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

Moroccan Mint Tea

Moroccan Mint Tea is something I've been meaning to try recently. I love tea, I drink tea too much, but it's always English builders tea. I really wish I liked green tea, herbal tea etc, but I just don't. I need a ridiculous amount of sugar for me to like it, and a lot of the time I'm too impatient for it to become drinking temperature. But mint tea has for a long time, been very enticing ( too much time spent watching food programs and being influenced easily), and this weekend I gave it a go, and it was very tasty.

What you will need:

Tea pot -

Teacup/ Tainted glass tumbler

• 10 fresh mint sprigs, plus some for garnish
• 2 green tea teabags, or three teaspoons green leaf tea
• 3 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste
• 4 cups water

Place all your mint, teabags and sugar into your teapot. Boil your water and pour into the teapot (about 4 cups).

Leave to brew for three minutes, then strain your tea, and its ready to pour.

I added another mint sprig to add some colour.

My verdict : Tasty as an occasional treat, but for general purposes I will stick to builders tea!

Scott's verdict : Again, quite nice, but can't beat English breakfast tea!