The Sugar Plum Tearoom, Rhewl

Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the long gap between blogging this past two weeks, it's just Ive been totally consumed in the opening of our new tearoom 'The Sugar Plum Tearoom'. Ive been involved in so much, from decor, to preparing food, choosing crockery and adding final touches to make it extra special. Now that it has finally officially opened I will have more time to do bogging, art and cooking etc :) But for now, I have some pictures to share with you from this first week (We had a 'soft lauch' on Monday and were now at the end of the first week).

We wanted the tearoom to be a lovely place for all generations, and somewhere where you have the combination of beautiful surrounding's and delicious local food! The colour scheme is light and bright and I especially love the different coloured chairs and food tins that hold the plants :)

Scott has been wonderful, and spent so many hours helping my parents, myself and the staff at Homewoodbound out in making the tearoom possible, - so thanks Scott :) He's also head waiter and is a pro at the coffee machine already! (I'm still learning that part....)

The kitchen is open plan and all the fresh homemade local cakes are displayed on the marble counter.

Here are some blueberry cupcakes we tried on Saturday - they were so pretty and still tasted delicious and creamy.

Happy customers from this past week :) -

Cath is the lovely lady that makes the majority of the cakes - she's really talented and her St Clements mascarpone sponge cake is a real favourite already!

This was our welsh afternoon tea with bara brith and Welsh cakes, served with butter and a pot of tea for two.

My homemade 'Watercress' soup was going down a treat earlier in the week. (The same watercress soup recipe I posted a few weeks ago).

This was my grandma enjoying a cup of tea this afternoon, I love her too bits and she and my grandad have both been to sample various items from the menu.

I will post more as time goes on, but I'm also working of starting a blog just for the tearoom, so I will also post the link for that site as soon as I'm finished tweaking it...

You can find us on Faceboook - The sugar plum tearoom

And on twitter - SugarPlumTRoom

The website is also in development, but my mu Hazel has written a blog featured on Homewood Bounds site - Tearoom Blog

Drink sampling with the family

Sampling is so much fun, and it's interesting to see the difference in people tastes. I tend to like anything with elderflower, ginger, raspberry or apple, whereas my grandma prefers citrus flavours, and my mum prefers beetroot and tomato juices.

carrot and apple, beetroot juice, pear, cherry and apple, elderflower, cox's apple, lemon , summer berries, raspberry

I personally liked the pear ! It was refreshing yet still had a lovely sweetness to it. The carrot and apple was really not to my taste! I think that was batting for the healthier side, rather than flavour! The apples and elderflowers were good, and the tomato juice had a spicy kick to it. There were a few other flavours not listed here, like tomato juice, orange, ginger beer etc. The tasting panel consists of my mum, dad, grandma, Scott and I, which is a good balance of old and young, male and female and we came to a decision of our favourite 5 flavours!

I can't wait for the tearoom to open, it's been so exciting helping making all sorts of decisions from interiors and props to food and drinks. We've all put so much time and effort into making sure the little attention to details are just right.

I think the jewel tone colours are beautiful, and I feel inspired to mix a couple of my own drinks after tasting these! What are your favourite flavours to drink?

Shortbread samples

Over the last few weeks I've been lucky enough to help test some samples for the new tearoom my parents are opening in the near future. Ive tried everything from fruit presses, scones, brownies, shortbread etc, and it's been wonderful! I particularly like the fruit cordials and presses, as I have a bit of a love affair with anything made with elderflower, and I found the brand that makes the perfect bottle! I will post more about this once everything has been finalised, but until then I will leave you with a few images from this week's samples....

Here are some delicious shortbread I had for lunch yesterday. They were crumbly and delicious, but after consuming too many I decided to 'jazz' them up a bit and added clotted cream, raspberries and a sprig of mint. The combination is so yummy, and really transforms them into a delicious treat or even a small dessert!

I had them with a glass of cold full fat milk, because let's face it, life's too short to bother with skimmed milk, especially to drink on it's own.

I have a bit of a t'hing' for paper straws, especially the red and white kind, and when they came in the post the other day I was so excited! They make whatever your drinking feel that bit more interesting and special!

Here is Scott sampling a lightly sparkling plum presse. The colour was so pretty, but we both agrees it needed a bit more 'oomf' as it wasn't as plum-y as we had hoped.