Fortnum & Mason’s “Time for Tea” is an entertaining guide to tea by Tom Parker Bowles. The company has nearly as much experience selling tea as Britain has of drinking it — some three centuries’ worth — and the book takes readers on a journey of discovery behind the history of Britain’s favorite drink, with an in-depth look into how to make the perfect brew and identify a wide range of teas to suit different tastes, occasions and times of day.
This fun guide whisks you through all the information you need to get the most out of your cup of tea, including delicious recipes to accompany your brew and tea inspired cocktails.
Along with perfect tea and biscuit pairings, readers will discover 50 sweet and savoury recipes curated by Roger Pizey the Executive Pastry Chef, each one paired with a different tea. Tea cocktail recipes have been provided by Mustafa Tumuri — Fortnum’s chief mixologist.
Recipe: Matcha Layer Cake
Serves 8
This is a beautiful cake, stained bright green by matcha, that has no need for an oven. Do make sure you choose the plate you want to serve it on before you start, as once made, it is very difficult to move.
Tea Pairing:
Apricot, Honey and Lavender Infusion
A fruity, rounded infusion, ideal with herbaceous matcha
For the pancakes
180ml whole milk
80g caster sugar
180ml double cream
4 eggs
40ml vegetable oil
125g plain flour
15g matcha powder, plus extra
for dusting butter, for frying
For the Chantilly cream
300ml double cream
60g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
Heat half the milk in a saucepan with the sugar over a low heat until the milk is steaming, but not yet boiling, and the sugar has dissolved. Pour in the rest of the milk, and add the cream, eggs and oil. Beat to combine.
Sift the flour and matcha powder into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour the wet ingredients into the well and use a whisk to beat everything together until smooth. Cover and place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Heat a little butter in a 25cm frying pan and fill half a ladle with the batter. When the butter has melted and is foaming, pour the batter in the ladle into the pan and tilt and swirl to coat the flat base of the pan. Cook the pancake for 3 minutes over a medium-low heat until it begins to bubble and the sides of the pancake start to come away from the pan. Use a palette knife to flip the pancake over and cook the other side for a couple of minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with baking parchment.
Continue cooking the batter until you have 15 pancakes, adding a little more butter to the pan if they start to stick. Stack the pancakes between sheets of baking parchment to prevent them sticking together as they cool.
Beat the ingredients for the Chantilly cream together in a bowl until the cream holds its shape when the whisk is lifted from the bowl.
Lay one pancake on a serving plate. Spoon a tablespoon of the Chantilly cream in the centre and spread with a palette knife to 1⁄2cm from the edge of the pancake, to form a thin layer. Top the cream with another pancake, and spoon another tablespoon of cream in the centre of the second pancake. Spread the cream the same way over the second pancake, to 1⁄2cm from the edge, and repeat with the rest of the pancakes and cream until everything has been used up. To finish, lightly dust the top with matcha powder.