Don’t worry, be Abbey, and enjoy these teatime treats
Everything stops for tea at Downton Abbey. MARION McMULLEN learns how to cook cakes fit for high society
AFTERNOON tea is a treasured English tradition and no-one knows better how to prepare and enjoy a proper tea than the residents of Downton Abbey.
The popular ITV series has helped to rekindle interest in the repast and the Official Downton Abbey Afternoon Tea Book shows how you can recreate the Edwardian favourites and add a touch of 1920s elegance to food. The cookbook spans sweet and savoury and features many of the cakes that would have made an appearance on Downton Abbey such as madeleines. These seashellshaped French tea cakes were a customary addition to the afternoon tea tray at Downton and were kept in biscuit jars by the beds of sisters Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Lady Sybil for late-night snacking.
They were also a favourite of lawyer and Downton heir Matthew Crawley whose middle-class upbringing showed when, on his first visit to Downton, he loaded up his plate with the small, delicate cake-like madeleines.
Gareth Neame, executive producer of Downton Abbey, has written a foreward to the book and says: “Few customs are more iconic of England than the afternoon tea. Everything about it – the etiquette, the fine china, the sandwiches and cakes – epitomises some of the very best England has to offer.
“Scenes of afternoon tea are prominently featured in Downton Abbey, all of them reflecting the height of fashion of the era. The word tea had long been used as an umbrella term for a variety of different occasions that involved tea drinking.
“It could be as modest as a cup of tea with a slice of cake at home or a pot of tea and some warm scones shared in a railway tearoom, or it could be a grand tea party held in the grounds of a great estate. “Downton Abbey gives the viewer a window into the tradition of this afternoon ritual both upstairs and downstairs.”