There are few things in this world Ivy loves more than a good cream tea. She even has a framed print on her wall (see below) that says, "I love you more than cream tea and scones"...and most days she doesn't know if that's a true statement! Can she truly love anything more than cream tea and scones?

Cream tea is really simple. Cream tea consists of clotted cream, scones, a bit of jam, and hot tea. Both the scones and the clotted cream take relatively no effort (but they do require a bit of planning). It's the perfect way to enjoy your tea-time without the expense and overindulgence of traditional afternoon tea. We really enjoy ordering cream tea when we visit England.

For quite some years, we went about life here in the U.S. without cream tea and only survived by planning our future visits to England. But times changed, and our hunger for cream tea went savage. We needed cream tea and we needed it NOW! So we decided to try and make it ourselves. Now that we have learned how to make cream tea we don't know why we went so many years without!

Clotted Cream

Ingredients:

1-quart heavy whipping cream (not ultrapasteurized, but it can be pasteurized)
A low baking dish (best to be long and wide so the cream is about an 1 1/2 thick when poured in)

Directions:

Clotted cream is crazy simple. All you have to do is turn your oven to the lowest setting we set ours to 150F. Then you pour the cream into the baking dish and put it in the oven for 12 hours (we put ours in at night so in the morning we can take it out). After 12 hours remove the dish from the oven and let it cool. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator. We leave ours in the pan until the following morning when we plan to have our cream tea. When you are ready to serve, skim the thick creamy top off of the watery bottom (looks like skim milk) and place the clotted cream in a bowl or jar. This only keeps for a few days so eat up! Keep refrigerated.

Vanilla Bean Scones

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 tbsp caster sugar
1-ounce butter, chopped
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 vanilla bean (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425F.
Combine flour and sugar in a bowl. Using your fingers rub in butter until it is lightly mixed.
In a separate bowl add milk and water and scrape vanilla bean seeds into the mixture. Discard the bean shell. Add milk mixture to flour mixture.
Using a butter knife, mix to create a soft, sticky dough. Flour surface and knead dough until smooth.
Roll out gently to 1 1/2 inch thick. Cut out circles with cookie cutter or the top of a plastic cup.
Place on ungreased baking sheet. Lightly brush milk on the tops of the scones and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until tops of scones start to turn golden.
Serve scones with clotted cream, jam, and a pot of tea.