The staff are attentive but not overly interfering and will leave you alone if you don’t need anything. Here are some of my friends’ reviews on Alfred’s new place of work… It sounds like he has gone to a fantastic employer, farewell Alfie! Today, triangle-shaped sandwiches are fashionable, but in the Edwardian era, sandwiches were commonly rectangular. I would watch Corrie Street and wondered about the big fuss about ”tea” at the end of the day and I never saw a single scone! With an abundance of historic facts and an informative how to guide, teaching the reader the basics everyone must know when having their very own quintessential afternoon tea.

Lots of the recipes are for traditional English cakes, such as Battenberg, Crumpets or Chelsea Buns that you would find in many another book, but it's good to have it all together in one for those who wish to serve a traditional English Afternoon tea to their friends and family.These are set menus, and cannot be altered to cater for additional dietary requirements or preferences. Gorgeous food photographs, lifestyle stills from the television series and recent movie, and character quotes bring the characters of Downton Abbey—and this rich tradition—to life in contemporary times.

Place on the chilled, floured baking tray and brush each scone lightly with some of the remaining milk/egg mixture. Spanning sweet and savory classics—like Battenberg Cake, Bakewell Tart, toffee puddings, cream scones, and tea sandwiches—the recipes capture the quintessential delicacies of the time, and the proper way to serve them. There is plenty of car parking and space around the edge of the car park, in front of the house to perhaps take a picnic and sit enjoying the view of the house, if the sun is out.Instead, I found our seats to be extremely public, for people to be overlooking us as we ate and for our service to be good but perfunctory. It was a spectacular tea as well as being brilliant fun and I should add that we weren’t shy about asking for extra cakes too! Afternoon tea is a revered and treasured English tradition—and no one knows better how to prepare and enjoy a proper tea than the residents of Downton Abbey.

To be honest, The Ritz did too little for me… sandwiches were prepared well in advance so they’re still cold when served (straight out from the fridge I assume! Sarah had a long black frock on with a lace jacket and a huge feather boa draped round her neck and we dragged along two game (or mad) men friends for the ride.

The addition of a layer of whipped cream or buttercream is a recent innovation but one that the Grantham family would likely have enjoyed.

I’ve done a few recipes inspired by the show before but I’ve been wanting to do a nice afternoon tea spread for a while now.Therefore, at this time, we cannot alter the set menus to cater for any additional dietary requirements.