Afternoon tea Saturday 22 February 2014

Today’s event was another private booking and much anticipated having had the booking in the diary for some months. How time flies when suddenly it’s time to lay the table and put the kettle on! I knew my guests love their food and with no dietary requirements to consider, I was at liberty to combine colours, flavours and textures at will. This doesn’t necessarily make planning the menu any easier, you understand, as it just means there’s far more to choose from.

I avoided any cheese in the sandwiches (as blue cheese muffins were one of the warm savouries) and settled on egg & cress, prawn Marie Rose and pastrami with horseradish, for these finger dainties.

The other warm savoury was torta di patate – Sicilian potato cake. It’s no surprise that this is a real favourite at Chez Shamwari because it’s quite simply a taste sensation.

And so onto sweet thoughts …

Baked chocolate cheesecake with fresh raspberries – need I say more?
Normandy pear tart – my crispy, shortcrust pastry filled with the sweetest Williams pears complemented with a creamy, Calvados custard filling. Yes, I agree, really scrummy.
Lemon meringue cake; the dessert show piece – lemon sponge layered with lemon curd and frosted with ‘blow torched’ meringue. There were second helpings a plenty for this.
Last and by no means least, my buttermilk scones, fresh and hot from the oven with clotted cream and homemade damson jam.

My guests departed quite content by all accounts with goody bags in hand, ensuring the Chez Shamwari experience lingered a little longer.