- “Simply Splendid”
As Christmas approaches, Marilyn Mirabelli is a very busy woman.
Marilyn, the person behind one of my favorite websites, has a tea catering company called Simply Splendid Victorian Afternoon Teas. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, you’ll find her filling clients’ orders and preparing to cater afternoon teas for tree-trimming or other Christmas parties. Marilyn Mirabelli knows her tea. And, since 2004, she’s been living her dream of having a thriving tea business.
As you’ll see on Marilyn’s website, she’s revived the afternoon tea in classic style:
“A Simply Splendid Victorian Afternoon Tea unfolds with the well-appointed tea table: Crisp white tablecloth and tea napkins; china teapot and cups and saucers; freshly-made tea sandwiches that are trimmed and quartered, small cakes, biscuits, and of course, classic English scones with imported Devon double clotted cream. This is accompanied by the choicest loose leaf teas.”
Marilyn is also a talented writer who produces a series of high-quality, interesting stories on her website. It’s like having some tidbits of history with your afternoon tea, and enjoying it too! Here’s something I learned from Simply Splendid:
“Queen Victoria made afternoon tea popular, very ‘it’. But she did not invent the tradition. That honour goes to Anna, Duchess of Bedford, a Lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria and prone to fainting spells in the afternoons. The royal doctor was called; he diagnosed Anna’s fainting spells as hunger from the long stretch between lunch and supper and prescribed a cup of hot tea and buttered bread whenever a fainting spell was coming on.
Anna found this so agreeable, she invited other Ladies-in-waiting to join her. Pretty soon Queen Victoria cottoned on to a good idea and she asked for afternoon tea too. The rest as they say, is history!”
As well as bits of history, you’ll find interviews with interesting personalities on the website. It makes you realize that the person behind the site and the company is both extremely knowledgeable and passionate about afternoon tea.
But you won’t find a great deal about Marilyn herself on the website, so here’s a tidbit about her:
The former journalist and communications consultant says she read a book called Dreams Don’t Have An Expiry Date by Deanna Rosenswig in the early 2000’s and decided to start her tea business. She was determined that her cakes, sandwiches and other offerings would all be made to order from fresh ingredients and she’s kept that commitment. Her tea selections come from estates monitored by the Ethical Tea Partnership.
As the company’s fame spreads, a wide variety of clients – individuals, families and corporate workplaces — have asked Marilyn to cater afternoon teas for special occasions. Former broadcaster/politician Isabel Bassett described the tea Simply Splendid prepared for her daughter’s baby shower as “exquisite… the guests are still talking about it.”
I was raised in the tea-drinking capital of Jamaica – Manchester. Afternoon tea wasn’t just a hot drink: it was an occasion, and for some, an almost-sacred ritual. (See “Afternoon Tea”, Ch. 10 in A Good Home.) So I was thrilled when the Simply Splendid website chose A Good Home as its favorite book for the month of July. It was a great boost – the book had only been released weeks before.
Then, this autumn, Simply Splendid gave me a delightful surprise when they created a special apple cake which they named “Lady Cynthia Cake”.
Within days, friends, acquaintances and strangers alike were trying out the recipe, to oohs and aahs of delight. The cake was served at an afternoon tea in Whitby, Ontario, where it was declared “delicious”. Then, a friend invited me for tea in her home, and surprised me by serving the Lady Cynthia Cake she’d just made. Again, delicious.
Marilyn’s tea blends, cakes, sandwiches and other creations are, simply, splendid. Congrats on living your dream, Marilyn, and we wish you well.
For more information about gift packages, special tea blends or to book an afternoon tea – do visit: splendidafternoonteas.com
Tel: 416.658.5518 or email: marilyn@splendidafternoonteas.com
Cynthia Reyes 
I love an afternoon tea. It is such a civilized event.
Yes it is. As long a I don’t have to stick out my pinky finger when I hold the little cup…..
Cynthia,
Thank you for your friendship and for your support of my splendid little enterprise. I totally enjoyed creating the Lady Cynthia Cake – inspired by your book, A Good Home. I hope you and your friends enjoy a slice of this cake in good heath, in good humour and with a good cup of tea.
Very best,
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn.
It’s so good to see someone following their dreams as you do.
As for the cake – marvelous. It’s a hit! But – How did you know that the slight taste of orange, added to apples and rum, etc. would turn out so splendidly? (No pun intended.)
Not being a baker, I have NO idea.
I love to experiment with ingredients which add flavour to baking. You cannot mess with flour, butter, eggs and sugar – although I do push the envelope with sugar by using part dark, part white or part molasses. I experiment often with my favourite recipes to give them a slightly new taste element – especially with baked goods that seem to be well-liked by my guests and clients. Grated lemon peel or orange peel are always hits when there is a fruit involved in the baking; I have also used bourbon in banana cakes and I’ve used cayenne pepper and chocolate – in fact one of our best selling shortbreads is the Chocolate Pepper shortbread.
Wow! Wonderful. I actually could have just sat there and smelled that cake – it’s got a spicy fragrance. But it was so tempting, I had to dig in.
The way you describe it, Marilyn, baking is a very creative pursuit.
Reblogged this on Simply Splendid Victorian Afternoon Teas and commented:
This past year I wrote two blog postings about our good friend and author Cynthia Reyes. One posting celebrated the launch of her first book, A Good Home; the second was about apples – inspired by the apple trees near Cynthia’s Good Home and an old English recipe for apple cake, which with a little bakery magic became the Lady Cynthia Cake. I am grateful to Cynthia for her most recent blog, Tea Lover, (today’s blog posting!) wherein she recounts how much the cake was enjoyed by her friends and blog followers and paying tribute to our afternoon tea company, Simply Splendid Victorian Afternoon Teas.