Christmas Afternoon Tea at Love Lily, Sunderland

* This is a collaboration with Love Lily

During my dash around the North East hunting for the best hot chocolates in the region I made my first ever visit to Love Lily, a cute tea room and cake shop by the sea on the beautiful Roker Beach in Sunderland. The charming little place is getting quite the reputation for its colourful cakes, indulgent hot chocolates and mouth watering breakfasts, in fact you'll need to be super organised to get yourself a table - it gets busy!

Of course when I discover somewhere new for cake it's not long before I'm planning a return visit for Afternoon Tea and with Christmas just round the corner I couldn't resist a trip to Sunderland for Christmas Afternoon Tea at Love Lily, served throughout December it looked like one of the most delicious festive cake stands you'll find this season!

Stretchy Santa pants at the ready, this is going to be a big one!

We were warmly greeted on a wet and miserable Sunday afternoon and shown to a lovely table by the window (people watching at the beach is one of my favourite activities so I was in my element!) and within moments we had a glass of Prosecco in our hands. Yep, festive afternoon tea at Love Lily includes a glass of Prosecco or Peroni on arrival, I mean if you can't enjoy a cheeky glass of fizz at Christmas then when can you?

Raising a festive toast we settled ourselves down with talk turning instantly to Christmas - family plans, present ideas and party outfits, I don't know why but chatting festive plans in such a wonderful surrounding seems to take the stress out of everything. If you're feeling Christmas overwhelm I highly recommend just booking yourself a table at Love Lily, it's the best spot to take a few hours out of your hectic schedule.

It wasn't long before our beautiful cake stand turned up along with a pot of bottomless tea for two (Ringtons of course, forever my favourite tea brand!) With amazingly attentive service our tea pot was never left empty and I couldn't even begin to tell you how many cups we sunk between us. In my opinion a good afternoon tea always has to come with endless tea and those Christmas Elves were on hand at Love Lily to ensure that our teapot seemed to magically refill itself. There's nothing worse than running out of tea.

Our cake stand was packed with three tiers completely covered in food! Starting with the assorted sandwiches on the bottom tier we had a lovely selection -  Cheddar Cheese & Apple Chutney, Roast Ham with Wholegrain Mustard Mayonnaise, Turkey & Cranberry and Stuffing & Cranberry. With the crusts cut off the bread, the sandwiches were so delicate, perfect for a proper afternoon tea. The bread was really fresh and squishy and the fillings were generous. I knew from the first tier that we were truly onto a winner.

I LOVE a scone, and at Love Lily you get three and despite being described as "mini" they were generously sized and I knew that despite being a pro at defeating afternoon teas I'd never be able to get through them all. The Cheddar Cheese Scone was divine - with huge chunks of cheese and a perfect consistency they were served with proper butter (the kind I'm not allowed at home as I'd just get greedy with it!) and were so good completely slathered in butter.

The other scones on the tier were sweet -  Vanilla and Spiced Fruit both served with Raspberry Jam and Clotted Cream. I always used to be more of a fan of strawberry jam on an afternoon tea but recently Simon and I have decided we actually prefer raspberry so I was very happy that Love Lily seem to share my love - raspberry jam with scones honestly is just the best.  Scones are so hard to get right and so many times I've been left disappointed by an afternoon tea when the scones haven't been up to scratch. Love Lily make a damn good scone, some of the very best I've tried in the North East and believe me that is a huge compliment!

After a short rest we were ready to tackle the final part of our festive afternoon tea, the indulgent cake tier. Beautifully presented with loads of colour we had a beautiful selection with Chocolate Orange Macaron, Sticky Toffee Pudding Truffle, Red Velvet Cake and Mini Sweet Mince Pies.

Knowing it's always best to go for the lightest option first (they don't call me the North East Queen of Afternoon Tea for nothing you know!) we started with the Chocolate Orange Macaron swiftly followed by the mini Mince Pie. Both are two of my favourite flavours of Christmas and the perfect addition to Festive Afternoon Tea.

Next up was the Sticky Toffee Pudding Truffle - WOW! The  most indulgent richest chocolate treat you could ever imagine, it was absolute heaven but unfortunately finished us off. There was no way we could manage the Red Velvet Cake after that so we boxed that up along with the scones that we couldn't quite manage) to enjoy at home later.  Nothing beats festive leftovers and the Christmas Afternoon Tea at Love Lily gives you the very best leftovers you could ever imagine.

I absolutely loved my first afternoon tea experience at Love Lily and it has easily made its way into my top five afternoon teas in the North East, if you've not yet been for a visit you really must make a plan.

Christmas Afternoon Tea at Love Lily costs a very reasonable £18.95 per person and includes a glass of fizz and bottomless tea. If you fancy feeling extra festive they are also hosting Festive Afternoon Teas with live music every Saturday in December for £25.00 per person.  Please make sure you book 24 hours in advance and if afternoon tea isn't your thing make sure you're following Love Lily on Facebook to find out about the other treats they have available this Christmas.

Find Love Lily at:

1 Pier Point
Marine Walk
Seaburn
Sunderland
SR6 0PP

0191 5656329

We were invited to Love Lily for a complimentary Afternoon Tea for Two in exchange for this honest review.