So my Harry Potter themed Afternoon Tea has come and gone. The most immersive and most expensive Tea i have done to date. It took the longest to prepare for the decor and foods and hopefully is the most elaborate to date.
I visited the Harry Potter Studio tour on Thursday for the 1st time and did pick up some wizarding world items to enhance the Tea for the sweets challenge. The props alone for this Tea have made it the most expensive to date and find how much at the end of the blog.
Just like the films it takes many people to make it all happen, and would like to thanks my parents and also partner for their help in the decor and filming on the day. It took most of the 2nd half of the week to do the decor, prepare the props and plan, shop and bake/prepare the treats on offer.
The Tea has been in the planning for over a year, but on paper mainly, since i was visiting the Studio Tour the same week i decided to end the week with the Tea.
I searched the internet and many of Pinterest posts for inspiration for treats and foods to make alongside my original ideas. I have never read the books but seen the films. A lot of the references i found came from the books and small snippets from the movies. I wrote them all down and done a shortlist and came up with my menu. I was happy with all i did but you always want more. I ran out of space on the table I need a long banquet table !
SETTING THE SCENE
Whilst planning i came up with the name Platform 9 Tea/4 as my backdrop was to be the Hogwarts Express. I already had a trolley from my market stalls so used that with some loaded up luggage to set the scene I wanted a cage for Hedwig but knew it would be a waste getting it for a one off, so found an adorable but expensive Hedwig from Platform 9 3/4 shop online for £35 originally £45 and the biggest one they make and exclusive to the shop also. The backdrop came from Ebay as per my others.
I saw the Hogwarts letter pack in Sainsburys and decided to make my own Acceptance letters and also brought a wax sealer online and made 20 to hang on a wall to set the scene further. I made some floating Candles from hot glue and Paper towel holders and tealights and hung from the ceiling. These were all hung with invisible thread so did indeed appear to be floating besides the obvious sellotape mark on the ceiling.
I had the idea also to have Hogwarts on the table and that came in 3d puzzle form. I was lucky to win 2 auctions on eBay hoping all the pieces were there! it took me 5 days to complete both of them myself and 1 piece was missing. I paired them with my Lego like Harry Potter Mini figures and think they went great together even if the scale is somewhat out lol. I had imagined this in the centre of the table and cake stands on each end, but was naive and it had to go at the far end of the table but looked good anyway.
SORTING HAT
I do have one of the original talking sorting Hats but it doesn’t work, i saw Argos had a sale on the new version for £17.49 i got it as they are usually £40+ within a week or so it was back to normal price so glad i got it. I used it as a prop and to sort everyone into their Houses before we begun the Tea.
THE TEA
I was lucky to get hold of the Harry potter Teapots, 1 from Primark and 1 from eBay( from primark) and the House crest Mugs these were all reasonable compared to most around. I found a Round Marauders map Beach towel ( yes round) i used as a tablecloth with my Black cloth underneath. I knew i wanted a Birdcage cake stand for the Tea and found one on Amazon using my vouchers i got 2 and £30 off. I did not try my plates on it and last minute figured the big plates would not fit, so had to use the side plates as the stand plates and big plates as our plates to eat off
I just had a choice of Loose leaf plain Tea and regular Tea for this Tea.
MUSIC
My Dad is the sound man and he had the Harry Potter Soundtrack from the films playing in the Background which created some ambiance.
THE FOOD
After gathering references and ideas it took 3 days plus of preparation to make it all happen with all the sweets and savories enough to feed Dumbledoores army!
The savouries
For the Sandwiches i made Endless Bacon , Corned Beef ( Ron’s least favourite) and Chicken & Ham
Cheese wand Scones
Pumpkin Pasties – These are mentioned as being eaten on the Hogwarts express and no mention of sweet or savoury, a lot of recipes made them Pumpkin Pie type fillings. I saw some savoury i made mine into Curried Pumpkin which were really nice.
Mini Steak Pies
THE SWEET STUFF
Their was endless possibilities for sweet items and i whittled it down to several, haa i still had loads.
Golden Snitch Cake ball Truffles – Sprayed gold and complete with Rice paper wings.
Treacle Tarts – Harry`s favorite apparently who knew?
Hagrids Rock Cakes – A definite improvement on Hagrids version these mini Rock cakes were great.
Harry`s Birthday Cake – I made a small Vegan Chocolate Cake complete with Strawberry Pink icing and a rustic message ” Happee Birthdae Harry” with the crack down the middle.
Lemon Sherbet Eclairs – Filled with Vanilla Cream and topped with Lemon Sherbet icing and crumbled Sherbet sweets dust.
ButterBeer mini Cupcakes – If you have never had Butter beer it is a cross between a cream soda and Butterscotch topped with a cream like top layer. To replicate this i made a Butterscotch flavour sponge topped with Butterscotch buttercream and coloured yellow.
Chocolate Frogs– right from the start on the Train these were a definite to add to the Tea. I made my own in some moulds with Rice Crispies/Coco pops pieces inside. typically they contain a Holographic wizard Cards in their boxes.
Philosophers Scones – Love the name i found online. I topped my Scones with a lightening scar for added effect.
I recorded the Tea live, but much to my horror afterwards found once the tablet fell the sound had cut out after 9 mins!
Luckily my partner had made his own videos and i borrowed them from him allowing the whole thing to be relived in short clips. I always film them via Facebook live and with a new tripods thought this would be okay. Tripod needs sorting out for next time seemed to be top heavy with my tablet resting on it. Happy with the combined footage
SWEETS CHALLENGE
As part of the Tea i wanted to have a Bertie Botts sweet challenge afterwards ( The disgusting flavours) and also take the chance to try some other Harry Potter inspired Sweets. I got from Universal studios the original Frog and the studio tour here i got the rest of the Honeydukes Sweets and around other places. I looked at reviews of some and picked the ones which got the best scores. Some for what they was i left. I was lucky to get some cheap and discounted in Tkmaxx in a hamper bundle for £5
The sweets i got were
- Chocolate Frog in Box – Universal Studios Orlando
- Chocolate Frog packs x2 – Chocolate & Puffed Rice Pieces
- Fizzing whizzbees
- Peppermint Toads
- Exploding Bon Bons Orange & Pineapple
- Bertie Botts every flavour Bean
- Jelly Slugs
- Gringotts Chocolate Coins
- Lemon Sherbets
SO HOW WAS THEY?
The Bertie Botts Bean challenge we picked 3 Beans each and from the reactions we all got mostly disgusting ones. I got Grass and Toothpaste which tasted like deep heat lol. I mixed them in with Bean Boozled which have nice and nasty flavours.
The Chocolate frog in box from the states is Big and fills the box but however is American Chocolate! so could not eat much of that for it is not the best eating Chocolate.
The Puffed Rice Chocolate frog with Cards were also not that great and i could not believe the size of them once opened compared to the size of the packet. Disgraceful for the price.
The Exploding Pineapple & Orange Bonbons in White Chocolate were very nice but not much fizz with the Popping Candy for any of us.
Fizzing whizzbees – I liked the Chocolate shaped like Bees but again not much of a whizz or Fizz, think it must have flown away.
Mint Chocolate Toads – Dark Chocolate and extremely strong Mint taste, okay but a bit overpowering for most of us.
Jelly slugs- various flavours and small little Chewy gummy sweets these were okay.
Gringotts Chocolate Coins – Come in a little sack with an emblem on it, the Chocolate was okay on these a novelty more than anything.
Lemon sherbets – i got these from Tesco they are nice just plain Sherbets
These sweets were interesting to try but expensive for what you get
Fizzing Whizzbees £8
Peppermint Toads £5
Frogs packs £4.50
jelly beans packs £3-4 each
Sherbets – available anywhere really from £1 or less
Explosing BonBons £8
Jelly Slugs £3-4 a pack
Chocolate frog in Box £8-10
It was an eventful evening and after such a lot of planning it came to an end. I invited my work colleague and friend Sharon to participate in the Tea rather than watch it from fb live. Hope she enjoyed her time on Platform 9 tea/4 and she went home with a goodie bag of treats and souvenirs.
This was the most expensive tea i have done in the 2 years i have been doing this project for fun. it came in at the cost of WAIT FOR IT! £356.30
The cost of food was low compared to the Props, Teaware and other items that made this whole Tea what it was. Of course i have the props and plushies to keep for another time. Some i will sell on the things i do not need to keep. The rest will stay for the return to Hogwarts one day.
Adampastryguy 