Confessions of a Chocoholic Afternoon Tea, London Hilton, Park Lane

I'm not sure if I really believe in soul mates, but if I did Georgie would be mine (sorry Mr Hef). We are both boys under our super girly exterior (thats a bit of a lie, I look like a boy from the outside too), have oddly similar boyfriends and share a love of all things food and cake. I met Georgie when I started working at a chocolate shop in Southampton. She didn't like me because she thought I was trying to take her job, little did she know I was a massive slacker who was just there to constantly annoy her. Any way, this year for my Birthday Georgie got me the most awesome present, a chocolate lovers afternoon tea at the Park Lane Hilton Hotel in London. The afternoon tea started with with a super friendly man explaining all of the options on the menu. Georgie and I were happy to eat whatever they gave us (as long as mine was veggie!) and we started things off with a glass of champagne.



They then brought us an assortment of teas to look at/smell, which excited us both greatly. I went for an afternoon tea blend, I can't remember what Georgie had, because I'm useless. After we had our champagne and tea, it all started to get very exciting, we were presented with the most beautiful finger sandwiches I have ever seen. They were absolutely delicious and quite dainty, which luckily left enough room for the large amount of cake we would soon be eating.



After the sandwiches we were presented with a beautiful 3 tiered tower of scones, pastries and miniature fancies. I didn't manage to take a good picture of how beautiful it was, because, quite frankly I was too excited about eating it all (sorry). After getting over the excitement of the beautiful cakes, we went straight in with the warm chocolate chip, plain and fruit scones. Once again they were absolutely delicious and perfectly accompanied with jam, cream and the best chocolate praline I have ever tried. All the the cakes and scones are handmade at the Hilton and you can really tell, they we're light, fluffy and extremely fresh.

Then we got to the cakes. I don't even know what to say about them. Each one was unique and had an amazing flavour. I think my favourite was the raspberry and elderflower cupcake, mainly because anything containing elderflower is a winner in my books.

After we had devoured the first cake layer (which consisted of a battenberg, Sasher torte, raspberry and elder flower cupcake and a red velvet cupcake). We were ready to tackle the second (which consisted of white chocolate and cherry cheesecake and red velvet and orange tuile, Milk chocolate cremeux, pistachio macaroon with manjari chocolate filling, iced shortbread butterfly with an orange and chocolate profiterole, lemon and raspberry marshmallow cone and a meringue lolly). This layer was made even more exciting by the fact that the plate was made of chocolate. Yes! YOU COULD EAT THE FREAKING PLATE. We noticed that some of the other guests that were enjoying the afternoon tea were taking their left over cakes away in super cute little boxes, but Georgie and I aren't ones to be defeated by food. No! We ate the whole thing, well, we didn't quite manage to eat the whole chocolate plate, but Georgie took a bite. She's a real champion. 

Obviously I would recommend this to any one, it was the perfect way to spend an afternoon in London.  Everything was to such a high standard and tasted like heaven! If you're not convinced, here's a picture with Georgie and the chocolate plate. A CHOCOLATE PLATE!

Posted in: resturants