Afternoon Tea Mother's Day

                   

Well, it's two days before 2026 Mom's Day and I decided to put on an Afternoon Tea British/USA-style for myself and family Sunday afternoon. Afternoon Teas in London, England consist of a tier of finger sandwiches, a tier of scones with Clotted Cream and Blackcurrant jam, and a tier of bite size desserts.

What a fun project to do! But it did take at least 3 days of planning and creating ahead of time.

I decided to make:

• A sandwich loaf cake with layers made of whole wheat bread and rye bread with the fillings:  Chicken salad, Ham salad, and Avocado spread. This sandwich loaf was popular back in the 1950-1970's as a party sandwich, in particular to bridal and baby showers. This sandwich loaf cake looks like a cake, but it is all savory. Made with bread (at times rye and white), sandwich fillings for the fillings, frosted with cream cheese (colored or not), and at times decorated as well.  The recipe is from 1970's Betty Crocker cook.

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• Plain scones. Recipe by Fortnum and Mason of UK. I did alter this recipe by using regular white flour and some whole wheat flour as well. I also decreased the sugar amount. And I replaced the majority of the butter with Olive oil. I did keep 2 tablespoons of butter in them.  https://www.fortnumandmason.com/stories/scones-made-in-piccadilly
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• Traditional British Clotted Cream. Recipe from Sunset & Sewanee/ David. And let me tell you, this is simply scrumptious!!!

         https://www.sunsetandsewanee.com/traditional-british-clotted-cream/

Kalona Organic cream.

Cream after baking for 12 hours.

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Finished Clotted Cream.

• Black Currant jam. My own recipe with home grown Blackcurrant berries.

• Lemon and Strawberry tarts. Recipes are from Gourmet magazine. The crust is called a Pâte Sablée. (A French butter crust.) The filling was called Orange-Vanilla Pastry Cream. But instead of orange and vanilla, I used lemon instead. Then on top of each tartlet, I added a slice of strawberry. 

                                         

Lemon Strawberry tarts

• Peanut finger cakes. Typically, a white cake cut into bite size portions, frosted with Buttercream frosting and rolled into chopped peanuts. But I instead used chocolate cake and used white buttercream frosting. I then rolled them in chopped, slightly salted peanuts. Recipe for cake and frosting is in the 1970's Betty Crocker cookbook.

                                                 

Peanut Finger cakes and Chocolate cake bites.

• Scottish Shortbread Cookies. The recipe is in the 1970's Betty Crocker cookbook. 

                                                

Scottish Shortbread cookies.

• And of course, a cup of tea!

To get all of this made, I had to start 2-3 days ahead of time.

3 days ahead, I made my whole wheat and rye bread loaves. To make a loaf cake, you must use unsliced bread. Homemade bread is best to use due to it is a firmer texture than the store-bought breads. Because homemade bread goes dry in about 3 days, I cooled my breads, bagged them and froze them. The early morning of my tea party, I took the loaves out of freezer to thaw. 

2 days ahead, I made my two meat fillings. I made Chicken salad and Ham salad. I stored them in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator. 

The Clotted cream is best made 2 days ahead, but I ran late,  realizing it would take 12 hours in the oven and 12 hours in the refrigerator. 

One day ahead, I placed my cream, for the Clotted Cream, in the oven, early in the morning to bake for 12 hours.

I then made all of my little desserts. 

I created:

• Chocolate cake-Peanut bites
• Chocolate cake bites with a bit of Buttercream frosting on them.
• Scottish Shortbread cookies
• Lemon-Strawberry tarts

 The Lemon-Strawberry tarts were kept in the refrigerator, in separate layers the night before.

The day of the party I added the pastry cream into each little shell. I then topped each with a strawberry slice.

The little chocolate cakes were kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator as well.

The shortbreads were kept at room temperature. 

Three hours before the party, I cut all the crusts off of the bread loaves. 

                                       

Then I evenly sliced long layers of the bread. 

                                   

Used toothpicks to help cut the bread evenly.

I spread my first filling, the Ham salad on to the rye bread layer. I leveled out the filling. 

Next, I placed a piece of white bread on top and gently pressed down.

I layered my Avocado spread on next. I added another layer of rye bread. I placed the Chicken salad on top and evened it out. I lastly placed my last piece of bread on top and gently pressed down. I made sure the fillings were not falling out on the edges. 

                                                        

Next, I tinted my cream cheese lightly and I frosted the loaf cake. I decorated with a parsley sprig and a small piece of Yellow Bell pepper. I sliced this as the guests were sitting down.

                                    

                                          

From top to bottom, Chicken salad, Avocado spread, Ham salad.

The scones were made the morning of the tea. I baked these 15 minutes prior to the tea party. This way they were fresh and hot.

Not pictured here, I created a mini lettuce salad for everyone. 

All in all, I enjoyed creating this for my family and I. The Clotted Cream was incrediable! Everything I made here was all homemade. The whole meal was so enjoyable.   

My Afternoon Tea party for Mom's Day

                                                  

My Afternoon Tea party for Mom's Day

Plenty of food to fill up on.

If you're thinking of creating an Afternoon Tea, go for it! Just remember to plan out everything days a head.

By Cynthia Bergsbaken

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Disclaimer by Reiki in the Prairie LLC and Cynthia Bergsbaken copyright 2015

I am not a psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical doctor.  These articles I have written, are from reading and experiencing them.  Many of these articles are my own experiences with my own inventions to heal as well.

If you have a medical condition-physically/mentally/emotionally, please see a qualified medical doctor.  Do not substitute my articles for proper medical care.  You are too important to the world.

I have used all procedures I have written about and have found them to be helpful as tools to help myself become a better person.   I am sharing them with you because used as a tool, they are helpful in Shadow working on ourselves.  (Shadow working is healing our inner shadows that are unconscious or subconscious.  Inner shadows are our belief systems, our thoughts, our behaviors, our life experiences.)

I created this blog for my Reiki clients originally.  Combining these tools with Reiki creates a happy, healthy person.  These tools, when used alone are also beneficial!

 

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April 11, 2020

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