Afternoon Tea from my Victorian Cottage

Afternoon Tea from my Victorian Cottage – Hello and welcome to my Victorian Cottage in the heart of the beautiful Lincolnshire Wolds

Hello from the Lincolnshire Wolds

Hello, and hello to a new week……January seemed to go on forever, but finally we are into February, and the days are getting longer with each passing day.

Today I would like to invite you all to Afternoon Tea from my Victorian Cottage, where I now live, cook, bake and share my life with two cats and a husband!

As regular readers will know, we moved house two months ago, from our Old Schoolhouse in North Wales, to an old Victorian Cottage in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

Many readers have asked me why we moved – after all, the Old School was a fabulous house, and home, and we’d just had a Shepherd’s Hut built and added to the back paddock, for B and B.

Well, it wasn’t an easy decision, and one we didn’t take lightly. But, we found the size (and age) of the building, or should I say buildings, hard to maintain.

The acre of garden was utter bliss for space, but it took so much time to mow the grass, keep the weeds down and just generally keep it all looking tip-top.

We loved the area, but the weather was a little challenging! It DOES rain a lot on North Wales, it has to be said. Then, there were some quite personal reasons, mainly the distance from family.

So, with heavy hearts, we decided to sell and move over to the East Coast of England, to be closer to family and all of that East Coast sunny weather!

Why the Lincolnshire Wolds? Well, we’d been there a few times on holiday, and I’ve always thought of the region as a hidden gem.

Plus, we have some friends who live in there too, which is always nice, including my very good blogging friend Dashing Dom from Belleau Kitchen.

And, apart from all of the reasons above, it’s just the most glorious part of England, as well as being a designated area of outstanding natural beauty.

For those readers who live aboard, or whom have never visited the area, the landscape is of gentle, rolling hills, with sparkling chalk streams, a myriad of country paths through hidden valleys, and the most amazing BIG SKY everywhere you look.

Throw into that bucolic mix, sleepy stone villages nestling in hills and vales, ancient market towns with cobbled streets, and the wild rugged coastline within driving (and walking) distance of the Wolds, and you have a wonderful place to live.

So, today I would like to invite you all to Afternoon Tea from my Victorian Cottage, in the Lincolnshire Wolds.

I’ve shared some Afternoon Tea recipes below, as well as a quick snapshot of our lovely new home, an old Victorian cottage, that was built in 1870.

We’ve only been here for just over two months, and we still have a lot to do……unpacking, painting, gardening, and the usual dilemma of where to put everything!

But, we are already SO happy and settled here, albeit we miss some of our close friends in North Wales, but they are visiting us soon.

Our village has a small shop with post office, a pub, a Chinese takeaway, a cafe, a surgery, a primary school and church.

As well as all those essential amenities, it also has numerous clubs and societies, such as the WI, a gardening club, an art club and a boules (petanque) club.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about why we moved, and please DO follow some of the links I’ve added about the Lincolnshire Wolds.

I’ll leave you with a small gallery of photos of our new home, as well as some recent photos of an afternoon tea I hosted for Viking TV. I’ll share the time and link when my afternoon tea programme when I have the schedule.

Bye for now, and see you soon with some new recipes, Karen

Photo Gallery of our Victorian Cottage

Afternoon Tea Recipes

• Yorkshire Tea Fruit Loaf for Afternoon Tea
• Queen Victoria, The Women’s Institute, A Famous English Sponge Cake and Afternoon Tea
• Create the Perfect Cream Tea
• Small Batch Cream Tea Scones
• Traditional “Bara Brith” Tea Loaf
• The Jubilee Baking starts here! Victoria Scones for a Jubilee Tea

• Salon de Thé and Classic French Madeleines
• Old-Fashioned Coconut Macaroons
• Old-Fashioned Almond Rice Cakes
• Old-Fashioned Milk Chocolate Cake
• Manor House Cake
• VE Day Condensed Milk Cake

• Drop Scones (Scotch Pancakes)
• Melting Moments (Biscuits/Cookies)
• Rock Cakes (Rock Buns)
• Classic Madeira Cake
• Coffee Walnut Cake
• Coffee Walnut Cake

Featured Afternoon Tea Recipe

The Queen’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake

My recipe today for The Queen’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake is a variation on one I have been making for years, without realising that it was Her Majesty the Queen’s favourite cake. It was a favourite for birthday parties and the cake tin, with my daughter taking a small square to school in her lunch box sometimes.

Apparently, Her Majesty is so fond of this recipe for The Queen’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake, that she has it daily in the afternoon with a cuppa, and will enjoy a slice every day until it is all gone. I love this idea that The Queen is a bit of a chocoholic, and enjoys a simple no-bake cake above other more complex cakes.