Afternoon Tea at the Fairmont Banff Springs.

Today Danny and I decided to treat ourselves to something a bit fancy and different and something that I have wanted to do for a long time. I LOVE afternoon tea. For as long as I can remember I've always loved tea and cake and back home it's something special for Mum and I to do and spend some quality mother daughter time together. But today I shared my love/slight obsession with afternoon tea with Danny, lucky him! It was a very last minute decision so we had 20 minutes to get out of bed and up to the Fairmont for our reservations, so we got on our bikes and pedalled as fast as possible. Two minutes to spare, we made it.

We were shown up to the upper section of Rundle Lounge to the most lovely looking, posh, sophisticated room and sat at a table with the most stunning views of the mountains. Best table in the room for sure, we are getting pretty lucky with good seating recently. We were greeted right away with a list of 13 teas to choose from. Luckily for us the afternoon tea was all a set menu, so tea was the only decision of the day to be made - I went with Kyoto Cherry Rose which is a green tea, and Danny chose the most Canadian tea he could find, maple maple. They put maple in bloody everything here, family and friends in England something maple based is more than likely to be your present when we come home in September!

So after the tea arrived we were brought a shot glass with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries in a pepper and mint syrup which was so refreshing and lovely. But then came the good part. The first course was a three tiered stand of scones and finger sandwiches. There were two scones each, a sweet and a savoury: orange and dark chocolate, and green onion and cheddar scone served with Devonshire cream and a selection of butter and jams. The sandwiches were delicious: ham, brie mustard mayo and caramelized onion; cucumber, shaved radish and chive cream cheese; smoked salmon, lemon cream cheese and capers on pumpernickel bread; egg salad, alfalfa sprouts, gherkins and chives on a savoury croissant; and curried chicken salad (coronation chicken to us english folk), apple, raisin and watercress. Such a varied and large selection, it was delicious. Personal favourites: the ham/brie/onion/mustard sandwich, and the coronation chicken one. Lovely.

Every time I go out for afternoon tea with Mum we never ever manage to finish the entire thing, and somehow at this point we weren't even close to full, so we ploughed straight into the cakes. Again, three tiers but this time full of sweet and sugary goodness. Now the cakes change regularly due to seasonal produce and new inspiration from the chefs so I shall try and remember as best as I can what we had. We started with a chocolate macaroon and a raspberry macaroon, followed by green tea and honey sponge cakes, a cream filled raspberry finger and an almond biscuit. Then down to the really fancy cakes: a coffee and chocolate ganache cake, a coconut and raspberry sponge cake, and a rosemary and vanilla cake. Of course our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we had to box up the entire bottom tier of cakes to enjoy at a later time at home. We shall see how long they last in the fridge...