Pre-baby afternoon tea in London at The Connaught
Or in other words…a baby shower afternoon tea in London.
Apparently you're only supposed to have a baby shower for the first time you're pregnant. Not sure if that's an actual thing, or whether someone at some point in History made that up to save time and money, or that they were just run down and exhausted after having had their first child!
I didn't think it was fair to celebrate the pending arrival of your first child and not the second. So after my first baby shower at The Dorchester back in 2021, I still wanted to spend time with loved ones to celebrate however, this time we tried a different approach with wanting it to be more intimate and focused on a different set of details.
It is for this reason I decided to make up the term ‘pre-baby afternoon tea’ as I wasn’t going in with the headspace of it being a full blown baby shower like last time. And my first thought was…what can we do instead of an afternoon tea?
Suffice to say, it was challenging to find something else, and I really did try. I looked into various lunch options but they all were lackluster or required you to hire a private dining room for over a certain number of people. It seems like you either go all opulent or all very basic, it was hard to find a middle ground.
And when it did come to afternoon tea, it was also difficult to find a hotel that would host more than eight people without coercing you to take a private dining room.
So I was really surprised that The Connaught didn't bat an eyelid when I requested a large booking and was delighted they were able to accommodate us in their Jean-Georges restaurant… and this is how we ended up doing yet another baby shower afternoon tea in London.
I absolutely loved how the restaurant had an alcove which meant we were still able to be part of the buzziness of the environment, whilst being somewhat secluded with our own space. The perfect middle ground between private dining and dining in the main restaurant.
This time round I had invitations handmade with a calligrapher I found on Etsy (I spend waaay too much time on Etsy) from whom I initially bought handmade Eid Mubarak cards from. I loved them so much I requested if I could commission these invitations, as well as handmade complementary thank you cards to accommodate the Laduree sugared almonds favours. When it comes to favours, I was looking to trial something different and was initially going to get a pocket sized Megan Hess book for each guest (I love her illustrative fashion books) but decided to save that idea for another occasion.
The hotel opened their own patisserie during the pandemic, The Connaught's patisserie, and I was keen on adding small touches towards creating a consistent theme so bought The Connaughty Hound chocolate pastry with a personalised invitation message to complement the paper invitations themselves.
I love tablescaping, something I didn’t get to do the first time round with The Dorchester (we opted for simpler, smaller buds of flowers in vases) but then this time round I requested if I could have a floral tablescape which they were able to deliver with their florist partner Moyses Stevens. I wanted a table filled with monochrome anemone; I love this flower in this colourway and wanted to stick to just this one kind to keep it simple yet elegant, but with variation in height to create some drama. However, due to anemones almost going out of season, they were paired with additional flowers which still looked stunning, but I can't say my initial vision was able to come to life! (Actually, my first flower of choice was wanting a table filled with mimosas but they’re even harder to get and were out of season. Maybe next time.)
The Connaught truly has one of the best afternoon teas in London, this was my third time and it didn't fail. I was so impressed with the pastries because most of the time they can all taste the same, all made of some kind of mousse and often with not much variation in flavour. But here the selection was not only varied but truly very well done from a pistachio profiterole which actually tasted like pistachio (which is a big sticking point for me that most pistachio flavoured desserts don’t actually taste like pistachios, but instead like white chocolate or marzipan) a mini tiramisu which you could taste the actual coffee, and a mini carrot cake with nutmeg, buttercream and nuts (thankfully no raisins. I’m not a fan). Plus three additional pastries that had a lovely balance of fruitiness and sweetness, not just all sugar.
This was also the first time I came across wholemeal scones which had a very light wholemeal flavour, but otherwise you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference from white flour scones (on the topic of novel scone flavours, I came across saffron scones for the first time at The Taj Hotel's Indian afternoon tea which were amazing… and with actual saffron pieces, not just flavouring).
And I was so touched and grateful for the truly exceptional service we had. At the end, our server even offered to clear away the flower display to make individual bunches and popped them into the Laduree bags for our guests to take away. When it comes to customer service, kindness, compassion and understanding goes such a long way. And I’m a stickler for this; I don’t care about what I’m getting per se, I care about how it is being communicated.
My second baby is due at the end of June 2023, and when people ask me how I am feeling, my only response is ‘I am soooo ready to get this baby out of me’! Additionally, being pregnant with a toddler truly is a whole different ball game.
Nonetheless, here’s creating small moments of beauty to look forward to, and to be grateful for the blessings within the commotion, blessings which we all have but just need to learn to see. So please join me in seeing the details of this afternoon through my eyes…
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