Afternoon tea and the treats enjoyed by the Victorians (2024)

The Victorians (well, one Victorian in particular: the duch*ess of Bedford, Anna Maria Russell) are credited with creating afternoon tea in the mid-1840s.

During the 18th century, dinner came to be served later and later in the day until, by the early 19th century, the normal time was between 7pm and 8:30pm.

A light luncheon had been created to fill the midday gap between breakfast and dinner, but it was a very light meal and the long afternoon with no refreshments left people hungry.

What did rich Victorians eat for afternoon tea?

The duch*ess found afternoon tea (usually Darjeeling), cakes and sandwiches to be the perfect refreshment, and her socialite friends agreed. It quickly became an established and convivial occasion to be seen at in many upper middle and upper class households.

Indeed, Queen Victoria, a life-long friend of the duch*ess, was herself a fan of the new fashion and a number of “celebrity chefs,” including Mrs Beeton, began writing their recipes down in cookbooks so all Victorians could try them at home. Indeed,Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Managementis full of recipes and is still revered and referenced to this day.

The Victorian afternoon tea, and the ease with which fresh ingredients could now be transported across the country and from around the world, gave rise to all manner of new celebratory cake creations.

1. Victoria sponge

Named in honour of the monarch, the version Queen Victoria ate would have been filled with jam, but today’s cooks add cream and a dusting of icing for decoration.

The recipe evolved from the classic pound cake made with equal proportions of flour, fat, sugar and eggs. The invention of baking powder in 1843 by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird meant the cake could now rise higher than was previously possible. The sponge was much lighter too.

The Victoria sponge, nowadays championed by the Women’s Institute (WI) and tendered as a regular challenge in the Great British Bake Off, is made by creaming — by hand or in a mixer — caster sugar with butter and then adding beaten egg before folding in flour and a raising agent. This basic “cake” mixture was then adapted for use into a variety of celebration cakes, cupcakes and puddings.

2. Plum duff

This is a bit of an anomaly because plum duff doesn’t actually contain any plums. It’s a steamed pudding made by bringing together dried fruits, eggs and suet.

While the pudding was eaten and enjoyed before the Victorian period, the Victorians tweaked the recipe and presentation. Instead of steaming the pudding in a bag, they steamed it in a bowl and then decorated it with sprigs of holly. That eventually evolved into the Christmas pudding we enjoy today.

3. Gypsy tart

A school dinner staple for many years, the gypsy tart is a pastry case filled with sugar and evaporated milk and then baked. It was ridiculously sweet and because of that, it was loved by Victorians, young and old, rich and poor.

4. Swiss roll

Despite its name, the etymology of “Swiss roll” is unknown and there is no evidence to suggest it comes from Switzerland, but it likely came from somewhere in Northern Europe.

The earliest British reference to a Swiss roll appeared in the Birmingham Journal in May 1856 in an advert which boasted that a certain baker’s Swiss rolls “defied all competition”.

5. Battenberg cake

The Victorians invented the Battenberg, a light sponge held together with jam. The cake is covered in marzipan and, when cut, displays a check pattern of pink and yellow squares.

It’s actually two cakes – one pink, the other yellow – that are cut and then layed and held with jam in the check pattern.

The first Batenberg cake was baked in London in 1884 to celebrate Prince Louis of Battenberg marrying Princess Victoria, Queen Victoria’s granddaughter and Prince Philip’s grandmother.

Read more about classic Victorian desserts that weren’t always served in afternoon tea in our blog.

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