I went to afternoon tea with my Mum last week, very kindly organised by the ladies at Karen Millen after we had finished our mother-and-daughter styling session. We went to The Capital hotel in Knightsbridge, which is (literally) a stone’s throw from the side entrance to Harrods but somehow manages to be very peaceful and homely. There was a fire burning in the little lobby and the room for afternoon tea was snug and cosy with only enough room for a few tables. Which made a lovely change, because all of the teas I’ve been to in the past year or so have been in huge spaces, crammed full of tables and roaring with the sound of a hundred different conversations. Afternoon tea, it seems, has become big business. It’s always been popular, I suppose, but recently it seems to have had a bit of a revival.
What also made a lovely change was the fact that the people at The Capital hadn’t messed around too much with the types of cakes and sandwiches they served; I’ve had some weird old things offered up recently. Usually when the hotel has tried to “theme” their afternoon tea, shaping their cakes into shoes and magical caterpillars and things like that. One afternoon tea had a “cake” course that was entirely formed from chocolate and fondant icing! Bizarre.
At The Capital the sandwiches were traditional but beautifully executed. Salmon and cream cheese, mackerel pate, egg and cress – there’s a reason why some combina...