Elevenses

In some ways Little Miss C is a very girly girl. She loves playing in her little play kitchen and one of the Christmas gifts that she loved most was a tea set that we bought her. We often have pretend tea parties together and I don't think it's coincidence that two of her first words were "cake" and "tea".

The tea parties aren't all make belive though. Most mornings after a good play session or a quick trip out I do try to make sure that we stop and sit down for a spot of elevenses together. By that stage of the day I need a cup of tea (normally Earl Grey these days) and a slice of cake for both of us makes that last bit of the morning much easier to deal with. We try and make it a bit of an occassion too – sitting at the table together and talking about what we've been up to that morning and our plans for the rest of the day. If we're out and about then we still try and make time for that morning pause and we've found quite a few local cafes where I know LMC likes their cake and we can get a high chair for her.

Years ago when I worked in a very old fashioned bit of the civil service it was almost compulsory to have elevenses! Anyone who didn't step away from their desk when the kettle went on was seriously frowned upon by our boss. The whole team sat down together and chatted over a cup of tea and a tea cake from the work shop. It worked a treat though and really did make the working day so much easier to get to the end of – sadly I've not seen it anywhere else, but I definitely think we should try to make it happen. Those lovely people at Anchor Butter are hoping to change all that with their campaign to bring back elevenses – definietly something that I will support.

When it comes to what to eat with your elevenses cuppa in our house the firm favourite with LMC is my Matilda cake (recipe here from when I last blogged about it). It always gives me a bit of a boost and the mixed fruit in it makes me think that there is at least a little bit of something healthy in there! I've no idea where the recipe originally came from, but I do know that it was in my mum's recipe book so I'm guessing from either a relative or family friend.

Anchor Butter are campaigning to bring back Elevenses and this blog post is part of their promotion. You can join Anchor either on their Facebook page or via Twitter. If you use the Twitter hashtag #AnchorElevenses you might also be in with a chance of winning some great Anchor memorabilia too!