Springtime Tea

 

Who could have known that the day I chose to have a clothes swap and tea would be the day we woke up to a snowstorm with blustery winds to create whiteout conditions?

 

 

But with all the baking ready to be consumed, there was nothing for it but to forge ahead. It was rather ironic that I had picked a yellow and green "spring" theme!

 

With vanilla cake Lemon Queens filled with freshly made lemon curd, as well as

 

 

lemon tarts, amond crescents and two types of shortbread: the soft kind with piped yellow icing flowers and traditional Scottish shortbread.

 

 

We ignored the snowy conditions outside, making pot after pot of tea. After all, there's nothing like a treat-filled tea to raise the spirits!   

Victorian Dinner Party #6

These are the take-away gifts that my guests received as they were leaving the party at the end of the night. Inside the Victorian cones was a combination of  "tricks and treats", tricks such as a plaster skull, sticky eyeballs, scary hands, a mouse and a spider; and yummy baked treats: meringues, almond crescents and madeleines. 

The loot was wrapped in black-and-white printed tissue paper in which was placed a layer of parchment paper. The cones had black ribbon handles.

The cones were made with black construction paper and reinforced at the seams by patterned contact paper in a suitable Victorian motif. On the black construction paper areas I glued images that I had photocopied from the 1901 Eaton's catalogue, cutting them out and placing the masculine items on the cones for the men and the ladies' items on those for my female guests. 

Here are some of the ladies' cones.

  And here is one for the men.

They were all a llittle different from each other.

 

Clothes Swap and Tea

Just held a spring/summer clothes swap and afterwards, served an English tea with loads of treats: a chocolate chai cake, and vanilla rose cake, meringues and of course scones with jam and Devonshire cream. Clothes swaps are great fun and a wonderful way of recycling clothes and accessories. After all, who doesn't like to have new things (to them) in their wardrobe and not spend a penny!

Surprise Packages

It's such fun to surprise someone with a themed package, so now that I have a nephew who is away at university I thought it would be fun to create a Halloween-themed package to send to him. 

First place to start was with some baking: meringue bones and almond shortbread witches' fingers.

Then a selection of Halloween candies: salt-water taffy pumpkin faces and ghostly chocolates.

Added in a black cherry-flavoured skull lollipop...

and an elegant mask, a tiny pumpkin that can be turned into a Jack o'lantern by drawing on a face with black marker, salt-water taffy treats and candy sticks in Halloween colours.

Mustn't forget a pair of bloody eyeballs.

Those witches' fingers really are creepy...

 Best to hide them away in a box packed with black construction paper that I put through the shredder.  I've sealed the box tight and mailed it off!

Afternoon Tea with Treats

These meringues were achieved by adding a drop of red colouring to the whipped egg whites. I thought they would be white with red swirls, but by the time they worked their way through the piping bag, they had turned pink with darker pink swirls. They still look lovely heart-shaped.

After baking all sorts of Valentine's themed treats, it is nice to sit back and relax with a hot mug of tea in one of my favourite mugs. I brought this Cath Kidston mug back from my trip to England this summer. I love its pretty floral pattern.


And of course it's only wise to try out some of that baking to make sure that it came out just right!

Indulge in a Tasty Treat

Now that Christmas is done, take some time to relax and enjoy all that baking that you did in preparation for the big day, or the baking you may have received. Whichever the case, indulge yourself with a plateful and a nice hot drink, a good book and either a cosy fire to nice view to the outside. The point being, to rest and relax a little and treat yourself.

Gingerbread Cakes

There's nothing quite like the delicious smell of gingerbread baking. And I have to say the taste is one of my absolute favourites. There is something old-fashioned and so cozy and comforting about the smell and taste of deep and rich spicy gingerbread.

I had decided that this year I was not only going to make gingerbread in a loaf pan but that I was going to make some mini gingerbread in small fluted tins.

While the large of the tins was non-stick, the smaller ones were old vintage tins. Instead of coating with oil and flour I oiled them and then sprinkled cocoa in them, so that I wouldn't end up with big white flour lumps when I turned them out. The oil and cocoa powder, worked like a charm, they slid out easily once baked.

The small tins are just two inches across, making them two-bite size. The "larger" tins are also quite small, only three inches across. Just enough for two servings. Either size is perfect for giving as gifts, especially if you like to give an assortment of baking and want things to be sampling size.

They look lovely straight from the pan, but I also like to sprinkle them with icing sugar as if they had just had a light dusting of snow.


The recipe I use makes a truly delicious moist gingerbread with rich flavour and comes from the Crabtree & Evelyn Cook Book, c1989. Here, with a few changes of my own, is the recipe.

English Gingerbread

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I use allspice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon ground gingerroot (optional)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup boiling water
3 tablespoons icing sugar (to dust with once baked and cooled)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In saucepan, melt and mix in brown sugar, molasses, and corn syrup. Stir over low heat until well dissolved and mixed. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In mixing bowl, combine flour, spices, lemon zest and salt. Add butter mixture and eggs in center of dry ingredients. Stir well until mixture is smoothly blended.

Add baking soda to boiling water, stir and add to mixing bowl. Pour over batter and stir slowly until batter is well blended.

Pour batter into a 9-inch square pan or a loaf pan (buttered and floured), or a series of smaller pans or tins. Bake in 350 degree F. oven for 30 - 40 minutes (less perhaps for smaller tins or pans). Test with a toothpick or skewer to see if done. Toothpick will come out clean when inserted into the middle of baking

Remove from oven and let cool in pan. Turn out and dust with icing sugar before cutting.

Enjoy!

Cream Teas

Just about everywhere you go in the South of England... in our case Cornwall, Devon and Somerset... you will come across signs like these inviting you to take time out for a lovely English cream tea. I am happy to say that we hardly ever passed up the chance to consume one, and made it our mission to compare the subtle differences of scones we sampled while considering the relative merits of Cornish versus Devonshire clotted cream. I am not absolutely certain we were able to reach a definitive answer. I think a few more cream teas will be in order!

Wrapped in Nostalgia

These are a sampling of the vintage aprons I'm going to part with at this year's Great Glebe Garage Sale on Saturday. Maybe I'll change my mind about one or two and place them back in my collection but most of them, and others, will be there.

To me, these aprons are such a symbol of the housewives of days gone by. They make me think of all the baking and dinners that must have been prepared while they were worn. They are all shapes, colours and sizes, no two the same.

You can tell that many were handmade... some using left-over bits of fabric , no doubt from other sewing projects. Some aprons are plain and utilitarian, others are embellished with ruffles, rickrack, trim, eyelet lace and even embroidery. One of these aprons is reversible, with pockets on both sides. You really get a sense of the owner's style and personality by the little details they put into making them.

Often used as a teaching tool for learning to sew, these old aprons can exhibit all sorts of sewing techniques: smocking, embroidery, gathering for ruffles, fancy stitches and hemming. The levels of sewing skill, from the novice to the more experienced, are apparent on close examination.

A source of nostalgia, these aprons bring to mind a time when not only were all meals home-cooked, but the baking was too... they speak of time spent in the kitchen, hard work and loving duty to family.

For the retro-chic hostess to wear, or just to collect as an appreciation of what they represent, these aprons are a little piece of history to wrap yourself in.

Cocoa Locale Takes the Cake

Here are the two wee cakes I brought home from Montreal's Cocoa Locale. A rich and dark chocolate chai cake and a vanilla cake with pretty pink frosting. The cakes were dense and delicious, moist and yummy! And so very lovely to look at that even my 17-year-old son's friend who had slept over, said the next morning when I offered them a piece, "They're too pretty to eat for breakfast." So we waited until mid morning before surrendering!

Pumpkin Muffins

When I bought this stand from a thrift shop I had no idea what it was for, but later learned that it is actually half of a set that wraps around the pole of a patio umbrella and is meant to hold tea-light votives. I have re-purposed it as a cupcake stand, though these are actually pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting.

The stand’s quirkiness seems well matched for my Halloween-themed treat!

Baby Face Cookies

These baby face cookies began life as simple round cookies. Surprising what a little royal icing, food colouring and round sprinkles can do for a basic plain cookie. These were made for a baby shower.

Teapot Cookies

Thought I'd give you a look at the cookies I made for a birthday tea. I had such a good time trying to make them look like blue and white chinaware. And I was pleased with the result and quite excited to bring them to the birthday. There’s rather a lot of icing involved, so they certainly aren’t a cookie you would want to consume every day. Nor would you want to eat many at one time. Much too sweet. But hopefully they are very sweet in the other sense of the word and everyone enjoyed them. I think they are pretty and were well suited to the tea theme. Happy Birthday D. and J.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

I just tasted the best sticky toffee pudding in this world at a restaurant called Enigma, on West 10th Avenue in the Pointe Grey area of Vancouver. The pudding was light and delicious, the caramel sauce was superb and if that wasn't enough, it was accompanied by vanilla ice cream and a whole host of extra garnishes. A true work of art. I am now dreaming of sticky toffee pudding. And if I lived in Vancouver, I would be stopping in there at least once a week for this incredible dessert. Kudos go to the co-owner, Lynette, who bakes all the desserts herself. If you’re in Vancouver give this restaurant a try. Close attention has been paid to the elegant décor, welcoming atmosphere and delicious food of the highest quality. A truly enjoyable dining experience.

The Return of the Mung Men!

I have been very busy lately, as you have probably noticed by the scarcity of my posts. But my absence has been for a good cause. I have been planning a get-together as part of a larger reunion with my high-school classmates. And in preparation, I have been baking for a few days now in order to treat the ever-growing gang who will be gathering this Saturday afternoon to a selection of baked goodies. And one of those treats is a very special type of cookie. These cookies are not special in and of themselves, what makes them special is their form. For they are mung men. Mung men took over our class year, a sort of band of mascot warriors. Before we knew it, they threatened to take over. They made an appearance on our winter carnival buttons, and on our school beanies, and of course they graced the pages of our yearbook. So in honour of the event, the mung men have made their return.