As you will all know by now, last Friday was my birthday. I was such a lucky girl and was treated to a weekend to London by Paul. We travelled down on Friday, by train. I packed up a small bag with only the essentials, I didn't want an over full bag when were having to change trains quickly. I spent a few days before going to London planning out what tube stations we needed to get on and off at and for the things we were doing.
Friday
On the Friday (my actual birthday) we had planned in the mad hatters afternoon tea at the Sanderson's hotel. I've been wanting to do this for sometime, ever since I saw it on Estee Lalonde Instagram. I love Alice in Wonderland its one of my favourite Disney films. I also love food, especially afternoon tea. So what better way to spend my birthday than at the mad hatters afternoon tea! We were booked in for the 15.45pm slot. We ended up being half an hour early, we didn't want to be late in case we had trouble on the tube or had trouble finding the place. But everything went really smoothly and we got there with plenty of time. While we waited for our table to be ready, we sat at the long bar and enjoyed a nice cocktail. We both chose the Sucette cocktail, which is raspberry vodka, strawberry and passion fruit. It was so god dam tasty, I think it was the best cocktail I've ever had! I need to try and recreate this drink at home.
Once our table was ready we were taken through to the courtyard garden, which fits in perfectly with the afternoon tea and was especially nice with it being a sunny day. Before the afternoon tea could start we had to choose what tea we would like. There are five flavoured tea's to choose from and all of them are named after the wonderland characters, there is the queen of heats, the Cheshire cat, the white rabbit, the mad hatter and lastly the one we both chose was Alice. If the tea's are a bit out of your comfort zone, you were also able to request the usual breakfast tea. The afternoon tea that we had booked was on a special offer at the time and came with a free cocktail, the cocktail that came with the deal was called the Sanderson. This was gin, lychee juice, melon liqueur, lime and aperol cocktail. This was also delicious it tasted just like water melon, but the sucette was by far my favourite.
The savoury part arrived on the cutest plate ever! To be fair all of the crockery looked amazing. For the savoury part we had croque-monsieur, scotch egg with salmon and caviar, cucumber and cream cheese sandwich's on pesto bread and lastly Cornish crab and herb eclair. Other than the crab eclair, I thought everything tasted delicious and had amazing flavour.
When we'd decided that we 'd had enough of the savoury, out came the three tier cake stand of desserts. This was the part I was most looking forward to, I have a really sweet tooth and love any excuse to eat cake. Starting at the top and hidden in the greenery of the tea cup we have the carrot meringues. Next we have strawberry marshmallow mushrooms and a chocolate fudge blue caterpillar. On the second tier is the coffee pocket watch macaroon, red velvet ladybird, banana bread butterfly and the queen of hearts Oreo cookie soldier. On the bottom tier is the passion fruit drink me potion and the traditional scones with cream and jam. The only dessert I didn't like was the drink me potion, by the time I had got down to that layer I felt a little too sick for the creamy sweet passion fruit concoction. But I loved and I mean loved everything else. I was so stuffed by the end of it and was trying my hardest to finish my scone, rather than admit defeat.
But just when you thought it was all over..... there came one last little treat. A little flower pot which has passion fruit and raspberry ice cream with a cookie soil, honeycomb pieces and an edible flower to complete it. I managed to squeeze half of this in and also a latte. I was so glad for the coffee at the end, it actually calmed the crazy sweet party that was happening in my mouth and stomach. I thoroughly enjoyed this afternoon tea and it was an amazing way to spend my birthday. It was well worth the money and the four pounds I most likely gained from all the food.
Saturday
We didn't have much planned to do on Saturday, in the day anyway. For the evening we'd booked the Star Wars identities at the O2 arena. Were both big Star Wars fans and this is only in London until September, we knew we wouldn't get down to London again this year so we had to book this in!
After we'd enjoyed our breakfast. We took a stroll down Oxford street and did a spot of shopping. Check my What I Got For My Birthday, if your want to know what I picked up. After we'd done a bit of shopping, we decided to do a bit of the touristy bits and bobs. We took the tube to Trafalgar Square and then took a walk to Buckingham palace, Big Ben and then to the London eye.
After we'd done all that walking we decided to head to the O2 and get some food before our time slot for Star Wars. Star Wars identities is an exhibit showing costumes, props and sketches from the movies. There's also interactive sections throughout the exhibit, where you can find out what your Star Wars Identity would be. Throughout the exhibit you make a series of choices that shape the character you would be. At the end you get to see what your character would look like and have your identity sent to your email. Me and Paul really enjoyed the whole exhibit. We really took our time to read and look at everything. We also had so much fun choosing how our character would turn out. If your a Star Wars fan, I would highly recommend a visit before the exhibit closes in September!
I hope you enjoyed seeing what I got up to in London.
Let me know what your favourite dessert would be from the Mad Hatter afternoon tea?
ReRe
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