AIBU about the National Trust 'stunt scone'?

[FizzBuzzBangWoof]

AIBU or is it NT policy in all their cafes to display an enormous and fantastic looking scone on top of the counter, but when you order a scone they get you one from the back which is a pathetic and distinctly inferior specimen of about half the size (and then add insult to injury by charging 75p for a teaspoon of jam)?

Or is it just at Nostell Priory that they always do this?

Barkandcheese

I also work at a NT property and your mums is obviously substandard because we get the scones freshly baked and still hot (depending on who's in ). Cheese ones too

As for the 'stunt' scone, that's reserved for Prince Charles.

There’s got to be a PhD in that! “Social and Marketing Implications of Stunt Scones”. What fun the research would be! You might get funding from Greggs.

I went to a garden centre and ordered a scone it was the size of half a loaf of bread herby and cheesy and they gave me 4 packets of butter for it

Also used to work in M&S bakery and we had stunt scones and muffins you definitely didn't want to eat them, we used the same ones for several days.

A "Stunt Scone" sounds like it's been employed to motor-cycle over thirty buses.

A "Stunt Scone" sounds like it's been employed to motor-cycle over thirty buses.

Action line: Smellbow guffaws

but he’s always really disappointed to be palmed off with a pre-packaged brownie.
Surely it’s better that they are prepackaged to avoid possible gluten contamination from other foods.

DD and I had scone rage recently. We had been shopping and popped to the in store cafe for a brew and scone - but no scones. So we left and called it at the garden centre on the way home. Enormous poster advertising their scones with jam and cream - so we ordered, to be informed they had no scones. 'What about that one?' I asked, pointing to the large scone on the top shelf of the cake counter, which we could have shared. 'That's not a real scone. It's for display only'.

WTAF?

I had a scone at packwood house that disintegrated when I cut it in half so I asked for another. The lady was quite sniffy but she said she’d get me another one. A man brings it over with fierce warnings of it being too hot and really he shouldn’t be letting me have this fresh one, I assured him it would be fine.
Cut into it and it was frozen!

I won’t hold it against them. I love NT coffee shops.

We had the best scones (well, since Longleat 1984) at an NT property last weekend. We shared one savoury cream tea and one sweet. Beautiful, large, light, fresh, warm scones, cream cheese and onion pickle for the cheese scone, strawberry jam and clotted cream for the sweet scone, a large pot of tea, waitress service, no queue. £10.
Kedleston Hall. 10/10

I work at a NT property and our scones are frozen. The stunt scone stays there forever/a few days, I’ve often thought of the stunt scone. All the cakes are frozen too, oh the horror!! Still taste bloody delicious though.

There is an NT bakery in South Devon where they bake the scones and people queue up to buy them still ,warm.mmmmmm

ime the cakes that look very pretty at NT properties are usually disappointing. I think you're being saved from a dry stunt scone and given one with more 'personality' that is tastier.

Dobby - when the frozen scones arrive at the NT cafe is there a separate bag of extra large specimens labelled 'stunt scones' or is it the job of the cafe staff to seek out the biggest and best to go on the counter to tempt/mislead the customers?

I love a good scone. Stunt, or bait scones draw me in and sometimes I am disappointed.

FadedRed I've just googled Kedleston Hall

Sounds like it might be worth a trip just for the cafe experience!

DoNotWorry the trouble is the packaged up brownies are not freshly made like the rest of the cakes so they really are the poor relation. Our local place does great gluten free cakes - we're in Aberdeenshire if you want to try!

I don’t work in the cafe. But I do work near to the scone storeroom. I don’t think they select a special stunt scone, but I will ask. They don’t arrive frozen. I think the scenes in our property are especially large though.

I visited another property where the scones were in a basket for everyone to sneeze on and handle. Watched someone going through them looking for the best one, rather put me off. I’d be happier having in from the back, then least amount of people will have snoted on them.

FadedRed Yes, I agree - the cream tea at Kedleston Hall is amazing! One of the best I've had ever. It's a lovely place for a wander, too, so worth a trip if anyone is thinking of it.

I always assumed that the huge enticing stunt scone was made of plastic or similar. Surely this would save them money in the long run and not be any more dishonest than what they're currently doing ?

I nearly passed out when I realised that a tiny pot of jam was 80p at Fountains Abbey when we went Easter weekend . Needless to say we had our scone with just butter. In Yorkshire too, don't know how they get away with it!

We stopped at Berrington Hall recently en route to Wales and I was just going to get a cup of tea but then someone brought out a pile of rather nice looking scones under a cover that looked to have beads of condensation on the inside. Ooh fresh warm scones I thought, great I'll get one of those (as did the 2 people in front of me). Nope they were stone cold, so we just got stunt steam with our scones!!

Incidentally the staff at Berrington Hall were almost charmingly and very Britishly inefficient, getting flustered and taking hours to make the simplest of drinks orders. The cafe is also very inconveniently down lots of steps with a heavy door at the top so if you have a tray laden with drinks and want to sit in the courtyard you have to just hope that some kind soul is coming the other way and can hold the door open. Great property though!

The scones at Ashridge are insanely enormous!!! Like an entire meal!

Our local NT property has large platters with a glass dome over them,Safe from flies etc.Some of the prices seem high 80p for small pot of jam,but not to forget you are paying to eat in an historic setting and preserving British history for future generations!.Not eating in the local coffee shop

Is anyone else reminded of Terry Pratchett's 'The Fifth Elephant'?

Never mind the scones, what about the shortbread? There seems to be a competition on this year to see who can make the biggest and cover it in the most sugar. DS does not mind being the tester for whatever secret rivalry there is going on, although the sugar high takes a bit of running off.