We love food. And in our opinion, there’s no better gift than making and sharing food for Mother’s Day.

If you’re searching for the best Mother’s Day afternoon tea ideas, you came to the right place.  We are here to help you jazz it up. And yes, you don’t need to be a master baker or an experienced chef.

The Mother's Day afternoon tea ideas we have prepared for you fit every child’s kitchen skills or the lack of it 🙂  Big children included.

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea Ideas

This Mother’s Day you can:

  • Take your Mum out
  • Surprise her with a picnic
  • Create a wonderful stay-at-home afternoon tea

Treat For Mum & You: The Traditional English Afternoon Tea Idea

For those of you that don’t want to do any cooking or baking - enjoy some time out with your mum.

You can’t go wrong with getting dressed up and visiting somewhere special. Why not visit the famous Fortnum & Mason’s tea salon for some afternoon tea. It isn’t just award-winning for nothing. With a beautiful, traditional setting and a wide range of teas and traditional finger sandwiches, it doesn’t disappoint. Feeling something a little different.

Why not try an afternoon tea on a bus? This new trend seems to be catching on quick. As well as delicious food you can see all the sites and attractions while you eat.

Mother’s Day Picnic Ideas

No rain forecast! Taking a sunny walk to a nearby park and pack a surprise meal for you and your mum.

Whatever that location is, you’ll need to prepare:

  • Picnic basket
  • Tupperware and tin foil
  • Plates, cutlery, napkins
  • Blankets
  • Food and tea
Picnic hamper
Plan for an afternoon tea picnic
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Creating an afternoon tea as a picnic will certainly need some planning. For a picnic, you can pack anything, but as you’re moving afternoon tea outdoors, you need to cover the basics: sandwiches, pastries and cakes. And there’s no Mother’s Day afternoon tea without the centrepiece - the tea!

We’ll help you out with our Mother’s Day picnic idea, they have a bit of a French twist.

French Mother’s Day Picnic Idea

Sandwiches

The traditional British sandwiches are ham and mustard; cucumber, egg and cress, smoked salmon and coronation chicken.

These are the classics. But why not try a French twist and make baguette sandwiches?

Baguette sandwich recipe: Jambon Beurre

Jambon is ham, and beurre is butter. It’s a classic sandwich anywhere in the world for a reason. And looks great on a fresh-baked baguette.

Jambon beurre baguette sandwich
The classic: baguette ham sandwich

Recipe (easy-peasy): Spread the butter generously over the crispy baguette, slice in two and add slices of ham (sliced thin). To make it even more attractive, add slices of Emmental cheese.

Some greens are always welcome: sliced cucumbers or a little lettuce! Mum will be proud you’re eating your vegetables.

Freshly baked scones or croissants?

Scones with clotted cream and jam, just writing about them and you can smell that freshly baked smell. The buttery taste that’s hard to say no to.

You can make your own scones to surprise your Mum. They’re actually not so difficult to bake.

How to make scones?

Scones recipe
Bake scones for Mother's Day

Scones Ingredients:

  • 50g Butter
  • 200g Self-raising white flour
  • 1 tbsp Silver Spoon White sugar
  • 125ml Milk (whole)
  • A pinch of salt

Scones recipe:

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C
  2. Whisk butter into the flour until it starts coming together as breadcrumbs. Add sugar and salt.
  3. Make a “crater” in the center of the mix and stir in the milk. Mix until the dough comes together.
  4. Create rough squares out of the dough, 3- 4 cm thick and put on the baking paper.
  5. Brush with milk on top and bake for 15 minutes.

The classic spread for scones is clotted cream and jam. Whatever your mum likes, it can be strawberry, apricot or blueberry jam.

And if you don’t have time or the willpower to make scones, make a French twist and make some croissants. They have the right amount of buttery flavour and go perfectly with any jam and cream.

Drinks

There’s no afternoon tea without the tea. So bring the thermos bottle with you.
Of course, don’t forget to pack the water and some juice.

Drinks, food and something to put it all in and you’re ready to go. Now to find a nice bit of greenery nearby to lay down your picnic blanket!

Afternoon tea at home: Throw your mum a surprise!

Your mum has prepared so many parties for you, now it’s your time to shine. Throw an afternoon tea at home, and make it a surprise!

Decorate the table and enjoy some afternoon tea from the cosy comfort of home, creating the scene for some afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea setting the table
Setting the table correctly is really important when you're creating the afternoon tea atmosphere

Lay a tablecloth, cutlery and some napkins. If you’re feeling extra fancy maybe google some napkin origami! Your mum is coming around so find that vase and pop in some fresh flowers.

If you want to absolutely recreate the event, print out the menus.

Stick to the traditional order.

1. Always start with sandwiches

When you’re creating an afternoon tea at home, you have the freedom to do everything. Go with rich cream sandwiches, like dill and egg salad finger sandwiches or tuna salad finger sandwiches.

We suggest you throw in a creamy warm sandwich, typical French delicates - the Croque Monsieur.

croque monsieur recipe
It's warm and creamy, a perfect start for afternoon tea

Croque Monsieur Sandwich recipe

Ingredients:

  • Bechamel sauce (make it or buy it)
  • Butter
  • Dijon mustard
  • Ham
  • Cheese: gruyere/gouda, parmesan
  • Bread

How to make a croque monsieur?

  1. Spread bechamel sauce over bread (best bread for this is something like Pain Ancien, 1 or 2 days old)
  2. After bechamel place cheese so it covers the bread slice and spread a bit of Dijon mustard
  3. Place ham
  4. More cheese in between

After you have prepared this delight, place it on a heated pan with butter and toast it for a few minutes. After that, put more bechamel on the top along with the cheese and place it in the oven at 200 degrees. It should be around 10 minutes that everything melts together.

Watch it over until it becomes bubbly.

2. First savoury, then sweet…

After sandwiches, it’s a tradition to serve scones and cakes. We have already shared a scones recipe above and suggest serving jams with croissants.

As you’re at home, you can have a play around with setting up the perfect looking cake selection.

Tartlets aren’t only delicious, they also look stunning with their bright red (strawberry) and yellow (lemon) colours. Macaroons with their vivid colours are also a tasteful bite as well.

Or why not bake a cake!

The choice is yours.

3. The tea ceremony

How to make the perfect cup of tea is a contested subject. Tea first? Milk first? How much milk? Sugar? Sweetener? Surprise your mum with the perfect brew just how she likes it.

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea with PAUL 

You can bake, create, set the table or go for a picnic. And if you don’t fancy baking, we have our very own limited edition Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea Boxes to buy online for home delivery.

macaroons and ckaes for mother's day
The beautiful delights you need, all in one box

They include everything you need for the perfect afternoon tea. From strawberry jam and clotted cream to Fairtrade English Breakfast Tea, and delicious patisserie, our sweet treats are all lovingly handmade in the PAUL kitchen.

Once the table spread is looking beautiful, bring mum in for a wonderful afternoon tea surprise!