Afternoon tea

3rd year girls and their scones
Originally uploaded by LaurenCampy.

Today I had only one class at my school in Oshima. The class was a double period, and so my teacher suggested that it would be nice to cook with the students (who are 3rd year, so 17/18 years old), and introduce them to a traditional food from the UK. I decided on scones, as the recipe for scones looked quite simple (I have never made them before!), and I thought it would be great to tell the students about a traditional afternoon / cream tea in England.

I showed the students some pictures of what should be in an afternoon tea, explained what scones and clotted cream are, and even told them about tea-rooms (Bettys for example!). We gave them the recipe for scones, and off they went in their groups of four to their cooking areas. There were 4 groups in all...and the results of the baking were mixed ; The girls in the picture were stars! They were very quick, didn't make a fuss about anything, and their scones, although not tasting like English scones, were pretty delicious...thick biscuits! They enjoyed eating their little pile of scones with the butter and blueberry jam that we provided. They had a proper little tea-party! The group of boys (doomed from the beginning), decided they wanted to use more than a pinch of salt, and added more and more throughout the cooking process. The result was a thin / strange-shaped salty cracker! Actually quite tasty though! The other 2 groups did ok...eventually! They took ages, but their scones looked pretty in the end, even though they didn't really taste like scones!!!

The students all enjoyed the lesson though I think, and the teachers also enjoyed the leftovers in the staffroom! I have promised to bring back some proper English scones when I return from England in August, and then they will understand what a true afternoon tea tastes like!