Festive Round Up - The Langham London

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends where we are sharing another festive afternoon tea with you...this time it's Langham London and Chef Cherish Finden's tea-riffic Christmas creation....

I have to confess that I am a little in love with this afternoon tea....it's so pretty! I just love the cottage....and that reindeer! 

The festive menu includes:

Festive eggnog

Selection of indulgent finger sandwiches:

Duck egg and oscietra caviar blini

Balvenie whiskey smoked salmon and fennel brioche

Farmhouse stilton, red onion and port relish, walnut bread

Classic Cucumber, cream cheese chives

Smoked turkey, marjoram stuffing, cranberry bread

Selection of warm scones from our Palm Court bakery with Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry preserve

Selection of French Pastries and Specialist mini cakes including:

Mini Gingerbread house

Snowflake Macaroon

Pistachio and cranberry slice

Asprey Bauble

Rosehip and Hibiscus

To find out more about this afternoon tea please visit The Langham's website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for.....a special Children's Afternoon tea at The Langham

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.....today we are featuring an afternoon tea adventure especially designed for the smaller members of the family....  the Langham's Children's Afternoon Tea which features a Hamley's teddy bear for each young diner!

Created by the tea-riffic Cherish Finden, Executive Pastry Chef at The Langham, together with Chris King, Executive Chef of The Langham, the Afternoon Tea is fun and colourful and sure to make young diners smile....

Children's Afternoon Tea -The Langham

The afternoon tea, which is designed especially for children aged 12 years and under, includes a choice of children’s tea, hot chocolate, smoothies or fresh fruit juice accompanied by jigsaw sandwiches.

Then comes the cakes and pastries, which I am particularly jealous of....

Carousel Cup Cake Swirl

Cookie Monster Macaron

Maltesers Chocolate Mousse

Langham Cold Chocolate

Children's Afternoon Tea -The Langham

Just look at that cute Cookie Monster!

For more inforamtion about this afternoon tea adventure and how to book visit the Palm Court website.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel and Lorna

Meet the Executive Pastry Chef.....Cherish Finden, The Langham London

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're well today.

If you popped by the blog yesterday you'll know we featured the new afternoon tea being served at the Langham London. Today we are meeting the talented creator of this beautiful new afternoon tea feast....executive Pastry Chef Cherish Finden. You might recognise Cherish from the current BBC programme Great British Bake Off - Creme de la Creme where she appears as the firm but fair judge.

Executive Pastry Chef Cherish Finden

Recently Lorna and I had the pleasure of meeting Cherish and I can confirm that as well as being super talented and passionate about afternoon tea....she is also a really lovely person. We're so pleased that Cherish agreed to answer our slightly nosey afternoon tea questions - giving us an insight into the effort required to create such a tea-riffic afternoon tea spread!

Q How long does it usually take you to create new afternoon teas?

About 2- 3months for creating and another 2 months for food tasting and recipe development

Q. Where does your inspiration for new teas come from? 

Mostly I am inspired by the Wedgwood collection and everything I came across interest me for example:

1. the buttery Bloom – it is inspire by the Gerkin Building and Butterfly symbolise new life and to welcome spring
2. Hathaway Rose Victoria sponge – to bring in the classic Victorian feel

Afternoon tea - Langham London

Q. So, what is your favourite part of your latest afternoon tea?

Well I always like a new challenge. The most interesting part is to create - how to balance the flavour, texture, taste, appearance and WOW Bang effect!

Q. Do you enjoy a spot of afternoon tea yourself and have you tried tea anywhere else? 

Yes, I love to appreciate Afternoon Tea. Most of the Top 5 star hotel.

Q. What is your favourite filling in an afternoon tea sandwich? 

Classic-cucumber and cream cheese

Q. The all important question - do you put cream or jam on your scone first?

Jam and then cream - the Cornish way

Afternoon tea scones - Langham London

Q. If you could invite any guest to enjoy afternoon tea with you, who would it be and why? 

It will be a honour to invite the Queen.

The Queen has lead such an interesting life and been a tremendous ambassador for Britain. I would love to to an opportunity to share a cup of tea and a slice of humble cake with the Queen.

Executive Pastry Chef Cherish Finden with some of her tea-riffic
afternoon tea creations!

It was a real pleasure to listen to Cherish talk about her new afternoon tea at The Langham, her passion for creating perfectly balanced sweet treats is obvious as she talks. We'd like to thank Cherish for taking time out of her busy schedule to answer our afternoon tea questions.

For more information about the new afternoon tea at Langham London please visit their website.

Thank you for popping by today,
Rachel & Lorna

Afternoon Tea News - Wedgwood Afternoon Tea, The Langham

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - you may remember that recently Lorna and I attended the fabulous launch for Executive Pastry Chef Cherish Finden's new afternoon tea at The Langham in London. It was a tea-riffic event where we got to sample the afternoon tea treats, meet Cherish in person and hear all about the new afternoon tea creation. As promised here is a little more information about the food on offer....

The Langham, London is delighted to launch its new Langham Afternoon Tea with Wedgwood collection, created by Executive Pastry Chef, Cherish Finden and her culinary team.  The collection is inspired by classic Wedgwood collections, featuring butterfly and daisy motifs, heralding the start of spring and the changing season. 

Langham Afternoon Tea with Wedgwood collection

The palette is prepared with a pre-dessert of apricot and natural yoghurt panna cotta before being greeted by: 

The ‘Paisley Parcel’; a moist chocolate offering enhanced with Kahlua and double espresso. An amaretto taste is also incorporated and the ‘icing on the cake’ represented by white chocolate buttons with a bespoke white and blue paisley Wedgwood design.    

The ‘Butterfly Bloom’ takes inspiration from the Wedgwood collection of the same name, featuring a buttery shortbread tower with salted caramel. Two hand crafted butterflies at its peak represent the bloom of spring and the new florals blossoming.    

Sweet treats - Langham Afternoon Tea with Wedgwood collection

The ‘Yuzu for You’ offers an exciting mixture of the sweetness from the Langham No. 150 chocolate balanced with the acidity of the ‘yuzu’, a citrus fruit originating in East Asia. A kick of chocolate is added with the Langham’s bespoke ‘No. 150’ chocolate. The taste is rounded off with a crunchy chocolate sable. 

The Wedgwood Wild Strawberry comprises of a wild strawberry ‘pâte de fruit’ and pistachio cream macaroon, replicating the ‘Wedgwood Wild Strawberry’ design. The final pastry of ‘Hathaway Rose’ incorporates Lemon Victoria sponge, with a raspberry and jam.   

Pastries are accompanied by plain and raisin scones in addition to delicious sandwiches conceived by Head Chef of The Langham, London Chris King and team. These include Truffled duck egg brioche, Smoked salmon asparagus and rye, Cucumber with cream cheese and chives, Peppered beef pastrami with red Leicester coleslaw and Corn-fed chicken with golden sultana on carrot bread. 

Savoury selection - Langham Afternoon Tea with Wedgwood collection

The new collection is priced at £49 per person, £59 per person including a glass of N.V Laurent-Perrier Brut Champagne and £64 per person including a glass of N.V Laurent-Perrier Brut Champagne Rosé. Available from 6th April with sittings at 1.00pm, 3.15pm and 5.30pm.  For more information about this afternoon tea please visit The Langham London website.

Pop back tomorrow when we'll be meeting Executive Pastry Chef Cherish Finden to find out a little more about how she created this beautiful afternoon tea.....and the most important question of all....which way does she dress her scones?

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for.....a tea-riffic afternoon tea launch at the Langham

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you've had a tea-riffic week!

Lorna and I were very lucky this week - we were invited to the launch of the new afternoon tea at the Langham London. You may have seen Head Pastry Chef Cherish Finden on the TV recently as she is one of the judges on Great British Bake Off Creme de la Creme. Well, it's an exciting time for Cherish as the Langham is launching a scrummy new afternoon tea on the 6th April.....

Afternoon tea - Langham London

Guests at the launch were treated to tea, soft drinks or bubbles, all served in the conservatory. As we mingled with other guests, trays of the savoury items were served...

Afternoon tea sandwiches - Langham London

The fillings included duck egg, cucumber, pastrami and coleslaw, salmon and coronation chicken - served on a variety of breads. The bread was all soft and fresh and as expected there wasn't a crust in sight.

My favourite filling was definitely the chicken, and Lorna really enjoyed the coleslaw and pastrami.....

Once we had enjoyed the savouries, Chrish joined us in the room to introduce the all important sweet treats. Cherish spoke with such passion about her creations, it was a real pleasure to listen to her talk. She described each pastry in turn, describing the flavour combinations and the textures that we would find when we bit into the pastry.

Head Pastry Chef Cherish Finden
describing her new afternoon tea creations

After Cherish had described each piece we were treated to something rather special, as the Duchess of Bedford joined us for tea.....

Just in case you're wondering .....the real Duchess of Bedford is best remembered as the first person to enjoy afternoon tea, as she requested tea and cake in the afternoon between lunch and dinner to help with the "sinking feeling" she used to experience.

Cherish then mingled with us as the pastries were served. As well as all the treats on the sweet plate, we were also offered scones with cream and preserve....

Afternoon tea sweets - Langham London

The most amazing Victoria sponge

Everything looked so pretty, each piece so detailed and unique. But even better than a pleasing plate of treats, everything tasted amazing too. From the well flavoured Opera Cake to the tiny strawberry and pistashio macaroon, everything was so scrummy!

Cherish spent time with all the guests, talking about the afternoon tea and also the GBBO Creme de la Creme. 

Cherish Finden with a plate of Opera Cake

We also got to meet Cherish's fabulous team....

We had a wonderful evening as guests of Cherish and the Langham and can't wait to see this scrummy new afternoon tea appear on the menu in early April. For more information about afternoon tea at The Langham please visit their website.

We'll leave you with one last look at those scrummy savouries and sweets....

Afternoon tea - Langham London

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Afternoon Tea News.....Chocolate Afternoon Tea, The Langham

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends....

So, as you know, its been Chocolate Week this past week....and we've already shared with you some of the fab chocolate things you can experience to celebrate and some scrummy chocolate recipes. Today, we have some seriously scrummy photos for you....from Cherish Finden, Executive Pastry Chef at The Langham.

To celebrate Chocolate Week Cherish has created this chocolate masterpiece....

Served from the 12th October – 1st November in celebration of Chocolate Week and using Langham N°150 Chocolate. 

Among other delights you will discover.....

Roasted pistachio and white chocolate mousseline with raspberry, 

Masala bubble tea with Langham chocolate agar agar and 

Langham N°150 opera slice with espresso reduction.

Cherish shared these photos on social media recently and they left me drooling ever so slightly....the shine on the chocolate is just amazing....

For more information about this tea please visit the Langham London website.

If you are lucky enough to try this afternoon tea in the next week or so we'd love to hear all about it - send us a photo on Twitter or Facebook!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna