Baking my Birthday Tea Party

My birthday was at the end of October, and I celebrated by hosting a tea party. I wanted a 3-course afternoon tea, and I wanted to bake everything I served. I consulted a tea magazine my husband had bought me, and used the King Arthur Baking School book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, and online resources for the recipes and planning.

Here is the menu I came up with:

Tea sandwiches:

• Apple, cheddar, and chutney on whole wheat bread. This was my favourite of the three sandwiches. Sweet and sour and umami all in the same bite. Major Grey’s Chutney is a revelation!
• Cucumber sandwiches on Portuguese bread. Classic. The key is to dry the cucumber slices. Delicious.
• Egg salad sandwiches on Pumpernickel bread. I had high hopes for this sandwich, but the dark rye and cocoa were a bit too strong in flavor for the egg salad.

Scones: I went with a classic – currant cream scones from the Baking School cookbook. They turned out delicious, though I did have to bake them 6 minutes longer than instructed. I served the scones with strawberry jam and homemade clotted cream. The clotted cream was delightful, and much less expensive to make than to buy (though more time-consuming).

Sweets:

• Chocolate cake with chocolate icing – both from the Baking School book. The cake was moist and flavorful and was a little bitter (in the best way). The icing was sweet, and they balanced and played off each other so well.
• Dubai Chocolate macarons – filled with pistachio cream and chocolate frosting
• Queen Anne macarons – filled with sour cherry jam and chocolate frosting

I started baking my breads 2 weeks before the party. The remaining bread and the macaron shells were baked a week ahead. The cake was made the day before the party. The macarons were filled, sandwiches assembled, and scones were baked on the day of the party. I was finishing up preparations as my guests arrived, and I found that stressful, but once they were all here I had the best time having tea with my friends.

My husband is the most thoughtful person. He bought me a whole selection of nice teas so we could all choose whichever teas we wanted to have with each course. I had the Raspberry Hibiscus tea with the sandwiches, the Earl Grey with the scone, and Golden Monkey with the sweets.

Planning and executing this tea party was a big task, and I can see how my baking skills and confidence are improving. I’ve wanted to do tea parties in the past, but I never knew where to start or how to make it all happen. I’m so pleased with how this all came together and proud of myself.

Until the next time: may your yeast always rise and your flour never run out.