We were in Blackburn town centre for a street festival of food. We had an enjoyable bit of lunch,…read morethen spotted flags outside of a shop declaring it was Mad Hatters Cupcakes and Tea Room, which had me floating over like a moth to a flame for a little dessert!
It has a nice big window allowing the tearoom to be well lit, and seen clearly from the outside, making it all the more inviting.
The first thing you see as you walk in is the fantastic blackboard wall full of hand drawn chalk images of quirky scenes from Alice in Wonderland, and various picture frames containing images of cupcakes, signs saying "eat me" and the such. A really nice touch. It's nice that despite being Mad Hatter/Alice in Wonderland themed, they haven't gone absolutely crazy with colour and made it gaudy and horrid, but have gone for some vintage touches, and soft varying pastel colours and bunting, to take the Mad Hatter and soften him a little into a vintage English tearoom.
As expected, the space is light, bright and relaxed as various mirrors bounce light around the room. Large and impressive cakes sit on cake stands and bell jars dotted around the space, and on the counter sits a display stand of delicious cupcake varieties. Staff are friendly and welcoming, and happy to reel off the various tea flavours when I asked what was available.
The menu has both hot and cold drinks, and offers breakfasts, salads, sandwiches and light lunches, as well as a full afternoon tea.
In this instance, we can't stop looking at a large salted caramel cake which seems to be giving us the eye from a stand on one side of the room, and decide to have a slice each, and share a pot of tea.
The cake was delicious, and we were offered cream with them too should we want it. It was marvellously sweet and tasty without veering off into "sickly" territory, and naturally it went perfectly with a big pot of tea, which was served with traditional vintage china.
Staff were friendly and social, and informed us that they have only been open for around 5 weeks, so everything was still settling, but from what I can see, they're doing very well, and should hopefully continue to do so!
Although this was only a fleeting and unplanned visit, we enjoyed it, and agreed that we will definitely pop back in whenever we are next in Blackburn, especially as I had my eye on a strawberries and cream cake that was flirting with me from a cake stand on the opposite side of the room, in all its lovely pink splendidness... I shall be trying that one next time!
Well done, Mad Hatters! I wish you luck in your new business! :)
