The Berkeley · Since 2006
The Prêt-à-Portea biscuits
The Berkeley’s Prêt-à-Portea tea, launched in 2006, serves biscuits and cakes shaped like the season’s couture: a handbag in vanilla shortbread, a shoe in chocolate, a dress in mousse, changed twice a year with the collections.
Taste profile
Pair it with
A glass of rosé champagne, as the room intends.
The Berkeley’s pastry team started the fashion tea in 2006 with a small collection of biscuits modelled on the catwalk and has changed it every spring and autumn since: a bag in shortbread and icing, a pump in chocolate, a coat in sponge, each with a card naming the designer. The tea is served in the Collins Room with a silver-topped trolley, and the collection is the reason to book.
It is the wittiest afternoon tea in the world and, underneath the icing, a very good one.
The home version · serves 6
Ingredients
- 250 g butter, soft
- 120 g icing sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 vanilla pod
- 320 g flour
- A pinch of salt
- Royal icing: 1 egg white, 200 g icing sugar, lemon juice, colours
Method
- Beat butter and icing sugar until pale, add the yolk and vanilla seeds, then the flour and salt. Chill the dough one hour.
- Roll 5 mm thick and cut handbag, shoe and dress shapes with a template and a small knife.
- Bake at 170 °C for 12 minutes until pale gold; cool.
- Make royal icing, colour it in pastels, outline and flood each biscuit.
- Pipe details, a clasp, a bow, a stitch line, with a fine nozzle and let dry overnight.
Where to taste it
