Time for.....a Blooming Great Tea Party!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends, we hope you're feeling tea-riffic today.

Today is a special post as we are talking about Marie Curie's Blooming Great Tea Party campaign which takes place in June in order to raise awareness and funds for the amazing work that Marie Curie nurses do. Marie Curie holds a special place in our hearts, as Lorna and I have experienced first hand the care and support that their nurses provide to families.

We cannot thank enough the nurses who helped us when our Dad passed away six years ago. The care they provided overnight to our Dad meant we could rest a little easier at night time, but they also supported each of us too, being a shoulder to cry on and just making sure we were ok. They really helped us in a particularly dark time.

Marie Curie needs funds to keep providing this service though, and that's why the Blooming Great Tea Party campaign is really important. All you need to do is hold a tea party - however big or small - and collect donations while enjoying a spot of tea and cake with friends, family, colleagues, neighbours....or anyone who loves cake! It doesn't matter how much you raise, all donations are important....

£20 pays for…an hour of nursing care for a person living with a terminal illness in their own home

£180 pays for…a Marie Curie Nurse to look after someone with a terminal illness for a full nine-hour shift through the night.

Lorna and I have enjoyed holding Blooming Great Tea Parties with our friends and family - our favourite was a vintage themed party. We had lots of fun, ate cake and raised money - what a great afternoon!

So why not get your friends together between 23rd - 25th June and throw a Blooming Great Tea Party. All the information you need, including how to get a fund raising pack can be found on the Marie Curie website.... if you fancy baking some scrummy goodies read on for some of our favourite recipes.

Lorna's Scrumptious Scones

225g self-raising flour, plus a little extra for dusting
pinch of salt
75g butter, cold (using cold butter helps the fluffiness of your scones)
40g caster sugar

150ml milk
1 egg, beaten

• Preheat the oven to 220C and lightly grease a baking sheet
• Mix together the flour, salt and butter - rubbing the butter into the mixture until you have "breadcrumbs"
• Add the sugar and milk to the mixture and bring together into a dough
• Roll the dough into a circle at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick
• Carefully cut the scones out using a cutter - press about three-quarters of the way through your dough and then tear the rest. It sounds a bit weird, but if you press the cutters all the way down, you seal the sides of your scones….and this hampers the rising! Also try not to twist your cutter!
• Place the scones on the baking tray, brush them lightly with the beaten egg
  Bake on the top shelf of the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until they are well risen and golden brown
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool
• Enjoy with lashings of clotted cream and jam

Top tip alert -

Handle the dough as little as possible. You don’t want gluten to develop in your dough and remember.....you want the butter to stay cold before baking – so stop touching the dough!

Rachel's Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake - be warned this makes quite a big cake, perfect for sharing!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Layer
128g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
113g butter, room temperature
50g caster sugar
110g brown sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
100g mini chocolate chips

Cake Layer

4 eggs

226g butter, room temperature

226g flour

226g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

200g mini chocolate chips

Lots of chocolate butter cream - make with butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder

To make the cookie layer:

• Line an 8" or 9" cake tin with parchment paper
• Preheat the oven to 170c
• Cream the butter with both sugars
• Add the egg and mix
• Add the flour, baking powder and salt
• Add the chocolate chips and mix until everything is combined
• Spread the dough into the cake tin. The dough should be approx 1/2" thick
• Bake for approx. 15 mins.
• Cool completely in the tin
• Set aside at room temperature until ready to assemble the cake

To make the cake layer:

• Line an 8" or 9" cake tin with parchment paper
• Preheat the oven to 170c
• Cream the butter with both sugars
• Beat the eggs into the mixture
• Carefully add the flour, baking soda and salt
• Add the chocolate chips and mix until combined
• Put into cake tin and bake in the oven for about 45mins
• Allow to cool completely before assembly

Assembly:

• Once cooled, cut the cake in half horizontally
• On your serving plate place the cookie layer at the bottom and top with a layer of chocolate buttercream
• Next place a cake layer on top of the buttercream and add another layer of buttercream
• Add your top layer of cake
• Now cover the whole cake in buttercream, top and sides - this is the messy bit!
• You can then decorate the top - I used chocolate sprinkles and edible gold sprinkles
• Serve with a cup of tea and enjoy

We hope you've enjoyed our recipes and they inspire you to get baking. If you'd like to find out more about the Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party campaign pop by their website. If you hold a tea party this June we would love to see your photos!

Finally we'd like to thank all the wonderful Marie Curie nurses out there - you do such an amazing job and provide comfort to so many people.

In memory of Dad

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

Time for....some reading....Eric Lanlard Afternoon Tea - Part 2

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're having a great day!

Remember at the beginning of the month we shared with you the fab new afternoon tea book from Eric Lanlard and the biscuit bakes we tried from the book.....well today we're back with some savoury offerings!

Eric's book covers everything you'd need to create your own afternoon tea at home, from individual recipes to how to create an afternoon tea menu. This weekend we have a family party and I offered to make some savoury canapes, having picked some recipes from Eric's book.

I opted to make:

Pear, Roquefort and walnut tarts

Brie and red onion marmalade Gruyere eclairs

Tartes flambees

Yes.....I like cheese!!

The recipes in Eric's book are simple and easy to follow, and I am fairly pleased with how each savoury treat turned out...

I particularly liked the brie and red onion marmalade eclairs, which were crisp and smooth all at the same time. The onion marmalade is very tasty and simple to make. The ingredients all work so well together - imagine creamy brie, peppery rocket and sweet onions all on a crisp base.....amazing!

I'm not entirely sure what happened with my pear and blue cheese tarts.....they kind of exploded out of the cases and made a bit of a mess. They tasted good though, and I love that the walnuts look like brains! 

As my bakes were for a family party....I made quite a few....

The recipes were very easy to double.

If you fancy trying some of the recipes for yourself, Afternoon Tea is available to buy now.....don't forget to let us know how you get on!

Thank you for popping by today.

Rachel

Time for....some reading....Eric Lanlard Afternoon Tea - Part 1

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends!

This week I was sent a lovely gift - a pre-order copy of the new Eric Lanlard book - Afternoon Tea. With over 80 afternoon tea recipes for both sweet and savoury treats, the book contains all the cakes, pastries, tarts and biscuits you could wish for! In addition, menu ideas offer the perfect combination of flavours helping you create your perfect afternoon tea adventure at home.

Eric Lanlard's Afternoon Tea 

If you're not familiar with Eric Lanlard (aka Cake Boy) - he is a Master Pâtissier and twice winner of the prestigious Continental Pâtissier of the Year at the British Baking Awards.....he has also baked for celebrities and had several TV programmes on Channel 4.

Therefore when this book arrived in the post I thought I would be in for a treat! As you know from our previous book reviews....we always like to test the books out ourselves....and with this many recipes to pick from I was spoilt for choice! I therefore thought I'd run this review over several blog posts, featuring different recipes in each post......and to start with I would try out some biscuit recipes!

Homemade biscuits from Eric Lanlard's Afternoon tea book

The book itself is very beautiful - full of tea-riffic photography and simple to follow recipes. From information about matching teas and food and how to make the perfect cuppa to suggested afternoon tea menus and so many recipes - it really is a comprehensive book.

The recipes are divided into macarons and choux, savoury tarts, sandwiches and scones, cakes and sweet tarts, patisserie and biscuits and includes delights such as tequila king prawn sliders, brie and red onion marmalade gruyere eclairs, aperol sultana scones (are you drooling yet??), triple marble bundt cake and chocolate ganache hearts to name a few!

From the biscuit section I opted to bake something new and something old.....for the something new I picked Eric's Palets Breton recipe....buttery shortbreads, a traditional biscuit from Brittany. And for the something old I followed Eric's Viennese butter biscuits (a big favourite in my household!)

Baking with Tea With Me and Friends!

Both recipes were simple to follow and included photos of the finished biscuits (there aren't photos for all recipes - but the photos that are included are scrummy!). 

My Viennese butter biscuits turned out really well - light and delicate and they looked just like the photo! They passed the taste test from both me and Joe....and they tasted even better the day after I baked them. 

Homemade Viennese Butter Biscuits - Eric Lanlard's Afternoon Tea

The Palets Breton were a slightly different story.....although they tasted amazing....they really didn't look like the photo in the book.....nor any other photo of Palets Breton that I have seen since I baked them!! I'm really not sure what went wrong.....but they still tasted wonderful!

Homemade Palets Breton biscuits from Eric Lanlard's Afternoon Tea

The biscuits melt in the mouth and I can see how they can be used as a base for other recipes as well as being enjoyed alone....with a cup of tea or coffee!

The book Afternoon Tea will be available from June,  but you can pre-order copies now. Over the next month we'll taste test a couple more recipes - don't forget to pop back and see what we try!

Please note that although we've received a complimentary copy of Afternoon Tea, this hasn't affected our thoughts on the book....and all opinions expressed in this blog post are our own.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Baking with Typhoo Tea...part 1!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - I hope you are well today!

Typhoo Tea are currently celebrating the uniqueness of the great British cuppa by encouraging us all to share our #TyphooMoments. They know that we all enjoy our tea slightly differently.....for example in my household I rarely add milk and never sugar whereas Joe enjoys his cuppa sweet and milky!

As you probably already know I also love a piece of cake with my cuppa - there is nothing better in my humble opinion! So when Typhoo asked me to celebrate my passion of tea and cake by creating a cake recipe or two featuring tea I thought that was a fab idea!

In this post I will share my first recipe - something quite simple, but rather tasty! I decided to take the humble cupcake and add a good splosh of tea!

Typhoo Tea Cupcakes

As you can see for this recipe I used the Typhoo Gold blend - which is a rich, full-bodied tea.

To make 12 of these scrummy cakes you will need:

200ml boiling water

2 teabags

85 grams dried fruit

115 grams butter

115 grams brown sugar

2 eggs

115 grams self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

To start with make up a nice strong brew using the boiling water and teabags. I left the teabags in the water for quite a while, producing a dark liquor. I then removed the bags and added the fruit and left this sitting until the tea went cold. 

This is really important - do not be tempted (like me) to try and use the tea when it's still hot....this will ruin your cupcakes (a tough lesson when you want to eat cake!!).

Baking with Typhoo Tea

Next you need to make a normal cupcake batter - creaming the butter and sugar together first before beating the eggs in. Next fold the flour into the mixture and add the baking powder, making sure everything is combined well. 

Finally mix in the tea and all the fruit - this will leave you with quite a sloppy cake batter. Transfer the batter into twelve cupcake cases, filling three quarters of the way up the cases.

You then need to bake the cupcakes in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees) for 18 minutes.....and then I recommend letting them cool a little before devouring them!

Typhoo Tea cupcakes - Tea With Me and Friends

I didn't ice the finished cakes as I decided they didn't need any additional topping. Although a light lemon icing would probably be quite nice if you did want to ice the cakes to make them look a bit prettier.

The flavour at first is quite subtle, but develops into a lovely tea taste.....just like drinking a cup of tea! You also get a lovely burst of sweetness when you bite into a piece of the fruit.

Baking with Typhoo Tea - Tea Cupcakes

This is a really simple twist on a basic cupcake recipe, that anyone who enjoys a cup of tea will love. I'm now heading back into the kitchen with more Typhoo tea to try out another recipe - pop back soon to see what I come up with!

The tea used in this post was kindly donated by Typhoo Tea.

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Chocolate time! Recipes from Paul A Young

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - if you popped by over the weekend you'll know that this week is officially Chocolate Week!

We've already brought you a round up of some of chocolate experiences that you can indulge in this week....but today we thought we'd share some fab chocolate recipes from Paul A Young that you can try at home. So, if you haven't heard of Paul before he really knows his stuff when it comes to chocolate! Paul’s passion and creativity have won him numerous awards and led to him being ranked amongst the world’s best chocolatiers.

Paul A Young

Paul has several shops in London, where he and his team make all their creations completely by hand in the kitchens at each shop, in small batches and at every stage using fresh ingredients. If you haven't visited one of his shops and love chocolate you should definitely make a trip!

Now, in our eagerness to bring you these recipes we haven't actually tried them out at home yet...but they looked so good we wanted to share them with you straight away. Take a look...you'll see what we mean...

Chocolate bramble cocktail

From Paul A Young - I came up with this version of the classic bramble cocktail one evening when the air in the city changed from warm and balmy to the first cool breeze of autumn.

Chocolate bramble cocktail - Paul A Young

makes 2 cocktails

FOR THE CHOCOLATE LIQUOR

300g unrefined golden caster sugar

150g 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces

FOR THE REST

Juice of 1⁄2 lemon

100ml gin (I prefer Tanqueray or Plymouth Dry)

25ml Crème de Mûres (blackberry liqueur)

8 blackberries

Lots of crushed ice

2 squares of your favourite dark chocolate

First, make the chocolate liquor. Put 150ml water in a saucepan along with the sugar and bring to a simmer. Allow to rest for 2 minutes, then pour over the chocolate pieces in a bowl. Whisk well and leave to cool thoroughly.

Meanwhile, place 2 martini glasses in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to get the frosted effect.

In a cocktail shaker or jug, place the lemon juice, gin, Crème de Mûres and 6 of the blackberries. Muddle and mix well until the blackberries burst slightly.

Place a pyramid of crushed ice into each glass and pour over the blackberry mixture. Now top up each glass with the chocolate liquor, then place a blackberry and a piece of dark chocolate on top of each ice pyramid.

Venezuelan chocolate pancakes with chocolate maple syrup 

From Paul A Young - This recipe is my homage to Sunday-morning brunch, which is one of those occasions when anything goes; in other words, be as indulgent and naughty as you like because it is certainly not the time to count calories or grams of fat. 

Feel free to add blueberries, nuts and sultanas if the fancy takes you. The syrup can be made days or even weeks in advance and stored in the fridge. 

Venezuelan chocolate pancakes  - Paul A Young

Makes enough pancakes for 4 people 

FOR THE PANCAKES 

25g Venezuelan 100% dark chocolate, grated 

200g buckwheat flour, or spelt 

1 free-range egg 

45g light muscovado sugar 

350ml milk 

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

25g unsalted butter, for frying 

FOR THE SYRUP 

Pinch of sea salt

250ml dark maple syrup 

100g 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces 

Place all the pancake ingredients (except the butter) in a blender or food processor and whizz until a smooth, thick batter is formed. Leave the batter to rest while you make the syrup. 

To make the syrup, dissolve the salt in 50ml water in a saucepan over a gentle heat, then add the maple syrup and bring to a simmer. Pour on to the chocolate in a bowl and whisk well until smooth. 

Heat a crêpe pan or non-stick frying pan until quite hot and melt a generous wedge of butter until it sizzles. Spoon a small or large amount of the batter into the pan, depending on whether you want to make American pancakes or crêpes. Leave to cook on a medium heat until you see bubbles on the surface of the pancake, then carefully turn over and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Place the pancakes on a plate and cover with foil until you have cooked the entire batch. 

Serve the pancakes laced with the warm syrup – be generous as the pancakes soak up a lot! 

How wonderful do they both look?

If you try these recipes at home we'd love to hear how you get on....send us a Tweet or leave a message on Facebook!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

A Good Read!

Hello there! We hope you're well

A slightly different post from us today....as you know here at the Tea With Me and Friends blog we love everything to do with afternoon tea. We love making it, we love sharing, we love talking about it, we love reading about it and we definitely love eating it!

With this in mind when we were asked to take a peek at The Food Edition of Feted Magazine we were delighted to see the vast amount of content dedicated to the fabulous pastime that is afternoon tea (we think everyone should be educated in the ways of afternoon tea)! There are review articles and recipes galore that kept us entertained....all accompanied with fabulous photos that made us drool!

So what is Feted Magazine I hear you cry...well its an online magazine created by sisters Clare and Sarah in December 2012. Feted means to honour and celebrate and that's exactly what Clare and Sarah do...they take a different theme in each publication and feature articles from and about bloggers and start up businesses in the UK. You can read more about Feted Magazine here.

In the Food Edition readers can create a fab afternoon tea using recipes such as blackberry and elderflower tarts, jelly and custard shots or chocolate and strawberry meringue nests. Each recipe is easy to follow and has a photo with it....I love recipes with photos...it means that I have some idea what my latest kitchen creation should look like when I've finished!

There is also a wonderful review of afternoon tea at Blackbird Tearooms in Brighton. Plus you can catch up with fellow afternoon tea bloggers Kate and Chelsie as they talk about their blog and afternoon teas around the world!

 

If you fancy getting more creative there is a cute DIY article about decorating spoons (which I fancy having a go at!) or maybe you'd like to make your own face mask. There is also a host of other recipes for you to try, including a cheats banoffee pie which looks amazing!

Feted Magazine - The Food Edition is available for free on Issuu, and there is an extended edition with additional content available to buy and download as a PDF for 79p over at Etsy. If you're looking for something new to read that features a variety of different articles and gorgeous photos then this is definitely a good read!

Thanks for popping by today,
Rachel & Lorna

Disclaimer - although we have been invited to review Feted Magazine, all the comments above are our own and we have not been influenced by the creators of the magazine in any way.

Behind the Scenes With Lorna & Rachel!

Hello there,

Do you remember our "Time for Tea....With Lorna & Rachel" blog post last week, where we shared photos of an afternoon tea that we created ourselves?

Well this week we are back with a behind the scenes blog post....giving you a sneaky peek into our kitchens and what went into creating the scrummy afternoon tea that we shared with our friends.....

A table full of afternoon tea treats!

 

So, as you may remember Lorna is in charge of sandwiches and scones....she is very precise with her cutting and makes wonderful finger sandwiches! There is a lot of prep required when making the sandwiches....

 

Lorna making her scrummy sandwiches

 For this afternoon tea we opted for fairly simple sandwiches as we had a very mixed aged group of guests. We included cucumber, cheese, ham and egg mayonnaise, served on both white and brown bread - all crustless.

Lots of slicing is involved in making perfect finger sandwiches!

While Lorna is in charge of sandwiches and scones, I bake a lot of the sweet treats...and anything else I fancy adding (or am asked to bake!). Here are some of the ingredients that I used for this afternoon tea...obviously there are quite a few missing from this photo but I didn't want to bore you with flour and sugar.....

 

 

I do enjoy baking and up until earlier this year I made most of my cakes by hand. Although I do still enjoy hand mixing cakes I am now the very proud owner of a KitchenAid and I have to say it has made my life easier!

 

One happy baker!

 

For this afternoon tea I opted to make several different flavoured cupcakes.....

 

 

and I also made some Viennese fingers.....

 

 

Recipe Time....

 

To make 10-12 scrummy Viennese fingers you will need:

 

100g unsalted butter

25g icing sugar

1tsp vanilla

100g plain flour

1tsp cornflour

1/4tsp baking powder

100g milk chocolate

 

What to do....

 

Preparation is important....remember to preheat your oven to 170c/325f/Gas Mark 3 and line a baking tray with parchment paper

 

First off mix the butter and sugar together, beating until its pale and light, then add the vanilla and mix again.

 

Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder into the bowl and mix until the mixture is smooth, make sure everything is thoroughly combined.

 

Spoon your mixture into a piping bag with a medium star nozzle and pipe fingers onto your baking tray....you should get between 10-12 fingers from the mixture.

 

Bake in the middle of your oven for 10-15 minutes until your biscuits are pale and golden.

 

Remove from the oven and cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Let them cool completely....I know its hard not to eat them straight away (they smell wonderful), but they get better I promise!

 

While they are cooling melt your chocolate...either in the microwave, or if you're a traditionalist in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water (I use my microwave...putting it on for short bursts at a time until melted). Stir until your chocolate is smooth....try to resist the urge to dip your finger in the melted chocolate...its hot!

 

Dip either one or both ends of your fingers into the chocolate, and leave to set on baking parchment. I dipped only one end in chocolate as I had pressed the other end with a fork before baking to create a pretty finish.

 

Once set...enjoy!

Told you it was worth the wait!

 

When making a large afternoon tea like this one I take any assistance on offer....this time Joe helped me out a little. Here he is lining a cake tin for me....

 

 

One extra thing that I made for this afternoon tea was a lovely batch of pink lemonade...served to our guests in mini milk bottles....

 

 

This was incredibly simple to make and a wonderful addition to the spread.

 

If you'd like to make a batch (approx. 4 glasses) you'll need:

 

100ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used about 4 lemons)

100g caster sugar

500ml water

60ml cranberry juice

 

And all you need to do is...

 

Place the lemon juice, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring it to the boil. Then simmer until all the sugar crystals have dissolved, then set aside to cool.

 

Once your lemonade has cooled, add the cranberry juice....and you have pretty pink lemonade!

 

Serve in glasses with ice cubes and a slice of lemon.

 

I hope you've enjoyed our behind the scenes afternoon tea blog post!

 

If you've got any questions, just let us know! And if you make either the pink lemonade of the Viennese Fingers we'd love to see photos!

 

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna