Lockdown Baking

Hey There,

How are you today? Looking for a guilt free cake fix? If so, you've found the right place - grab a cup of tea and read on....

Banana and peanut butter cookies

For me baking is more than the act of making a cake or batch of biscuits. Of course I love the finished product as much as the next person....there is something wonderful about a cup of tea and freshly baked goods....but I also love the process of baking.

The combining of different ingredients, the stirring and mixing, folding and beating. Following a recipe or making it up as you go along (shock horror...I do that sometimes!). The smells as your bakes rise in the oven and the sight of the finished cake or biscuit. I love it all - it soothes my soul and makes me happy. Sharing the bakes with others is also pretty good, the widening smile when someone sees your cakes and sigh as they bite into a piece....alright, I'm a bit of a cake feeder!

The Covid-19 pandemic has meant we're all staying at home to slow the spread and I know we've all been coping with the social distancing in different ways. Some people are learning new skills via the internet, some cleaning their cupboards and garages from top to bottom. Some are making their way through their "to read" book pile and others are watching the whole of Netfix! For me I'm part of the baking tribe that is sharing their bakes on social media, although I have to say I haven't made a single banana loaf (I manage to eat all my bananas before they go brown). 

Easter Sunday pancakes!

I've tried lots of new recipes, enjoying taking the time to read my recipe books to pick bakes that I have the ingredients for (no longer having the luxury of nipping to the shops for missing items). I've also enjoyed a virtual baking session with a friend via video call - she baked banana brownies and I made a coffee crumb cake, it was great fun and we both had cake to enjoy at the end.

Since I've been so busy baking I thought I would share what I've made and why I've upped my exercise levels!

The coffee crumb cake I mentioned above was really good, a lovey light vanilla sponge topped with a coffee and mixed spice flavoured crumb. The crumb has a streusel-like quality to it, giving the bake a pleasing combination of textures. I also enjoyed how well the mixed spice paired with the coffee flavour. The cake was nice served with a dollop of clotted cream and a hot drink! 

I've tried my hand at several different biscuit recipes recently and found that I really enjoy biscuit making. Most of my bakes previously would be in cake form or using very basic biscuit recipes, so I enjoyed learning new techniques. 

I've made some delicious Viennese butter biscuits, dipped in chocolate and slightly fiery ginger custard creams. The butter biscuits are a pipped biscuit and incredibly light and buttery. The custard creams were a completely new bake for me and I struggled a little with the biscuit dough. I'm glad I finished them though because they were delicious.

I also made a batch of crunchy ginger biscuits which I enjoyed with a cup of super sweet Dalgona coffee (I felt like I was in a coffee shop with this luxurious homemade coffee!).

I also made slightly bizarre millionaire shortbread....the reason they were a bit bizarre in the flavour department was because I had run out of normal milk chocolate for the topping and only had Cadburys limited edition Christmas gingerbread chocolate to melt! Slightly odd flavour to mix with the dreamy caramel, but I enjoyed them anyway! Millionaire shortbread always hits the spot with its combination of shortbread, caramel and chocolate.

I hope you've enjoyed taking a peek at my latest baking creations. As our government has announced that the lock down will last at least another three weeks I'm sure there will be lots more bakes to follow so watch this space! If you have any recipes you think I should try, leave me a message in the comments below!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Afternoon Tea Baking - Pret a Portea high fashion bakes

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends.

I hope you're well today. Have you made any baking related New Year's Resolutions this year? Maybe you'd like to try baking the sweet treats that you try at afternoon tea? Already love baking, but want to try something new? I might just have the book for you!

Pret a Portea - High Fashion bakes and biscuits

Before we go any further I want to assure you that this isn't an ad, I'm not being paid or rewarded for this blog post in anyway. I bought the book when I enjoyed afternoon tea at The Berkeley last year and was so impressed with the recipes that I wanted to share it with you.

'Prêt-à-Portea: High-Fashion Bakes and Biscuits' was published to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the iconic fashion inspired afternoon tea served at The Berkeley and includes 20 recipes and baking techniques from the hotel’s Head Pastry Chef Mourad Khiat. 

I'm a home baker, I follow simple recipes and enjoy what I make but I have wanted to stretch myself a little and this book was perfect. The recipes are really easy to follow and the book contains lots of photos of the process as well as the finished items so you can see what you are supposed to be doing. 

Pret a Portea - High Fashion bakes and biscuits

Inside the book you'll find 20 iconic sweet treats that have been served as part of the Pret a Portea afternoon tea experience at some point in the last ten years. You'll also see what fashion item inspired the sweet treat. 

From the Blueberry sponge handbag inspired by Anya Hindmarch to the rainbow meringue summer mousse inspired by Mulberry, or the red sole and sparkle biscuit inspired by Christian Louboutin....you'll find all of these and more in the book!

My baking from Pret a Portea 

One of the items I decided to try was the pearl pump Sachertorte inspired by Nicholas Kirkwood, which featured a Chocolate Miroir finish. Having not attempted Sachertorte previously I was a little apprehensive when I started.

The recipe was broken down into easy to follow sections, making the chocolate sponge and jam filling first, followed by the chocolate Miroir. The recipe also includes styling details to help you finish your bake in the same way as The Berkeley. As you can see from the images I didn't quite follow the styling details, but I was still very impressed with my wonky finished cakes!

They were so shiny that even Niffler was impressed....

A bit wonky, but very shiny! 

This book also contains the best chocolate Brownie recipe I have ever come across. The recipe is very simple, but results in rich and gooey brownies that you will love!

I might have made these once or twice since buying the book....

The book is jam packed with scrummy photos, so even if you don't want to bake the cakes you'll probably spend several blissful hours drooling over the cakes!

As I said, this isn't an ad....but if you are looking for an easy to follow book which will up your baking game then you might enjoy this one!

Do you have a favourite baking book? I'd love to hear all about it - leave me a comment!

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for....some tea inspired baking with Piacha tea

Hello there,

Welcome back to Tea With Me and Friends - we hope you're having a tea-riffic day.

Today I am sharing with you a little recipe that made me very happy. You may remember that we discovered the fabulous tea from Piacha a while ago - Pia has so many delicious blends on offer, but Black and Cherry is one of my favourites. It's a sweet tea, that I find very refreshing. For ages now I have been trying to include this tea in my baking - always focusing on cakes. But they always fail - with hardly any flavour carrying through to the cake.

Tonight however I decided to try something different - I had seen teabag shaped biscuits all over the Internet (Ok - mainly on Pintrest....the place I seem to spend most of my time!!) and it struck me that maybe I could include Black and Cherry in a biscuit. A lot of the teabag biscuits I came across were flavoured with green tea (often using Matcha powder) but then I came across a couple of recipes which included earl grey tea. After doing a bit of research about whether you can actually eat tea leaves, I decided to give it a go and worked on a recipe using the Black and Cherry tea leaves.....and I'm so glad I did....

Black and Cherry tea bag biscuits
from Tea With Me and Friends

These biscuits are light and crisp and have a beautiful cherry flavour that will make you smile. Plus, they are super simple to make!

You will need:

1.5 heaped tablespoons of Piacha Black and Cherry loose leaf tea

130g plain flour

50g caster sugar

20g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter

splash of water

100g chocolate - optional

A straw for poking holes

Bakers twine (or other thread)

This will make: 16 teabag biscuits

Preheat your oven to:

200c or 180c (fan oven)

To make the biscuits:

• First you need to grind up the tea leaves as small as you can - either in a food processor, with a pestle and mortar or like me in a bowl with the back of a spoon.
• Now combine all your dry items (so that's the tea leaves, flour and both sugars) in a bowl, mixing them well
• Next you need to add the butter - rub this into your dry ingredients so you end up with a bread crumb like mixture. Don't worry if it starts to combine together at this stage,
• Now add a splash of water and carrying on combining the mixture to make a dough. At this stage less is definitely more - you don't want a sloppy dough
• It's time to chill your mixture - this is important to stop the dough expanding when baking in the oven. Roll your dough out, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
• Once chilled, we get to the fun part - making the teabags! First put flour on your clean work surface, then roll out the dough until its about 0.5cm and then cut out your little teabag shapes. I used a straw to make the hole at the top of each teabag.

Use a straw to poke holes in the top of your biscuits

• Once you've cut all your teabags, place them onto a cold baking tray and place in your preheated oven for 12 minutes or until the edges of your biscuits turn a golden colour.
• Remove your biscuits from the oven and allow to cool

Tea bag biscuits in the making!

• Once cool you can thread your twine through the holes in the top and dip your biscuits in melted chocolate. Don't forget if you go down the chocolate route you'll need to leave the biscuits to dry before you can tuck in.
• Enjoy with a cup of tea!

Teabag biscuits....perfect with a cup of tea!

To be really honest these biscuits don't really need the chocolate dip - the light cherry flavour is sweet enough. However, if you do add the chocolate it doesn't ruin them either!

These biscuits make a lovely gift for a tea loving friend.....or just gobble them all up yourself (like I did!).

I'm sure this simple recipe will work well with other tea leaves, so if you don't have any Piacha tea at home why not experiment with your favourite tea - just remember to grind up your leaves! If you try a different tea yourself, we'd love to hear what you baked - leave us a comment or send us a photo!

To find out more about Piacha teas and the fabulous tea bar in London pop by the Piacha website!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel

Time for....some reading...Prohibition Bakery - Part 1

Hello there,

Welcome back to our afternoon tea blog...recently we've been combining two of our favourite things at Tea With Me and Friends towers....cakes and cocktails!

Recently we were sent the new book from the Prohibition Bakery - a New York bakery set up (by accident) by Leslie Feinberg and Brooke Siem which is devoted to boozy cakes. The book features 55 original recipes to try at home, as well as some basic information about baking and making infusions.

Prohibition Bakery - cupcakes and booze!

The book itself is stylish and full of great photography and the recipes will leave any cocktail lover drooling from your traditionals like Pina Coladaa or White Russians through to the more unusual Caramel Apples or Palomas....there is seriously something in there for everyone.

The recipes are broken down into their main spirit - including vodka, rum, whiskey, gin, wine, beer/cider, liqueur or cocktails!

Scrumy photography in the Prohibition Bakery book

I decided to start simple and try out the Boozy Blueberry Lemonade cupcakes to start with as this seemed like a pretty straight forward recipe to follow and it features lots of blueberries and a splash or two of vodka! 

This is what they should look like....

The recipe was easy to follow and the measurements are in both American cups and also grams, which I found very useful. The cake is made with yogurt and oil instead of the traditional butter, which I have never tried before but will definitely use again as it produced a very light cupcake.

The filling for these cakes is a blueberry puree, which was really easy to make and use.

The instructions are broken down into making the cake, making the filling, making the frosting and then the assembly.

I have to say I was rather pleased with the finished cakes....

Boozy Blueberry Lemonade cupcakes - Prohibition Bakery

Ok, I might have got a bit carried away with the icing....but just look at the colour!!

The cakes were light and fluffy, with a scrummy filling....perfect with a cup of tea! The flavour of the lemon really came through in the cake and it matched well with the boozy blueberry filling. Squidgy, but not too messy - this is a really satisfying bake!

Made by Tea With Me and Friends - Boozy Blueberry Lemonade cakes

If you'd like to try the recipes yourself pick up a copy of the book - you won't be disappointed by the choice! 

Prohibition Bakery (ISBN 9781454916963) has a RRP £14.99 and is available from The GMC Group. I'd like to thank The GMC Group for sending us a copy of the book to try - please remember that although we have received a complimentary copy of the book this has not effected our thoughts and all opinions expressed here are our own.

Prohibition Bakery baking

Keep your eyes posted for the next bake we try from this fab book!

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

Time for something a little bit different....Afternoon Tea Masterclass at One Aldwych

Hello there!

On Saturday Lorna and I spent a wonderful morning at One Aldwych hotel in London with five other ladies, participating in an afternoon tea masterclass led by Head Chef Dominic Teague.

One Aldwych Afternoon Tea Masterclass
Photo from website

The morning started with breakfast in the Lobby Bar where we indulged in tea and coffee, fresh pastries and fruit while we got to know the group and also Dominic. The session was going to be a relaxed affair with as much or as little participation as we each wanted. After we had finished breakfast we were led down into the main hotel kitchen just behind the Axis Restaurant.

In the kitchen we were each presented with a One Aldwych apron, and asked whether we wanted any drinks...we could have tea, coffee, orange juice, a glass of bucks fizz or a glass of champagne. Now this was something that I wasn't expecting, and I have to say it was a lovely touch. We then all gathered around and watched as Dominic and his Pastry Chef led us through three afternoon tea recipes.

Dominic described each step as he went through the recipes, answering questions and letting us see into the various bowls and pans as he went. As he got to the end of each item, we all had the chance to participate.

To begin with we made vanilla and blackberry macaroons. Once the filling and the macaroon batter was made, we got to pipe macaroons onto large sheets under the watchful eye of Dominic and his Pastry Chef. It was great to get professional piping tips as we went along. Once these were baked we got to match up the halves, and add the blackberry and chocolate filling.

Some macaroons got a bit squashed...
the bubbles may or may not have helped!

My finished vanilla and blackberry macaroons!

I was so pleased with how mine turned out...the most professional looking macaroons I have ever made!

Next we made eclairs that were filled with a chocolate creme pat, and dipped in a chocolate glaze. Again, Dominic showed us how to make all the elements required, and once the batter was ready we piped our own eclairs.

An action shot! Eclairs in the making!

Once backed we filled them and dipped them ourselves........

Eclairs being filled!

Finally we made fig tarts with a sweet pastry....something I have never attempted before.

An action shot of
Chef Dominic!

During the whole time we were in the kitchen Dominic was very friendly and attentive, even though the kitchen was preparing for the lunchtime and afternoon tea service. We were also offered drinks throughout our entire experience.

Once everything was made, filled and dipped we moved into the Axis Restaurant with Dominic, to enjoy afternoon tea. We enjoyed a selection of sandwiches and warm scones, with our tea and glass of bubbles.

One Aldwych afternoon tea sandwiches

Fresh scones - dressed the Tea With Me and Friends way!

Then we got to sample some of the items we had made......

The sweet treats that I finished!

It was wonderful to see our own creations served!

All in all I had a wonderful time, I met some lovely people and got some great tips to take home to my own kitchen. Spending time with a professional chef and watching them in action is a brilliant experience and I would highly recommend this experience for anyone who is interested in baking for afternoon teas. We all left with a box of our sweet treats, the apron and also recipe cards so we could recreate the treats at home.

The masterclass costs £150 each, but I feel this was good value as we did eat and drink a lot, and we spent a lot of time with Dominic. Anyone expecting a full on baking class should look elsewhere however, given the  amount of time we had we covered a lot, but Dominic did most of the work! This experience is also great as people with any skill level will enjoy it.

If you haven't see the One Aldwych afternoon tea yet....it's based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and is creative, fun and very scrummy! Read the Tea With Me and Friends review here.

One Aldwych Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Afternoon Tea
(photo from website)

To find out more about the afternoon tea masterclass pop by the One Aldwych website.

Also, pop back to our blog later this week to find out more about Head Chef Dominic Teague in our "Meet the Chef" series.

I'd like to thank Chef Dominic for his time on Saturday, Lorna and I had a fab time and we will be putting our skills to the test creating an Easter afternoon tea for our friends!

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel and Lorna

Tis the Season...to indulge in afternoon tea!

Hello there,

Well, with Christmas just around the corner we thought it would be fun to look at festive afternoon teas that you could make at home. As you'll know if you've popped by here before Lorna and I love indulging in afternoon teas in hotels and tearooms...but we also enjoy hosting our own afternoon tea at home with our friends.

Christmas time is a lovely time to get creative in the kitchen - whether you enjoy traditional food such as Christmas cake or Stollen or prefer something more contemporary, its a great time to host an afternoon tea of your own!

 

Our homemade festive afternoon tea

 For this tea we kept the sandwiches and scones quite traditionally, sticking with flavours that we knew our friends enjoyed such as egg mayonnaise and coronation chicken. But to get into the festive spirit you could have turkey and cranberry finger sandwiches, or how about some brie and grape?

Our scones were plain and served with cream and strawberry jam, but you could add seasonal flare with cranberry scones....or indulge your sweet tooth with chocolate chip scones.

Traditional afternoon tea finger sandwiches

Our festive spread did include some homemade mince pies....I like to make my mince pies with little stars on top rather than the full lids as this allows the mincemeat to ooze out a little. These were served warm with cream.....

 

Homemade mince pies and cream

We then got creative with our sweet baking and I opted for a contemporary feel rather than traditional with Christmas tree biscuits, melted snowmen cakes and Christmas tree cupcakes.

 

Christmas tree biscuits - perfect for an afternoon tea table!

 My butter biscuits were cut with a cutter, iced with green icing and then I added some decoration in red and white sprinkles.

Christmas afternoon tea cakes!

My melted snowmen cakes were topped with white icing and a marshmallow, and I added a little detail with some darker icing. The Christmas tree cakes are plain vanilla sponge topped with a swirl of green icing and an edible gold star.

 

Some of my guests were sad to see the snowmen melting!

 

Melted snowman cupcake

You could be more traditional with your sweet treats, offering small pieces of Christmas cake or slices of Stollen.

 

There are various different Christmas blends of black tea that you can serve at a festive afternoon tea, there are also some wonderful fruity teas. We opted to serve some bubbles at our tea too - well its a special occasion after all!

 

Finally, don't forget to decorate your festive tea-table! Obviously do this to your taste...but I think a little decoration is a must! As you can see Father Christmas joined us at our festive tea!

 

A Tea with Me and Friends Festive
Afternoon Tea!

If you host a Christmas afternoon tea over the next couple of weeks we'd love to hear about it and see photos!

 

We hope you have enjoyed this festive post - pop back over the festive period to see some more posts from us. We will be featuring a review of another Christmas afternoon tea and will have a special photo post featuring teas that our friends have indulged in recently. If you have a photo you'd like to see on the post please get in touch - you can leave a comment here or email us with the photo!

 

Thanks for popping by today,

Rachel & Lorna

 

Time for Tea....Halloween Afternoon Tea with Rachel and Lorna!

Hello there!

As some of you might know last weekend I hosted a Halloween afternoon tea at my house for a group of my friends. Assisted by Lorna and Becca we served up a feast of sweet and savoury treats, copious amounts of tea....and some pumpkins!

Out of all the afternoon teas that I create for my friends I think Halloween is my favourite one....you can be so creative with your food....plus you get to carve pumpkins!

Earlier this year I planted ten pumpkin seeds in my garden with the hope that I would have some pumpkins to carve this Halloween....I have to say that I was rather impressed with the results....

Here is Tinker modelling my five home grown pumpkins!

So, I had pumpkins to carve....now I just needed a feast to serve! After a lot of thinking here is what I came up with.....

 

 

As well as a plate of various different finger sandwiches (Anika would have stopped talking to me if I missed out her favourite egg sandwiches) I came up with several Halloween themed savoury treats....

 

In the middle of the platter I have some snails - these are ham wraps with a little gherkin for their heads. I also cut some tombstones out of brown bread, and topped with a slice of chorizo and a slice of tomato.  

 

Becca also arrived at my house armed with tins of wonderful treats...she made some cheese and wholewheat Halloween shapes which were ever so tasty....

 

And the cutest little ghost meringues that I have ever seen! Becca is apparently not a baker (she tells me this all the time) but I am pretty impressed with her baking talents!

 

 

Aren't those ghosts cute? And they looked so good sharing a plate with my iced pumpkin biscuits (not to be confused with grumpy looking tomatoes!)

 

Lorna provided her wonderful scones which I served with whipped cream and home made blackberry jam.

 

 

After the savouries and scones we then indulged in the sweet treats....

 

 

I made eyeball cake bites - for the eyeballs I used vanilla cake combined with vanilla butter icing and coated in white chocolate. They were super sweet, but very moist and tasty. I also made chocolate cupcakes topped with coloured butter icing.

 

 Finally I made some cute little cobweb millionaire shortcakes. The recipe for the shortcakes came from The Pink Whisk - I was really pleased with how they turned out. Ruth's recipe is really easy to follow and she has photo steps to follow, which I always find really helpful.

As well as the pumpkin biscuits I also made iced ghost biscuits....not sure if they are scary or just cute!!

 

 

One final sweet treat that I made were white chocolate fingers, that had a strawberry green filling. The insides weren't quite as oozy as I had hoped...but they still looked pretty good! I used a Baked By Me mould to make the fingers, they have a great selection of different moulds - all really easy to use.

 

My guests all enjoyed their spooky afternoon with me....and were rather full once we'd finished eating!

 

 

However this didn't stop us getting creative with the pumpkins.....

 

All in all we had a lovely afternoon....and I can't wait for Halloween 2014....I wonder what I will bake next year!

 

Thank you for popping by today,

Rachel