When we lived in London we found its legendary inclement weather quite acceptable. London is all about good tea and genteel rituals: a celebration of opaque skies and lazy afternoons snacking from stands laden with cakes and dainty biscuits.

There was a cracker of a ‘greasy spoon’ not far from where we lived in London. They had an amazing two-handled enamel teapot filled with tea that would gradually get more bitter and tannic as the day went on. Thank god for milk and sugar. Suck on a few dunked digestives, sink back into a well-worn chair and you have reached Elysium.

Real biscuits are evocative. There is something soothing about them, like being at your grandmother’s house with the smell of roses wafting through the bedraggled screen door. The special teapot is drawn from brown-glass cabinets, and you are treated to tea and taught the proper way to drink, with the pinkie finger extended… The sheer simplicity of biscuits and their ability to morph with a little dunking into another texture and flavour makes them endlessly desirable.

Afternoon-tea stands are now laden with macarons and macaroons, tricky slices of layered French-style entremets, cupcakes with gravity-defying frosting, whoopie pies and ho-hos, ding dongs and ethereal tarts. I celebrate their place, but nothing compares to taking a moment out with a cuppa. We try not to compete with the classics, but rather delve deep into their soul to see if by chance we can find their true origins, before they became the mass-manufactured oddities sold in mega-marts.

Many über chefs have turned up their noses at the fact that we make cupcakes in our shop. The reality is that every day we are making butter cake for Teena to carve and coat in elaborate creations for special events, so to sling in a few cupcakes makes sense and adds to Teena’s impressive cake cabinet, which fronts the shop.

Dave Osborne (Super Dave, friend and extreme barista) created our legendary ‘cupcake challenge’ and insanity was let loose upon the shop. Eat a cupcake in under a minute with no hands and it’s yours! To date the fastest was 13 seconds, but we cannot comment as to whether that fine young lad ended up in intensive care with frosting on the brain.

These recipes are the ones that will send your sky rockets in flight and satisfy you for afternoon delight.