday afternoon we ventured through to East London to a tiny costume shop called Prangsta  on New Cross Road which was also the venue of the Cakey Perry High Tea. We were treated to tasty Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry Cupcakes, Cake Pops, Meringues, Bikini shaped biscuits, macaroons and strawberries stuffed with cake! Not to mention a rainbow layer cake.

As I've mentioned before, my latest obsession is making a layer cake so I was thrilled when we were given a slice of a layer cake with 6 layers! My other obsession is macaroons, I've tried once before to make them but it was a disaster so I have vowed that I would practice until I could make the perfect macaroon... which these were!

Not only was the tea amazing, but the décor was incredible and you could see all the effort that went into creating the perfect setting for this event. My sister's favourite item? The gold heels on display next to the rocking horse! My favourite? The giant gummy bear!

This afternoon was such a novel idea and I will definitely be on the lookout for the next event that Miss_Cakehead throws!

Sunday's tea at the Swissotel was a lovely way to finish off the weekend and prepare for the busy work week ahead. Being more of a traditional high tea, we were served a tier with the usual sandwiches, scones and tarts; as well as a plate of biscuits.  

These biscuits are the reason my sister has been talking about this tea for months! And the reason? They are shaped like some of London's landmarks.

As you can see, we have Big Ben, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye and a few other famous sights. Thank goodness they provided us with a box to take away the left over cakes because by the time we were ready to leave, all of the biscuits were still on the plate except for Tower bridge! 

After a splendid weekend of tea and cake, I was left thinking about what I would serve at my ideal afternoon tea. In my last post, I mentioned that I am currently in love with the Hummingbird Cake Days cookbook  so it would be very much driven from there with things such as tiramisu cupcakes and red velvet whoopie pies. But I will have to throw in a few of my (soon to be) perfected macaroons and mini layer cakes. I told my mother that she must plan her next book club as an afternoon tea where I will do the cooking, but will have to think about the cleaning. All I know now is that I better start practising!