Two Yorkshire teenagers are aiming to be the cream of the crop during their gap year after setting up their own cream tea service at a Pickering farm shop.
Best friends and baking buddies Chloe Avison and Georgia Jackson have put their ‘cake obsession’ to good use over the summer holidays by setting up Vintage Afternoon Teas at Cedarbarn Farm Shop & Cafe.
The 19-year-olds, who have spent the last few weeks planning the special menu, baking and making all the cakes, scones and sandwiches by hand and undertaking market research, are passionate about setting up their own tearoom in the future. Chloe is taking a one-day-a-week course in bookkeeping and accountancy, while Georgia is splitting her time between studying patisserie at York College and baking at Cedar Barn three days a week.
The Vintage Afternoon Tea, served Monday to Friday 2pm-4pm on vintage china and pretty three-tier cake stands, will offer four different types of sandwiches including smoked salmon & cream cheese, Aberdeen Angus beef, Cedar Barn free range egg & watercress and Wenselydale cheese & chutney, as well as the traditional scone, jam and cream, a savoury quiche and a trio of mini desserts made up of fools, shortcakes, cheesecakes and tarts ““ all made with local, seasonal produce.
Star of the new summer tea menu will be the farm’s tabletop strawberries, which, thanks to this year’s changeable weather, have grown from the normal ‘7’ on the Brix fruit measurement scale to a gigantically juicy ’10’!
“We’re planning strawberry shortcakes, tarts and cheesecakes over the next few weeks but have lots of other plans in the pipeline, it’s very exciting to be running our own business,” says Chloe, daughter of Cedarbarn Farm Shop owners Karl and Mandy Avison. “We’re both very entrepreneurial ““ and cake obsessed ““ and it’s always been our dream is to run our own tearoom one day. This is a great starting point for us and great practice.”
The plucky pair, who have known each other since secondary school, conducted their market research by visiting several food fairs and tearooms. “By the end of the first week we must have eaten around 8-10 cream teas ““ but it was all in the name of good business research of course!” adds Chloe.