Setting the Table Beneath Everything Else

A good afternoon tea table begins with cloth. A white or cream linen cloth, pressed but not rigidly starched, gives you a calm neutral field on which china and cake can do their work. If you have a damask cloth with a woven pattern, so much the better — the faint sheen catches the light without competing with the food. Failing linen, a decent cotton is perfectly acceptable, and far better than a shiny synthetic cloth that slides about under the plates.

Allow yourself more space than you think you need. The commonest mistake at home is crowding. A table set for six should really seat four if the spread is generous; guests need room to put down a cup, reach for a scone and turn slightly in their chair without knocking the milk jug. If your dining table is small, lay the tea itself on a sideboard or dresser and keep the main table for plates and cups only. Two surfaces are easier to manage than one overburdened one.

Position each place setting roughly 40cm apart. A side plate, a teacup on its saucer to the right, a small knife and a teaspoon. That is all a guest needs within reach; everything else arrives on the stand or from a tray.

The Tiered Stand: Order and Logic

The three-tier stand is the centrepiece, and it has a logic worth respecting. Work from the bottom up, and your guests will instinctively do the same.

• Bottom tier: sandwiches. They are the heaviest and least fragile, and they anchor the stand.
• Middle tier: scones, wrapped loosely in a napkin to keep them warm.
• Top tier: cakes, pastries and small tarts — the lightest, prettiest things, where the eye lands first.

Aim for three or four finger sandwiches per person and one scone each. The top tier should look abundant but not piled; a few well-chosen cakes arranged with a little air between them will always look better than a heap.

If you do not own a stand, do not buy one for the occasion. A large cake plate for sandwiches, a plate for scones and a pretty dish for cakes, set at slightly different heights using a small upturned bowl beneath a napkin, works perfectly and often looks more relaxed. Borrow a stand from a neighbour — that is what neighbours are for.

China, Cutlery and the Small Graces

Mismatched china is a tradition in itself, and a table of borrowed cups is far more charming than a matched service bought for the day. Use what you have. Thin, delicate cups lose heat quickly, so warm them first with hot water from the kettle and tip it away before pouring.

You need very little cutlery: a side plate each, a small knife, a teaspoon per cup, and a cake fork if you are serving anything with cream. Butter knives for the scones. Put jam and cream spoons in their own little dishes rather than leaving one spoon to travel between them.

Napkins should be linen or good cotton, folded simply — a triangle, or a loose roll through a plain ring. Fancy folds are for hotels. A napkin laid flat beside the plate, with the corner just so, looks deliberate and calm.

Sandwiches, Scones and Sweet Things

Cut sandwiches thin, with the crusts removed, and butter to the very edge so the bread does not dry. Three fillings is ample: cucumber (salted and drained on kitchen paper first), smoked salmon with a squeeze of lemon, and egg mayonnaise with a little chopped cress. Keep them covered with a damp tea towel until the last moment.

Scones should come to the table warm, which means baking them as your guests arrive rather than hours before. Serve clotted cream and jam in separate dishes with separate spoons. On the matter of which goes first, follow your guests' lead and say nothing.

For the top tier, keep everything small enough to eat in two bites. Tiny tartlets, a cut fruit cake, small iced fancies, shortbread. Nothing that requires a plate and a firm hand.

Milk, Sugar and the Pot Itself

Use loose leaf tea if you can, allowing one teaspoon per person and one for the pot. Pour water that has just gone off the boil for black tea, and let it brew three to five minutes. A strainer, a small slops bowl for the leaves, and a second pot of something lighter — Earl Grey, or a green — will cover most tastes.

Milk belongs in a jug, never a carton on the table. Sugar goes in a bowl with tongs and a spoon. A tea cosy is not old-fashioned; it is practical, and it keeps the second cup as good as the first.

Keeping It Unfussy

Do the work before anyone arrives. Sandwiches made an hour ahead and covered. Cakes arranged. China set. Then, when the doorbell rings, put the scones in the oven so the smell does the welcoming for you.

The point of afternoon tea is not perfection. It is the pleasure of a table that has been thought about, in a room where nobody is fussing. Sit down with your guests, pour the first cup, and let the food take care of itself.