Tea Party

The Tea Party was positively delightful! One of the most important things about a tea party is to use fancy dishes with everything stacked high, so we got out cake plates and pedestals for serving. We also got out all different tea cups; there was Spode Tower Pink, Noritake Grandeur, Johnson Bros Summer Chintz, Noritake Parkridge, several different Royal Albert Old Country roses, and three Limoges patterns of which I only know one; Clover Leaf. You can see more of my dishes here. And we used dainty old cloth napkins from great grandmother's collection.

We used three different tea pots (you can see more here) and three different teas; Earl Grey, Peach, and Raspberry. And we went through two pots of each tea! But first the guests did a craft project; decorating hats with silk flowers and ribbons.

Then they posed for a group photo and played a little croquet.

And petted the cat. I guess we have a cat now since this one has been hanging around for about two weeks and we've been feeding it.

Then we got the tea brewed and the food on the table and the girls gathered round. We had made cucumber sandwiches, egg sandwiches, watercress sandwiches, and radish sandwiches. The hardest part about these tiny sandwiches is finding the "thinly sliced" bread. We found unsliced brioche loaf and thinly sliced whole wheat bread at Teen1's store. The brioche was a little soft, but after slathering it with butter it got a little firmer.Basically the bread is buttered to keep it from drying out, then topped with sliced cucumbers and radishes and sprinkled with snipped chives. The egg sandwiches start with buttered whole wheat bread, get dressed with a little mayonnaise with curry powder and minced onions, and are then topped with thinly sliced hard boiled eggs. The watercress sandwiches have equal parts watercress, cream cheese, and butter whirled in the food processor. That is spread on whole wheat bread and topped with tiny slices of cherry tomatoes and watercress garnish. There were nine of us and we made about eighteen of each of the large sandwiches, and thirty six of the watercress sandwiches, and we ate ALL of them. Oh my!

We also had fresh strawberries

and tarts. The tarts start with a short paste dough which we pressed into tiny tart molds with our fingers and baked the night before. Then we filled them with ready made lemon curd (I have made it from scratch, but not this time) and topped them with fresh fruits; strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi. You can find my recipe here. On the top pedestal is pound cake which we sliced and cut into cute shapes with a small cookie cutter and then topped with whipped cream and a raspberry. Those were heavenly and looked so pretty on that red transferware platter.

We also made cupcakes and stacked them on pedestals.

and here are more tarts on silver pedestals

because it's all about the sugar, isn't it?

Now, would you like one lump or six?