Well hey there pals! It's been a little while since my last post on here, but I thought this fun little thing I went to to celebrate my best friend Larissa (read her blog here) turning 28 would be perfect to tell you about! On a sunny Tuesday a week or so ago, we headed south to the gorgeous Kensington Townhouse for an afternoon tea named 'Tale As Old As Time'. Well, she'd initially invited her mum but since she couldn't go this gal was in second place - winning! Townhouse had initially first created this afternoon tea with a magical twist for the release of the live action Beauty and the Beast Disney film but as it was proving so popular they've extended it through to December. Once it's finished, they will then be looking at creating another afternoon tea based around Disney - we told the staff our preferences when they asked for feedback (Aladdin or The Lion King!).

T H E   F O O D

Before we were told about all the yummy food we were about to eat we were presented a Cogsworth, Lumiére and Mrs Potts ornament for the table, unbeknownst to us that Mrs Potts was carrying something very important.

SAVOURIES

Bite size venison pie

Beef ragu & saffron arracini lemon créme fraiche

Cheese Soufflé roscoff onion pissaladiere

A SELECTION OF SANDWICHES

Potted Argyle smoked salmon & créme fraiche

Roast Devon Red chicken with cranberry

Cucumber & cream cheese

Egg mayonnaise & cress

SWEETS

Vanilla & gold jelly

'Try the grey stuff' white chocolate mousse

Chocolate clock tart chocolate ganache

Spiced snowball macaron coconut &chocolate

Speculoos dress marzipan

Marie's sweet brioche baguette

Before the tiered plates came out with our afternoon tea on, we were given our starters which, as you can see from the menu were foods taken straight from the 'Be Our Guest' song in the film: 'Beef Ragu, cheese soufflé!' which were all absolutely stunning and perfect for whilst we were settling into our seats, drinking our Bellini's and (still) taking some photo's.

But then it was time for the main event and our lovely waitress told us all about the food - simple, quintessentially British finger sandwiches and then the sweets which, again, all held a meaning from the film. Me screaming 'It's Belle's baguettes!' made the waitress very happy and Larissa laugh, probably in embarrassment (classic Sam). The sandwiches were well made and you could tell the filling was fresh and the bread was perfectly spongey...we finished the lot and were even offered more. But, we wouldn't have had room for all our desserts if we took up that offer...and, in my opinion, the dessert is always the best bit! I fell hard for the coconut macaron which resembled the snowball fight Belle and Beast have in the film and Larissa couldn't get enough of the chocolate clock tart!

Once we had finally finished as much as we possibly could we were able to still sit there and chat some more, the staff were really lovely and didn't make us feel rushed. Sometimes I find, with things that you have to book like this, they've booked so many people in that they instantly want you to leave when you've barely finished your last mouthful. This wasn't the case and I'm sure Larissa would agree that this little afternoon out was the perfect way to spend her 28th birthday. Plus, she officially asked me to be one of her bridesmaids so you can't really get better than that, can you!

We had a little while to mingle, take a look at the new wedding collection and have some food and fizz but then it was soon time to get serious and watch the flower crown demonstration so we could then create our own masterpiece. Settling into our amazing seats we watched the demonstration, picked our flowers and gave it a good go. It was incredible that with the same tools and flowers so many of us girls made such a variety of flower crowns. As I was starting mine I knew I wanted it neat and in a particular order using the pretty pink roses I had picked up. But some were huge and all on one side, the other was small and dainty and some were just really, really out there.

As we were making our crowns we were being handed delicious canapés and had our glasses topped up with ~even more delicious~ wine - that's my kind of event! We'd finally finished our creations (a mere hour or so after we'd started) and so had time for yet more food and wine and the chance you don't normally tend to get at these events to actually chat to more bloggers and the Pandora girls as well. The new wedding collection by Pandora really is so so beautiful so if you have a wedding coming up or you're looking for a gift for someone who does I would highly recommend looking here and here.