Let them eat cake!

How exciting! It's the day of the royal wedding and all the expat bars in Dubai have brought out the flags, the real Ales and started to prepare fish and chips in preparation for a big party this afternoon.

To not miss a thing I am celebrating at home, in front of BBC World News, with my very own afternoon tea consisting of  pot of Earl Grey tea, Waitrose finger sandwiches, two liquorice and one rose with ginger macaroon from Laduree, and even two Madeleines for Tim so he can sit through at least a few minutes of the ceremony. It is three hours to go now though so will have to try very hard not to eat it all before the actual wedding vows!

Afternoon tea and cinema at Soho Hotel, London, UK

Afternoon tea is one of the things that brought me to Britain in the first place. It conjures up images of old fashioned cafes in Midsummer Murders looking villages where Agatha Christie lookalikes nibble on their cucumber sandwiches, sipping Earl Grey from flowery tea cups while discussing the latest stitching patterns in Sewing World Magazine. I spent a fortune during my three years at university in Exeter in the old ladies favourite cafe 'Tea on the Green' overlooking the Exeter Cathedral, not very rock n roll for a student I know!

I am very pleased to report my findings that apparently another girl called Anna came up with the brilliant tradition of afternoon tea! During the early nineteenth century Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford is said to have complained of "having that sinking feeling" during the late afternoon. Her solution was to have a pot of tea made for her along with some cakes. Her friends were invited to join her and this afternoon tea drinking proved so popular that other social hostesses copied her idea and before long all of fashionable society stopped to have tea and sandwiches in the middle of the afternoon.

I have tried numerous afternoon teas in the classic locations in London and the latest on the list is Soho Hotel's afternoon tea and cinema offering. After no breakfast (my trick to getting through an entire afternoon tea tray of cakes and sandwiches) I arrive at the cool and trendy Soho Hotel in Richmond Mews right in the centre of Soho.

Soho Hotel afternoon tea. Photo by Dave Lorch

At first all four of us are oddly placed in a long row along a table in the drawing room but we quickly swap to a round table in the main restaurant which is much buzzier. The tea list is impressive but I stick to my favourite Earl Grey today and let the others try weird and wonderful flowering Jasmine teas.

The traditional tea menu offers the following:

Cakes:
Banana and walnut cake
Fruit tartlet
Macaroon
Chocolate éclair
Fruit and plain scones
Clotted cream and preserves

Sandwiches:
Cheddar cheese and chutney
Smoked salmon
Cucumber
Coronation chicken

The sandwiches were all very nice although the bread was a little dry. The scones came with a choice of strawberry or raspberry jam and were just delicious. My favourites were the fruit tartlets and although the macaroons were a little bit too big and had a lot of marzipan in between the meringue they were still absolutely fine.

Far too many cups of tea later it was time to go downstairs to the cinema screening room. With a free carton of popcorn in one hand  it was a great experience to watch a film (The Fighter) in a proper cinema with a great screen.

A peaceful fika in the middle of nowhere - Lilla Ro, Vejbystrand - Sweden

We cross fields with disused farming machinery, patiently wait behind slow moving tractors on the winding country lane, park the car next to a pink plastic flamingo (!) and cross the small gravel car park to get to the lovely Cafe Lillaro, a wonderfully quaint cafe in the middle of the countryside just outside the seaside village of Vejbystrand in Skåne, Sweden.

'In the middle of nowhere, almost at least, you find Lillaro, the perfect place if you fancy a fika in peace and quiet'. This is how Lillaro (or Little peace as it translates from Swedish) describes itself on its website.

My dad loves this place and comes here regularly to chat with the Eva and Palle, the owners of the cafe. Eva is a clothes designer by trade and runs the retro chic clothes brand Peleka from the studio upstairs so fashion concious girls flock here from nearby holiday villages Båstad and Torekov in the summer months.
Lillaro is very much a Swedish take on shabby chic with 1940s inspired knick knacks, miss-matched tables and chairs, freshly picked flowers in tiny different coloured glass vases, a mannequin leaning against the wall, old children's books about great flying machine heroes, bric-a-brac for sale in the middle of the cafe, and in the centreof the room a spiral staircase that leads up to Eva's studio. Eva and Palle have collected and created most things in the cafe themselves and Palle who is a mechanic by trade has even welded some of the furniture!

The cakes are all homemade and most of the ingredients in the pies, jam and cakes come from Eva and Palle's own garden. I tried a classic cinnamon bun and a juice while dad had scones with homemade jam and butter with a cup of coffee, delicious! There's a great selection of sandwiches, pies, juices and different kinds of tea and coffee. I couldn't resist taking a quick look in the Peleka shop upstairs and am now proudly showing off my one of a kind summery top made by Eva.

Lillaro is a unique cafe that I thoroughly recommend especially if you're on a foodie tour around the Bjäre peninsula in Southern Sweden.

http://www.lillaro.nu/