"Make a cup of tea and put a record on..."

Earlier this week, I took out TC and friend (KD's daughter) for her belated birthday where we went for a girl's day out for tea at Shakespeare's Corner Shoppe...

I don't know about you, but when I hear the word tea, I think of these lyrics from The Cure's "Love Cats":

"We should have each other to tea, huh...
We should have each other with cream..."

OMG, you can tell that Robert Smith is totally lip syncing and in such a blase manner as well! Can you believe this performance is nearly 30 years old? Yikes! He must be in his early 50's now.

Anyhow, it had been more than a year since we were last here for tea...

If you do want afternoon tea, they start serving it from 12 noon to 2:00 p.m., but you must first make reservations a few days in advance. You can't just stop by and get a full tea here since they have to prepare the food.

As we were waiting for them to prep our table, the owner Seline invited us to partake in their "tea sniffing bar" where you can open up sample tins of their different teas.  What a great idea to "preview" what you'll be drinking. I quite liked this green apple tea but also found an intriguing caramel scented tea.

I've always gotten something fruity in the past but I wanted something different for today...

The view from our table.  Thank goodness the patio was shaded and that the owner drew the blinds so I  wouldn't get sunburned!

All of our tea pots had different patterns and shapes. The girls did not get a tea pot warmer (with a burning candle) since they are still considered "children" (BTW, the "child's" tea is half the price of the adult price, but the portions are smaller). I guess they are afraid kids will knock down the stand and burn the place down. I don't blame them. Man, I don't even trust myself with a burning candle!

I had the Scottish Caramel Puerh (at 6 o'clock); moving to the left, TC's Almond Roca tea (delicious!), and her friend's Tutti Frutti (a decaffeinated fruity punch-like tea).

My tea smelled so good and it really did have a lovely caramel scent and flavor to it! TC's tea was like drinking candy!

Below, the girls' light and puffy cheese straws:

I was served a mini creamy Chicken and Mushroom pot pie instead. Loved the cute little round puff pastry topper.

The girls got their own tray with savory and sweet sandwiches, along with the scone and assorted sweets.

The top tier of my sandwiches. From left to right - smoked salmon with cucumber, egg salad with chives, croissant with hame and cheese and in the back, a mini sausage roll, and the triangular goat cheese with sliced green apple (I hated that one and gave it to TC). There was also a ramekin with Branston pickle...

Here's the other side of the top tier...

Each girl had their own little tray (both held the same thing) - four types of mini sandwiches, a mini sausage roll, a scone, a ramekin with Devon cream, a square of iced fudge, and a cream cheese topped mini spice cake. The sandwiches were cucumber, ham and cheese, and a chocolate spread. There was also a mini votive holder (or shot glass?) filled with a butterscotch pudding topped with butterscotch chips (hidden by the red paper lining).

More of my tray. The bottom tier held a scone, a strawberry, the same butterscotch pudding, and a toffee covered shortbread...

Another shot of the tray for the girls (you can see the pudding now)....

The egg salad sandwich with pubey alfalfa sprouts. Last time they served "Coronation Chicken".

Cucumber and cream cheese with chives which made it look more visually appealing and gave it extra flavor.

The smoked salmon and cream cheese topped with a cucumber and the Union Jack! This was my favorite savory item besides the mini sausage roll.

Ham and cheese croissant. It was speared with a cherry tomato and toothpick but I ate it prior to this shot (the tomato, that is, not the toothpick). The mini sausage roll did not make it in the photos either. I wish there were more "savory" than sweet items actually.

The scone was a bit heavy so I saved the other half for Bert (he always gets the spoils of our lunch and dinner outings, lucky him). So good slathered with the cream and strawberry jam.

I ordered a Scotch Egg for us to share because I was still craving more "savory" than sweet. This time, it was served sliced (the last time it was served whole and we had to cut it ourselves). In the ramekin is HP sauce (which smells like steak sauce but is thicker).

I've made Scotch Eggs before but instead of frying them, I baked it. I think this was baked as well because the owner mentioned that these just came "out of the oven".

Here are some of the desserts - this was a toffee topped shortbread square. I thought it would be soft, but there was "resistance" when I bit into this. The topper was a dove shaped candy.

This was a sticky toffee bread-like sweet (don't remember if it had an official name). Liked this one!

The girls were given this next one - a small square of iced fudge. My tray didn't have this. Bummer. This was the favorite of KD's daughter.

This scarlet sugar topped spiced mini cake was TC's favorite. I ended up giving her mine since I'm not a fan of spiced desserts, as cute as they may look.

We were given sorbets to end our tea - raspberry and lime. I ended up trading my lime with TC.

Lastly, some English creamy toffees.  By this time, we were all sugared out!

It was shaping up to be a very nice day in which we would be making a few more stops before going back home...

Here's my previous visit with TC and the neighbor girls from two years ago...

Up next, a visit to a very cool but hidden spot in San Diego...

*Trivia - the title of this post is from the song, "Waking Up" by Elastica