I love Halloween, and I have been having a tough time lately, so I booked myself into the Halloween-themed afternoon tea at Hilton Park Lane on Saturday. Afternoon tea is held at The Podium restaurant, and visitors have a choice of an afternoon tea for children (featuring a teddy bear to take home) or the seasonal afternoon tea. Several years ago, I visited Hilton Park Lane for their chocolate-themed afternoon tea (Chocolate-Themed Afternoon Tea at Hilton Park Lane), which I enjoyed despite it being very sweet and very filling.
The Halloween afternoon tea came with a selection of sandwiches. I also opted for the champagne. Sandwiches include smoked salmon on brioche, coronation chicken with pineapple and raisins on brioche, egg mayonnaise on white, cucumber on brown, and tuna on brown. (I had a special selection as I have a great dislike of mayonnaise and do not eat most meat.)
I had the Darjeeling tea. After the sandwiches were completed and I'd had seconds, the three-tier treats came out.
The treats were organised as "pastries" and "fancies", so let's start with the "fancies". The first one on the top tier was the "Rocky Road Grave Stone with Marsgmallow Cherries". This was a traditional "rocky road" style biscuit with a delicious crunch and flavour with chocolate grave and skull.
The second "fancies" was the Gooey Raspberry Gel in A White Chocolate Mousse. This fancy was covered in coconut with a light mousse filling with jelly and white chocolate slab. It appears to be "blood spattered" with red splats and lines across it. I find white chocolate too sweet, so this one was a little too indulgent for me.
I'll move on to the "pastries", from left to right in the below photo. First up is the "Blood Orange Log and Chocolate Sponge". For those who love chocolate orange, this one is for you. It is topped with a jack-o-lantern chocolate. I'm on the chocolate-orange haters as it always upsets my stomach, so this one was not for me.
Next up is the "Spooky Lemon Meringe Cake". I thought this would be my favourite, but the sponge was too dry. This was essentially a lemon drizzle cake with meringue and lemon curd.
The third one is the Caramel Popcorn and Toffee Apple Cake. This cake was moist and had a nice flavour, so I did enjoy this.
The final pastry was the "Pumpkin and Dark Chocolate Choux". This pastry reminded me of an orange pumpkin with a spider web on top. I did not taste "pumpkin", though, and I thought it tasted more of chocolate.
The scones included a set of three toppings: salted caramel, clotted cream, and strawberry jam. Two of the scones were plain, and I also had a chocolate chip one and a raisin one. They were delicious and light.
Overall, it was a nice afternoon tea experience, though I was kept waiting around at times.
Previous Halloween afternoon teas on this blog:
Halloween afternoon tea at Waddesdon Manor
Halloween Afternoon Tea at Corinthia
Previous afternoon tea at Hilton Park Lane:
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