A bun fight may be about to break out over the best way to assemble one of Westcountry's best-loved afternoon snacks, after boffins devised a mathematical formula for creating the perfect cream tea.
The daunting equation devised by academics – specifying weights and measures, the radius of scone and even depth of the dollop of topping – is guaranteed to leave many home bakers and tea shop owners bewildered.
But crucially – and controversially – the research conducted by creamery Rodda's, dictates that the jam is applied to the scone first then covered in cream, Cornish-style, rather than the Devon method of spreading the cream first, and then the jam on top.
The Cornish clotted cream maker claims the long-running debate on how to serve the perfect cream tea – whether to put on the jam or cream first, and whether to use whipped or clotted cream – can now finally be laid to rest.
It has released a study which, it claims, finally proves beyond doubt that creating the perfect cream tea is in fact all down to science.
The company commissioned expert Dr Eugenia Cheng from the University of Sheffield's School of Mathematics and Statistics to develop the first ever mathematical formula.
After extensive testing, Dr Cheng concluded that jam, "due to its density", needs to be spread prior to the application of the clotted cream, as the opposite approach may cause the jam to run off – creating sticky fingers.
Dr Cheng said: "Building a good scone is like building a good sandcastle – you need a wider base, and then it needs to get narrower as it goes up so that it doesn't collapse or drip."
The new formula also specifies the use of clotted rather than whipped cream.
