Masterclass with Cherish Finden

Masterclass with Cherish Finden and Afternoon Tea - Langham Hotel London.

Earlier on this year, Mövenpick Ice Cream set 15 food bloggers the challenge of creating their own ice cream sundae recipe.

 

The prize was an exclusive two-hour masterclass with the Langham’s Head Pastry Chef Cherish Finden, followed by afternoon tea for two at The Palm Court. Well, I couldn't believe it when I was told I'd won!

So this Monday it was off to The Langham Hotel in London to meet Cherish for the Masterclass, now anyone will tell you I don't do pastry and cakes simply because I can't. I just don't have the patience required.

I cook by adding a bit of this and a bit of that till it tastes right and if I had my way there would just be a rough outline of a recipe so everyone could make their own mind up about how much of any ingredients to use - that said this wouldn't be much of use as a food blog. Cooking is an experiment and baking is like science you have to measure and be precise and I can't do it.

Cherish is such a lovely friendly person and a brilliant teacher - let us face it she taught me how to ice this cake and make the roses! Due to the nature of the day, it wasn't practical to take proper pictures so these were taken on an iPhone by a lovely girl Antonella who has just started working at the hotel. She did a great job and I'm really grateful or I wouldn't have any pictures to include in this post.

Cherish showed me around her two kitchens and then she said I was going to ice a cake and make roses I nearly fell over since I am so useless at that kind of thing. But as I say she showed me how, I paid attention and I did it!

 

Cherish had a cake and so did I - here you can see we've iced the cake and now it has to be smoothed so it's all proper and professional looking. Yes that's my cake at the front of the picture and I put the icing on (feeling pleased with myself) 😊

Here we're making the rose petals - there are two different ways and as I couldn't master the first to save my life Cherish showed me another way with the icing under plastic and success.

  

Each rose has about 6 or 8 petals and has to be perfect. At this stage I was getting worried I honestly didn't think I could do it but look below - this is one of my roses!

 

I had such a fantastic time in the kitchen and I fully recommended a Masterclass with Cherish Finden she is so very talented and a great teacher.

Now it was time for Afternoon Tea in Palm Court at The Langham. This was amazing - all the sandwiches and pastries are made by Cherish and her team so you can see just how clever and talented they are.

 

As recommended by Cherish I had the Bijoux Afternoon Tea which was served with a glass of Laurent-Perrier Champagne; I wasn't going to argue 😉

The Menu:
You can choose from our range of teas with the assistance of The Langham's tea sommelier.

SPECIALITY SANDWICHES INCLUDING
Foie gras and smoked duck with granny smith apple
Lobster, cucumber and shisho dressing
Smoked mountain ham, aged comté, garden peas and truffle
Foreman’s smoked salmon and brie with pickled apple purée
Piquilo pepper flan with candied pine nuts

SELECTION OF SCONES FROM OUR PALM COURT BAKERY
Served with Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry preserve
Bedford
Raisins
Chocolate

ÜBER SELECTION OF PASTRIES AND CAKES
Tantalising Japanese bloody mary macaroons
Mandarin orange chocolate with cocoon meringue
Lightly roasted pistachio and apple sour diamond
Hereford strawberry and lemon Battenberg with lime jelly truffle
Abstract passion fruit and mango dome

With a piano playing in the background and all this lovely food Palm Court is a truly wonderful place to have afternoon tea - oh yes I could get used to this.

Thank you so much to Mövenpick, Cherish Finden, The Langham Hotel and Palm Court and Jessica for organising this - I had an absolutely fantastic day.

By the way for anyone interested and that missed it here's my winning Ice Cream Sundae: