St Valentine's Day can be a bit difficult for we single folks, so I decided to make the best of it this year and do something special with the person I love most in the world - my daughter Daisy. For a special treat, I took her to the wonderful Cherry Blossom Bakery in Church Street, Macclesfield, for afternoon tea. And when I say a special treat, I mean SPECIAL!
The bakery tea room is chic, but cosy, with a minimalist decor which allows the cakes and the eclectic mix of beautiful vintage china to be the stars of the show. I had booked ahead, so when we arrived our table was reserved and beautifully set with those extra little touches that make it such a unique place.
We settled in with a pot of tea and I gave Daisy a Valentine card from Mum. Rather aptly, the card used the cupcake builder punch, but in a different way. The card was inspired by our Julie's Jems all day team training, although I used the large heart punch for the balloon instead of a circle punch, to go with the valentine theme. I used a scrap of the glitter dots paper from the Holly Berry Bouquet paper pack, proving it's not just for Christmas! The sentiment reads "Love is in the air..."
Then our tea was served on a gorgeous 3-tier vintage cake stand. We had dainty finger sandwiches with egg, cheese and ham, followed by yummy scones with jam and clotted cream, slices of buttery Victoria sandwich and lemon drizzle cake, and assorted prettily decorated cupcakes, all washed down with pots of piping hot fresh tea. It was divine! Warning: the following pictures are drool-worthy!
And here's Daisy getting ready to dig in!
When I was a child, I remember they used to do a similar afternoon tea in the posh tea rooms at Bristol zoo. We weren't very well off, and a trip to the zoo was a real treat, but we always took our own packed lunch to save money. I remember pressing my nose against the window to watch the people having tea and thinking how very elegant and fine it was and vowing that one day when I was a grown up, I'd have tea there! Unfortunately, the tea room was converted into a self service cafeteria before I had the chance. So I love the fact that Cherry Blossom Bakery is bringing back afternoon tea as an event, like a perfect snapshot of byegone days with a modern twist. The service is exemplary - friendly and attentive without being intrusive, and you never feel hurried. This is meant to be an indulgent, relaxed treat, a chance to spoil yourself with a leisurely chat while grazing on delicious titbits and watching the world go by. It's a million miles away from the noise, crowds and plastic wrapped food of the big chain coffee shops. And at £10 per head it's much better value too.
I'm afraid we didn't finish everything, but they are happy to box what you don't finish to take home. And as a special touch for Valentine's Day, we were presented with a gorgeous extra box containing two Valentine cupcakes to take home too. Daisy is cooking dinner for her boyfriend James tonight, so that's their dessert sorted then!
We don't always get to spend as much time with our teenagers as we'd like, so it was a very special time for me, made more special by the lovely people at Cherry Blossom Bakery...thanks guys, it was awesome! I can't recommend it highly enough. If you are in the area, go check it out, though I'd recommend booking a table in advance, as it gets very busy, especially at weekends.
Hope your Valentine's Day was as lovely as mine and I hope you enjoyed hearing about my Valentine's Day...back to papercrafting with my next post!
