Food Lovely Food

The teddy bears had invited their friends over and they were all sitting indoors discussing their favourite subject - food! It all began when Oscar had declared that he'd absolutely adored the cream tea he'd had the previous week.

"Who wants a tea just made with cream?" asked Henry. "I like cream, but that seems a lot!"

Oscar laughed. "No, silly," he replied. "A cream tea has lots of gorgeous food in it. There's a special 3-tiered cake-stand and on the bottom tier are little sandwiches filled with egg and cress, or ham and tomato, or salmon and cucumber.

Then the middle layer has scones, with dishes of fruit jam and clotted cream. The top layer has little fancy cakes."

"That sounds much better," agreed Henry. "That's almost a proper meal! But what's clotted cream? And why are there dishes of jam and cream with the scones. Aren't the scones just full of fruit?"

"Well, the scones are what really make a cream tea," explained Oscar. "The scones tend to be plain rather than fruit scones and you split them open and then spread jam and cream on top.

Clotted cream is a much richer, denser version of double cream and is served in place of butter. It is normally made in the counties of Devon and Cornwall (famous for their cream teas by the way) and can be called Devon Clotted Cream or Cornish Clotted Cream."

"That sounds very yummy," said Henry, longingly.

"Lucky for you then that I brought some scones and jam and clotted cream with me for us all to taste!" Oscar announced. "Let's go in the kitchen and assemble them."

All the bears were suddenly very interested in scones with jam and cream, and they all rushed to help. "Just a minute! Just a minute!" Oscar called. "The kitchen isn't quite big enough for all of us. I just need a couple of helpers."

Edward and Alfred were first in the queue so they went into the kitchen to help Oscar split the scones and then spread them with jam and cream.

They also found a big pile of napkins (scones covered in jam and cream tend to be quite messy for teddy bears to eat!)

As they were getting things ready, Edward had a sudden thought. "Oscar," he queried, "which do we spread on first - the jam or the cream?"

"It doesn't really matter," replied Oscar. "But Devon and Cornwall have different methods and woe betide anyone there who makes them differently! The people in Devon put the cream on first, and then the jam. However, the people in Cornwall put the jam on first, and then the cream. There's not really any right way (except in those two counties of course!) but I tend to put the jam on first and then the cream because I find it easier to spread cream on top of jam and not vice versa."

Alfred decided to try at least one scone spread with cream then jam, but they all decided that, although it tasted just as good, it ended up looking really messy. So they spread the scones with jam first and cream on top of that and took them in to the other bears to try. They all declared them very good indeed.

This all led to a further conversation about which were each bear's favourite foods. Obviously, scones were now very high on everyone's list. But each bear had other foods which were their favourites.

Teddy said that, although he liked cakes very much, he preferred savoury food, especially runner beans!

Edward admitted that, although scones were very much one of his favourite foods, especially now, he thought that creamy rice pudding was just as good, even better if some yummy fruit was sprinkled on top.

Tommy liked tomatoes best - especially the ones they grew themselves in the greenhouse. Eating one straight from the vine, while it was still warm from the sunshine, was a great treat.

Vicky's favourite was good old-fashioned strawberries and cream. A very summery taste.

Charlie was adamant that there was nothing better than ice-cream! He was especially fond of ice-cream with fruit in it, swirled with chocolate sauce, in a cornet. Everyone's mouths began to water at the prospect of trying out some of these other favourites some time too - maybe not right this minute since they were now very full up with scones and jam and cream!

What are your favourite foods? Ask your friends too - you might be very surprised at what other people like the best. And maybe try some scones with jam and cream, whichever order you spread them in. The teddy bears have already put a full afternoon tea on their list of the next things they want to try!