Parkdean Devon Cream Tea Hamper

If there's anything me and my folks are partial to; it's a traditional cream tea. My dad went through a phase last summer where he would bake his own but we soon got sick of them as he just kept on baking batch after batch! However, now it's summer (well, apparently it is), we are back to spending our weekend afternoons in the garden induldging on jam and cream scones.

Apparently, more and more Brits are choosing to spend their Summer holidays somewhere in Britain and can you blame us? It's becoming super scary to travel anywhere abroad these days! Infact, this is what me and my family did for years as I was growing up. Every summer holiday we would travel around in a campervan that my dad owned. One of my earliest holiday memories is going to Devon and trying out fishing for the first time with my dad. He bought me my very own fishing rod (a kid's one!) and I remember catching a fish and being so proud as I had been waiting ages and was getting impatient! However, I then got confused when my dad let the fish go and wouldn't let me keep it to take home as a pet! If you are interested in my travel type posts, I have a whole load over here!

To celebrate the wonder and existence of a traditional cream tea, I was kindly sent a gorgeous wicker hamper from Devon Hampers* filled with traditional cream tea goodies. Being the 'cream first, jam second' type of person, I have adopted the Devonshire way of enjoying a scone. Interesting! Inside was some freshly baked scones, fresh clotted cream, shortbread biscuits with a sweet jam middle, traditional Devonshire clotted fudge, some fresh and home made strawberry jam and two bottles of traditional cider.

The traditional scone originates from Devon and Cornwall but did you know both places eat them completely differently? A survey carried out by Parkdean showed that 62% of women are usually always tempted by a traditional scone; whether it's Devonshire or Cornish. Majority of the survey agreed that jam should go first and then cream on top. Infact, there was a double amount of people who agreed jam first!

I however, am not in the majority vote as I would find it so strange putting jam on first and then cream. Cream has to go on first and then jam as a sweet topping! Isn't it weird how we all have opposing opinions on how things should be?

The scones were really nice but not crumbly like the traditional scone. They were fluffy and not too sweet so seemed perfect for such a sweet topping. All of my family agreed that the clotted cream was really nice and really did taste as fresh as can be. I am a huge fan of strawberry jam anyway and I am happy to say this was really fruity and ripe too! However, my favourite things were the shortbread biscuits which tasted as if they had recently been baked. The sweet strawberry filling was just enough to send anyone's taste buds crazy!

Question is; how do you eat your scone? Jam or cream first? I'm really interested to hear your thoughts below!