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