Our young lady friend Aimee is engaged to be married in June. Having invited her to many a Sunday afternoon tea party over the years, hosting her wedding shower and disguising it as yes, a tea party, seemed just right.
I broke out the thrifted tissue paper wedding bells--they all hung from the ceiling fan (it was off).
Ham sandwiches with tiny pickle slices, roast beef sandwiches with tiny radish slices, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches.
Assorted daffodils, so convenient.
And now we'll talk about cake. The girls and I made six cakes from Jane Brocket's Vintage Cakes, a treasure of a book. Only one had frosting; they all presented themselves with old-fashioned restraint, which allowed guests to taste several kinds. Above you see Victoria Sponge filled with cream and strawberries. Below is the Lemon Drizzle. And that picture up at the top was the Coffee-Walnut layer cake.
We also made Tea Loaf (a huge favorite here, and Clara has figured out that she can make it in the dorm kitchen! It just needs an egg from the corner market), Nutmeg Cake,
and these Almond-Raspberry Slices, which were outstandingly good and presentable.
To actually serve tea to thirty people at once, I cheated by making several pots of different kinds, brewed up twice as strong as they needed to be. After pouring a half-cup for a guest, I topped it off with almost-boiling water from my coffee urn. I think it wasn't quite hot enough but these Southern ladies didn't seem to mind. Of course, that could have been just their Southern politeness!
You sure do know how to throw a delectable party Anna! Wish I were there to sample those yummy cakes.
ReplyDeleteOh those cakes look amazing! What a lovely party.
ReplyDeleteOh yes.... a little of each please:)
ReplyDeleteEverything looks so yummy, it's making me hungry!
ReplyDeleteI never, ever thought to make double strength tea and add hot water later. What a genius idea! I do something similar to that with iced tea, putting the tea bags, sugar & lemon juice or lemons into small containers to steep and cool and then I pour it into the pitcher and fill with cold water when we need it (we drink a lot of iced tea here), but I never thought to do that with hot tea. Thanks for the idea!
It looks lovely. The strawberry and cream cake sounds scrumptious!
ReplyDeletejust lovely!
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely party! Thoes cakes look divine! That is wonderful about Clara nothing soothes a long way from home like making something that reminds you of home:). I've thrown tea parties but never for that many people! Great job! Love thoes bells.
ReplyDeleteChristina
I heart this and your priorities in life as well as your diligence. Mary Brooke in Atlanta
ReplyDeleteAs usual with your little parties you allow us to peek at, it looks wonderful. Tasty cakes & tea...a perfect shower that any bride would be pleased to have given in her honor!
ReplyDeleteBrenda
Just lovely! I want to read through that book, now.
ReplyDeleteI lived in Russia for 9 months after high school - they keep a small teapot of room-temperature tea still full of tea leaves, and then they pour a little into the cup and fill it up with boiling water from the samovar. I got used to having tea leaves floating in my cup. So you could say you had a Russian tea. . . I would love to have a samovar. . .
Anna~
ReplyDeleteSimply lovely!
Thanks for sharing!
Blessings~
Lori
Oh boy - yummy
ReplyDeleteLisateresa
Is the tea bread recipe in the cookbook, too? I plan to steal your idea of many different cakes when our church hosts a welcome tea for our new minister and his family. :) Thank you for sharing your lovely tea pictures!
ReplyDeleteYes, all the cakes are from Jane Brocket's book.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! I would love to see another picture or two of your bookshelves. Those are perhaps the most beautiful set of shelves I've seen. We are getting ready to put in some wall to wall shelves and I love the scrolling thingy on top of yours. Are the bottom shelves slanted so you can display books cover out on them? It looked like it, but I couldn't be sure from the picture.
ReplyDeleteThank you! You can clearly see the bookshelves (empty) here, in the middle of a painting project:
ReplyDeletehttp://pleasantviewschoolhouse.blogspot.com/2011/01/tiger-by-tail.html
The top is cut to match the top of my china cabinet that sits on the dining room stage, across the room. The middle shelf is slated for displaying magazines or books. Actually, if I were doing it over again, I'd go ahead and make that shelf normal, for more storage. Or I could just get rid of some books.