Alice In Wonderland Afternoon Tea - Cedar Court Grand Hotel, York

I do love a get together with the ladies, so when the lovely Kel hinted at a girly day out in York a whole lot of months ago I couldn't wait to book and get increasingly excited the closer the date became.

And after what seemed like ages - well, it was months - the day arrived and then on Sunday, we headed over to York to spend a lovely day with friends old and new.

After a morning spent shopping and bobbing into the countless shops of York, it was time to make our way to our venue for the afternoon - the very grand, very five-star hotel that was the Cedar Court Grand Hotel

And grand it was.

Huge, beautifully decorated and oozing pure class and sophistication - I was just itching to get inside one of the rooms and have myself a little snooze (well I had been shopping for hours)  - I can only imagine how comfy the beds would have been.

But anyway - back to the task at hand - to experience my first ever afternoon tea.

Yes - I know - never having had an afternoon tea at my age is quite unacceptable, but it meant that I was certainly looking forward to the day's experience.

And all the more because this wasn't to be any ordinary tea and cake experience - oh no - it was an exclusive, booked up months in advance, special kind of Alice in Wonderland Style afternoon tea...with quite an exclusive £33.00 price tag to boot.

I was expecting good things that's for sure...

Upon arrival we were presented with a cute little "Drink Me" style bottle containing a very thick pineapple flavoured, creamy drink, was was very yum indeed

...and it certainly set the scene for the spectacular visual display which was inside of our "tea room"...

The centre of the room had a huge Wonderland Tea themed table covered with chocolate and cakey treats, and it certainly looked amazing.

We all ran around in awe, snapping as many picture as we could manage, not wanting to miss a single thing

It was really beautiful

And the creators of the amazing looking table certainly took pride in their work too.

I overheard one very lovely, friendly man explaining how even after fifty times of creating the same table, it still managed to take his breathe away every time.

So sweet

Our table was very grand too, and tied in perfectly with the theme of the day

Resting our weary feet, we were served tea and coffee and then brought a stack of warm, absolutely delicious scones to our table

Whilst we were sat, beginning to unwind and relax...and to eat of course...we were told we could go and collect our food from the centre table - buffet style.

Hmmm...this meant leaving our lovely, warm, just delivered scones to go and collect the rest of our food.

I did, for a second, contemplate just enjoying my scone whilst it was still warm, but I knew if I did all of the treats on the middle table were likely to have vanished before I got to them.

Illustrating the main issue with a buffet...

Anyway, in a fear of missing anything, up we all went and proceeded to collect one of everything on offer - paying £33.00 for afternoon tea and watching whilst others devoured the lot wasn't something I was willing to do - so yep, I ended up with a plate crammed full of food...and then when I sat down, as pretty as my plate looked, I immediately just felt over-faced

There was so much sweet food - I didn't know where to start.

The selection of rolled sandwiches were lovely - salmon, ham, chicken, cucumber - and whilst I felt like I took quite a lot of them having five on my plate, they were teeny and I really think I should of had more...just to break up the sugar consumption...

The scone was beautiful (although we had to ask for more cream to get around our table of nine ladies) - really tasty and just perfect.

And then, as well presented, beautifully executed and detailed as the rest of my plate was, I struggled a lot to finish anything as it was all so unbelievably rich and sweet, so much so that I didn't manage to finish a single thing I picked up - which was such a waste of beautiful food.

But I tried my very best

I think, for me, and my first afternoon tea experience, a few more savoury treats would have helped break up the sweet courses a little.

But then I suppose that this was meant to be a unique experience, - which it was - the beauty of everything certainly made it that way.

I do have to say though, a few things spoilt the afternoon for me, and I hate to be picky, but I think the negatives need raising too.

My main issue of the day revolved around one waitress, and as accommodating as she was fetching more tea and coffee for people, she didn't really have a pleasant demeanour about herself.

She didn't smile once whilst serving us; it seemed like she didn't really want to be there and - the total worse part for me - she was chewing gum all throughout of the afternoon.

It's really not something expected from such a high class establishment.

Also, one of our party had a nut allergy but she was only told that she couldn't eat two of the things as she had sat back down...with the two nut items already on her plate...and had began to eat...

Thank goodness she didn't choose to eat those two things first!

...also (sorry!) when the lady in question asked our waitress what type of nuts were in the items, rather than go and find out, she ran off...but never came back with an answer...

Slightly rude perhaps...?

Like I said, I'm not one to be all negative, but these things really dampened our otherwise fun day, which was a huge shame.

Would I go back to the hotel - 100% without a doubt - it was beautiful.

Would I have an "ordinary" afternoon tea there - yes - I would love to try it.

Would I pay so much money for the Alice In Wonderland tea experience again - as pretty as it was, no, probably not.

But that's just me and the opinion of my sweet tooth.

Let me know how you find it if you pop along for a visit

Healthy (ish) Halloween Treats

I can't believe Halloween is almost upon us and I haven't even mentioned it on my blog yet.

Ooops

Well, I thought that this needed to be rectified today, and seeing as how it's half term and with the clocks just going back I now have a son who is awake daily before 6.30am, I thought I would use the early start to my long day to get us both into the kitchen and prepare something Halloween-y.

It was actually those lovely people at Sykes Cottages who introduced me to a little competition to show off some of my healthy snack creations a-la Halloween style.

So into the kitchen we went

But let me set the scene a little before I do begin:

~ Any form of kitchen creativity in my house has to be fun, entertaining, simple and quick otherwise I will end up doing everything myself.

Well, eight year old boys don't tend to have the highest concentration span now do they...

~ Healthy needs to healthy...but Halloween - well it has always got to mean some naughty treat slotted in somewhere hasn't it...

So with these factors in mind, we began...

Strawberry Ghosts

It couldn't be any easier to make these teeny sweet treats...

~ strawberries

~ white chocolate

~ chocolate chips/raisins

* Take a punnet of fresh strawberries, wash them and cut off the stalks so that the bottom is quite flat

* Break up the white chocolate into a heat-proof bowl and heat over a pan of boiling water

- adults only with the boiling water please -

* Once the chocolate has melted, remove it from the heat

* Pop a cocktail stick through the top of each strawberry and very carefully dip them into the warm chocolate, coating each one with a thin layer of the gooey stuff (yum!)

* Place on grease proof paper and add chocolate chip/raisin detailing

~ Voila ~
Gooey Ghosts

Once the chocolate has set (pop in the fridge to help this) remove the sticks and enjoy the healthy strawberry...adorned with the not so healthy (but only very thin layer of) chocolate...

Whilst looking through a very brilliant kiddies cookery book inspired by all of the crazy things within Roald Dahl's stories (thanks Sykes Cottages!) I came across a brilliant Halloween desert/drink idea...

...for Devil's Drenchers...

VERY Halloween-y

I used the basics of this recipe but changed it slightly - just to make it a little healthier than it was

Devil's Drenchers

~ bag of frozen red fruits (strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, blackberries)

~ 1 liquorice lace

~ 4 strawberry laces

~ fruit juice

~ dusting of icing sugar (optional to taste)

* Cover a straw with strawberry laces and liquorice (oops - sweets again!) by twisting them around it fairly tightly

* Place the frozen red berries into a blender with juice - we opted for 1/2 carton of no sugar cranberry and raspberry juice...

*...and BLITZZZZ it all up until smooth

* Now the recipe in the book asks for six tablespoons of icing sugar to be added now...yep - SIX...phew.

We added less then one tablespoon full and mixed in through the fruit but if I'm honest we probably didn't even need to use that either, the fruit tasted fine on it's own

* Spoon the fruit mixture into a glass, add the sweetie-covered straw - and a spoon - and enjoy the freezing fruit desert...until it melts of course...then enjoy it as a drink...

Very healthy, very fruity and very delicious

I think we became a little Halloween Treat giddy for a while, because our creation making continued...

Marshmallow EyeBalls

~ white marshmallows

~ chocolate chips or raisins

~ red icing

* Place a small blob of red icing onto the centre of each marshmallow

* Add a chocolate chip/raisin on top of this and use the icing to add little eye veins onto the white of each "eye"

Easy Peasy!

I know this isn't particulary a healthy treat as such...but...well...marshmallows are fat free aren't they...so it's healthy-ish...

We also, very simply turned an everyday, run of the mill, fruit salad a little Halloween themed too

To a bowl of very healthy fruit, add a little of the now melting Devil's Drencher and then decorate with a few of the marshmallow eyeballs...

A Fruity Blood Bath

All very quick, very simple, a lot healthier than the usual Halloween Treats found in my house and more importantly, all finished before my eight year old ran out of patience...

...unfortunatly the same can't be said for the cleaning up...

Happy Healthy Halloween

* a competition entry, collaborative post - all photos, and most of the ideas (except the Devil's Drencher) are my own

It's Going To Be A Lush Filled Christmas

I do love having excuses to pop on over to Leeds as regularly as possible these days.

And why wouldn't I - if I do it means I can squeeze in a few cheeky Lush visits as often as my diminishing bath-bomb collection requires - which is surprisingly quicker than you may think - especially with an eight year old in the house who is almost as addicted to Lush-ness as I am.

You can imagine just how happy I was then to be invited along to an after-hours blogger session inside of Lush in Leeds last week to be taken through the all new - and majorly fantastic - Lush Christmas range.

When we arrived, as hospitable as ever, the Lush staff greeted us with drinks and some amazing cakey goodness - the strawberry topped one was amazing - and encouraged us to have a little browse of - and even better a little play with - all the lovely new products on offer.

I was drawn immediately to all of the artistically displayed Christmas boxed gifts dotted around the store.

The packaging is just so bright, cheerful and very festive - you can't help but want to get closer to them.

Without a shadow of a doubt, they would make anyones Christmas outstanding:

~ they smell out of this world good

~ they come with a varying range of items inside

~ they don't even need to be wrapped up either

Can a gift get any better?

Being able to wander round the store and actually be encouraged to take everything in, to touch it, feel it and smell it is a very unique experience and is the exact reason why my son - who hates shopping - is such a Lush fan.

He loves the hands on approach the staff make possible - but then again, what child wouldn't - so when I saw the fab Snowman Kit I thought of him straight away.

Soap that is coloured coded to be able to really make a cute bath-time snowman is just fantastic.

And as always, the displays of bath related products on offer didn't disappoint one teeny little bit.

The Christmas range has very much excelled itself, and there is just so much to choose from, some of which includes:

~ the Christmas Penguin Bubble Bar

~ Golden Wonder Bath Bomb

~ Luxury Lush Pud Bath Bomb

Don't they look brilliant.

I mean they have got to be haven't they because with a shop that can even make your normal, run of the mill bar of soap a fantastical experience you wouldn't expect anything less.

Yog Nog soap is amazing - all creamy and fudgey smelling - yum...a piece already resides in my bathroom.

And I guarantee that Reindeer Rock will be next on my purchase list too.

It's brilliant - the detail in the design is just crazy - this is a block of body-washing soap - and it has reindeer carved into it...some even with 'ickle babies in their tummies

And it smells beautiful too.

Something else with unquestionable beauty has got to be...

... SNOW FAIRY!!!

Yay

I love this stuff - but then don't most people - and this is my first ever year of owning a bottle of it - it is very good.

And very nearly empty already seeing as how the two males in my house also very much love how it smells too...

You really do need to pop along to your nearest Lush store to get your hands on at least one of their Christmassy products - you'll be missing out if you don't.

You may even be lucky enough to see a Christmas product demonstration whilst you're there.

A great way to see the things in action before you take them home with you.

Personally I would recommend grabbing one of the beautiful gift boxes for someone - someone you very much want to impress this Christmas - they really are so pretty.

The lovely people at Lush Spa Leeds really impressed (and surprised) everyone by totally spoiling us and giving us our very own early Christmas pressie.

My treat came in the shape of this very bright star shaped box crammed full of goodies - which also led me to singing Star Of Wonder alllll of the next day too

I will be smelling amazing for weeks with this lovely little lot.

And can you spot my all important Snow Fairy - yep - it was in the box too - as was the Candy Mountain bubble bar - Lush obviously know how to make me smile.

I just loved it.

Thanks again Lush.

Brilliant Event

Brilliant Gift

Brilliant Store

Oooh - I Do Love Lush