Afternoon tea wedding in Stanton near Broadway

Four o'clock on the dot was tea time in my great grandmother's house. If you were late woe betide you. The same tradition passed down to the next generation too so there was always tea and cake at four. It was the same at my paternal grandparent's too - work stopped in the garden and workshop for afternoon tea, and if guests happened to be around or it was a larger family gathering savoury things also made an appearance - you can't beat sardines on toast!

Is it that sense of nostalgia for olde england that makes us love afternoon tea so much? Or it could be that it all just tastes so good. It certainly makes for a great wedding breakfast like this one we served last Saturday in Stanton near Broadway. 

Buck's fizz to start anyone?

Afternoon tea sandwiches:
Smoked salmon and watercress
Chicken and apple
Ham with apricot chutney
Cucumber, cream cheese and rocket
Egg and cress - can't beat the classics!

On the savoury side were mini quiche lorraine, butternut squash filo tarts and sausage and sun dried tomato lattice ("Better than Ginsters!" said the waiting staff. Apparently that's good)

Baking coconut macaroons at 11pm

I was addicted to making these as a tween - then shredded coconut was easy to find. Not so easy now - nowhere sells it. Much more succulent that dessicated coconut (dessicated makes them dry). Finally after a hour's trawling I found it at The USA Foodstore - great fast shipping btw thanks.  

Homemade plain & apple and sultana scones with clotted cream and Dove Cottage Hedgerow preserve
White chocolate and blueberry torte
Fruit crème pâtissière tarts
Rose & vanilla cupcakes
Coconut macaroons

White chocolate and blueberry torte - using the dark choc recipe but exchanging dark choc for white

Added to my collection of cake stands a couple of days before from Forgotten Treasures - based in the same village as the wedding was. I love these - rather than the cake stand handles that everyone else uses they have vintage glasses between the layers - much more individual. Each plate has a story behind it. 

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Parma ham, rocket, sun dried tomato and parmesan pinwheel, rhubarb and custard cake and other lunch buffet items

Parma ham, rocket, sun dried tomato puree & parmesan pinwheel

Starts off looking like this. My favourite part of this particular buffet!

Tuna nicoise open sandwich (among others)

Rhubarb - straight from my garden to make this rhubarb and custard cake.
There are also coconut cake bars there and some left over roast rhubarb in the middle.

Rum and raisin cupcakes - see recipe here

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Cupcake-orama for a 70th birthday

There was another birthday too - what was it, 30th, 40th? Can't quite remember - the weeks go so fast when you're so busy, one just runs straight into the next.

This was part of a Sunday lunch party we did a few weeks back - the day after we had cooked the suckling pig for the same family.

Raspberry and white chocolate (love the raspberry icing on this one - used this recipe for the cake, but without grown-up supervision. Buttercream icing with raspberry coulis), coffee and walnut (adapted the white chocolate recipe) and black forest (using this recipe).                  

While we plated up the 2 birthday ones, the others we just plated up the garnish which allowed them to choose their favourite flavour. Of course there were a few left for them to have later in the evening too - there's always time for cake!


Related posts

Some other cakes we have served

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Buffet lunch delivery

Herb pitta crisps with cheese and onion dip

Fillet of beef open sandwich with mustard cream cheese on sun dried tomato foccacia  - luckily for this party there were some fillet ends after cutting the fillet steaks for the parties we were cooking for the following day 

Homemade millionaires shortbread (link to recipe here) - a million times better than shop brought!

White chocolate and raspberry cupcakes - this recipe  for the sponge (couldn't find a  grown up to help me - so I had to operate the gas myself) and a buttercream icing with raspberry coulis

Pear and mincemeat cake - like this recipe with the crumble topping 

Spoons of orange segments and coconut - healthy living. This was originally one  of my Nana's standby desserts. My mum used to make it too when my Dad was away on business.  

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All vegetarian buffet lunch year 4 - new cakes & salad

4th year running - can't be bad!

As they let me come up with menu choices I try and add in new things each year. This year there were 2 vegans as well - so we had a few different things for them as well.

• Black forest cupcakes Who can resist the old classics? From recipe here.

• Blackberry and apple shortcake

• 

I raided a few recipes from over here - the first being this one. If you want a recipe you know is going to work go for one on a blog - you know it's tried and tested :) I just added blackberries as well.

• Individual tirimisu cheesecakes - quite possibly the ultimate cheesecake flavour!

Base
250g Amaretti biscuits

125g Unsalted butter

Filling

270g Ricotta

270g Marscapone

120g Caster sugar

2 1/2 Eggs

180 ml Creme fraiche

2 1/2 tbsp Cornflour

2 - 3 tsp Coffee essence

2 - 3 tsp Tia Maria

For method see normal recipe. The amaretti biscuits seem to soak up more butter than others - so you need more butter. I also did a vegan version - with nice biscuits and the same kind of filling but using alpro soy dessert with coffee essence & tia maria set with gelatine.

• Vegan beetroot and chocolate cake. From recipe here. Last minute. com topping was sweetened soy milk with vanilla thickened with cornflour.

• Pineapple puff pastry tarts - "That was lush!" said the guy we had helping us with the washing up. Eevryone had to try one. He was right. They were! Recipe again from here. I tried adding a bit of lemon curd under the pineapple slices. Seemed to work well. Other than that - maybe you could try frangipane. These literally came out of the oven and went straight on the road - can't beat that for freshness. So busy didn't manage to get a photo of finished tart - this pic actually comes ©Ms Marmitelover from this event we did.

• Cauliflower, fennel, red onion and radish salad. Earlier in the year at a dinner party we were serving I had made a cauliflower and fennel coleslaw when those were the only ingredients we had left, and we had found ourselves with a little bit of extra time as guests sat down late. It seemed to work very well, and I tried it out as a salad here bound with mustard vinaigrette. A few basil leaves finish it off.

• Benedict bars
Another hit. These were the two off-cut pieces. A photo at dusk earlier tonight - now you see why I'm a chef not a food photographer. Another recipe via Lucy made in this case with hedgerow jelly from Dove Cottage in Broadway made from berries picked from the local fields.

Related posts

All vegetarian buffet 2008 (whole host of vegetarian sandwich ideas)

All vegetarian buffet 2009 (new vegetarian ideas + vegan cakes)

All vegetarian buffet 2010 (vegetarian salad ideas - my favourite was the tex-mex)

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Childrens party food delivery in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Edit 03/03/13

To see more from another children's party we did recently click on the picture above.

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You know me - turn my hand to anything (bar celebration/ wedding cakes - one day I'll go on a course). Childrens food? No problem. Great fun to make actually - it had been a while.

This was a delivery I did to Cheltenham at the begining of July - this took care of the morning, then in the afternoon it was off to Ross on Wye to start the 8 day breakfast, lunch and dinner holiday chef job - never like to do things by halves.

As well as the requisite finger sandwiches (marmite, jam & egg - though not all together) we did a few Home Farm sausages made into cocktail size on sticks, chicken goujons and sausage rolls. And mini cheese and tomato pizzas:
and cheese and pineapple aka Mr & Mrs Prickles.

Raspberry jelly
Cupcakes - how can a childrens party be complete without cupcakes at the moment?

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Date and walnut cupcakes

If you can't beat them join them!
".... and what we would like is a weekend package Friday through to Sunday - A meal delivered on the Friday night, Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner for the children and adults cooked in the house, Sunday lunch and then Sunday dinner for the children and adults again cooked in the house"
"and what was the date?"
"Friday 5 Mar to Sunday the.... 7th"
"This weekend?"

Yes. Already a busy weekend there was a last minute party with 4 days to go. Always like a challenge.

This a little something to go with the buffet lunch delivery on the Saturday.

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Movember cupcakes

Banana and peanut butter cupcakes from Vivid to raise funds for Movember 10 days ago. You can see more on their blog here, and there's a couple of cupcake recipes you can *must* try here

The Movember Foundation charity runs Movember events to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues accross the world.

As Vivid are an all female company they couldn't grow moustaches for the month of Movember (well not yet anyway) so they made these cupcakes instead and sported fake 'taches (see on link above). All good fun for a good cause!

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