Alison Reed Fine Cakes (Afternoon Tea delivery)

Cost – £35.00 for two people, including delivery (November 2020)

Parking and Access – This tea was taken in the inside area of the venue. There is one small step to enter the building. The toilet is up a flight of stairs with no alternative access. There is on-street parking available in front of the venue.

Background – At the start of the second lockdown in England, for the coronavirus pandemic, I did a google search to see if I could find any more local companies that were delivering Afternoon Teas that I had not found during the earlier lockdown.

I spotted that a small company called Alison Reed Fine Cakes had done a special Afternoon Tea delivery, just during that period. A quick investigation led me to discover that she would be doing deliveries during the second lockdown as well. I got in touch immediately!

Contents per person – A butternut squash, goats cheese and sage empanada and two feta and chive pastries. One large plain, a mini tub of raspberry jam and a mini tub of clotted cream. A cherry cheesecake macaroon, a mini spice cake with a marzipan centre, a piece of chocolate orange battenburg cake and a piece of gingerbread blondie. There was no tea provided.

Options available – No options were available for this Tea

Comments – We were told the Tea would be delivered between 12:00 and 1:30. In the end, we were the last delivery for the day. However, it still arrived well before 1:30. It arrived in neat cardboard box with the company’s logo on the top.

We placed the items that needed to be kept cold in to the fridge until we were ready to have our Tea.

I have based my presentation score on the way the package was presented in the box. In this case, it was extremely good.

We served the Afternoon Tea on our two-tier cake stand with pretty flowered plates, with the scones, jam and cream on a separate flowered plate.

The savoury items were warmed up in the oven before eating.

The empanada was delicious and unusual.

However, the little pastries were really yummy. I could have eaten an awful lot of these!

We also warmed the scones in the oven before serving them. They were fairly large and were plain. They were very nice scones and were certainly fresh.

The raspberry jam was tasty, but a bit too runny. However, there was just about enough for the scone. Unfortunately, there was not really enough clotted cream for one scone each.

The cakes looked delicious and each item was a reasonable size.

We started with the battenburg, which was different from the usual pink and white version, as it was flavoured with chocolate and orange. It was really good.

The spice cake and the macaroon were also really good.

The macaroon actually tasted really nice – they so often taste of very little.

Finally, we had the gingerbread blondie, and I was in heaven! It was so delicious! A really good cake selection indeed. Each item tasted lovely and was very fresh. Alison Reed does indeed make fine cakes! I imagine her full sized cakes are delicious – maybe we will find out one day.

My service score is based on the service we received. This was efficient and helpful.

Savoury	2.0
Scone	1.5
Jam	1.5
Cream	1.5
Sweet (variety)	2.0
Sweet (quality)	2.0
Tea	2.0
Presentation	2.0
Service	2.0
Value	2.0
Total	18.5

All opinions expressed in this review are my own. The photographs are all my own.

I remain completely anonymous and always pay for my Afternoon Teas. They are never gifted to me by the businesses reviewed.

I am the legal copyright holder of the content and images on this blog.