Royal wedding afternoon tea

We decided to have an afternoon teaparty to celebrate the Royal Wedding (William and Catherine). It was kind-of Nick's idea, then I ran with it, with Seb's encouragement. I made loads of Union Jack bunting of all sizes, and a ridiculous collage - all from scrap paper and a few print-outs. We bought six teacups and saucers and a teapot and 2 tablecloths all from thrift stores (about $15 total). And then made lots and lots of food and drink...

Green tea buns (L); cucumber+mint sandwiches (top), savoury scones (middle), tomato+basil sandwiches (bottom)

Savoury:

Cucumber and mint sandwiches (on light wholewheat bread that I thought would be white)
Tomato and basil sandwiches (on wholewheat bread)
Tomato, olive and rosemary scones (GF)
Pretzels (Seb's)

Sweet:

Tealoaf
Green tea buns
Orange, semolina and orange blossom cake
Raisin scones with strawberry jam / lemon 'curd'
Peanut butter cookies (GF)
Whole, fresh strawberries

Drinks:

Mint tea (from Bella's watering can)
Various black teas (mostly Earl Grey) - thanks to Nick and Alvin for lending teapots
Pimms (with lemonade, fizzy grapefruit juice, mint, strawberries, oranges and cucumber)
Lemon slices, sugar, almond milk to go with

Other people brought:

Scones (Beth + Per)
Blueberry and Apricot pies (Luis and Ana)
Hummus, falafel and pitta from Rami's (Kishore, Suzanne and Ramil)
Gingersnaps (Andrea)
Digestive biscuits, cake stand, teapot, tea and milk (Nick)
GF chocolate cookies, teapot and tea (Alvin)
Mini cupcakes and lemon sugar cookies (Katy)
Prep and washing-up skills (Andy)


Tealoaf

2 Earl Grey teabags
125g golden caster sugar
300g mixed dried fruit (raisins, golden raisins, currants and candied peel)
225g plain flour, sifted
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
2 tbsp clear honey, to glaze

Place the tea bags in a heat-proof bowl and add 300ml boiling water. Leave to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the tea bags, add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the fruit and leave in a cool place to stand for between 4-12 hours, depending on how much time you have.

When ready to cook the tealoaf, preheat the oven to 180°C / 356F / gas mark 4. Line a 1kg loaf tin with baking parchment.

Drain the fruit and mix in some flour (to coat raisins and stop them sinking). Add the flour and the zest and juice of the lemon to the tea mixture and beat well. Add the fruit back in and beat some more. Pour into the lined tin and bake for 1-1¼ hours, or until golden on top / a skewer comes out clean. Allow the loaf to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. While it’s cooling, warm the honey slightly in a small pan or microwave then brush the honey over the top of the loaf with a pastry brush. Serve thinly sliced, with tea.


Green tea buns

1 1/4 cups plain flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3-4 tsp green tea powder (I just ground up some dried leaves)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup rice milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
juice of 1 small lime (~2 tbsp)

For icing:
~1 tbsp margarine
1 cup icing sugar
1/8-1/4 tsp green tea powder
1 drop green food colouring
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
~1 tbsp rice milk

Flaked almonds to decorate

Heat oven to 350F. Mix the dry ingredients with a fork. Add the wet ingredients and mix til just combined. Fill cups 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 min.

For the icing, beat the margarine then add the sugar and tea powder. Add the vanilla, food colouring and enough rice milk to make a good pouring (but not too runny) texture.

When buns are completely cool, cover tops with icing (it's OK if it runs a little), and decorate each with flaked almonds (I tried to arrange these to look a bit like a heart).


Semolina, orange and orange blossom cake

Followed this recipe (veganized).

For the cake
300g/11oz semolina
175g/6oz soft brown sugar
175g/6oz plain flour
40g/1½oz ground almonds
1½ tsp baking powder
1 orange, zest only
75g/3oz fake butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
225ml/8fl oz fake milk
16 blanched almonds / almond flakes

For the syrup
150g/5fl oz acacia honey
110ml/4fl oz water
1 tbsp orange blossom water

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and grease a 20cm/8in
loose-bottomed square baking tin (used 2 x 8in cake tins lined with foil).
2. For the cake, mix the semolina, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking
powder and orange zest together in a bowl until well combined.
3. Gradually stir in the melted butter and milk until you have a smooth
batter.
4. Pour the batter into the greased tin and carefully arrange the
almonds on top in 4 rows.
5. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the cake is
golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes
out clean.
6. Meanwhile, for the syrup, heat the honey, water and orange blossom
water in a saucepan over a low heat, stirring constantly, for 2-3
minutes, or until the mixture is smooth and has thickened slightly.
7. When the cake is cooked, remove it from oven, prick the surface
several times with a toohpick, and slowly pour the syrup over the
surface of the cake. Set the cake aside to cool and absorb the syrup.
8. To serve, cut the cake into 16, so that there is an almond in
the middle of each piece.  Serving suggestion with whipped cream (or greek yoghurt) if not vegan.


Scones

From this recipe.

Ingredients
225g/8oz self raising flour
pinch of salt
55g/2oz fake butter
25g/1oz caster sugar
150ml/5fl oz fake milk
1-2 oz raisins
~ 2 tbsp fake milk to brush on top

1. Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter.  Mix in the raisins.
3. Stir in the sugar and then the milk to get a soft dough.
4. Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a
round 2cm/¾in thick. Use a 5cm/2in cutter to stamp out rounds and
place on a baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough
and stamp out more scones to use it all up.
5. Brush the tops of the scones with fake milk. Bake for 12-15
minutes until well risen and golden.
6. Cool on a wire rack and serve with fake butter and jam.

I also made a GF / savoury version leaving out the sugar, using gram flour instead of normal flour, adding tomato paste to the milk mix, and adding chopped olives and fresh rosemary.

For both sets of sandwiches, took sliced bread, removed crusts (made these into breadcrumbs for future use), then lightly (fake) buttered one side, then added veg + herb filling, seasoned with salt and pepper, closed sandwich and sliced into quarters.


The tealoaf was excellent - really simple and really moist / excellent flavour.  Definitely a keeper.

I was really pleased with the green tea cupcakes / buns too - when I opened what I thought was a packet of green tea powder I found it was actually leaves, so decided to risk grinding them in my spice grinder to make powder.  It worked quite well, to my surprise, and I think the amount of green tea was about right - definite taste and colour without being too much.  The frosting was pretty good too - colour was a bit icky without the food colouring, but with it was fine.  And they looked pretty cute in the end I thought.

The semolina cake was alright.  I liked the semolina and orange / orange blossom, but it was a very dense, almost rubbery texture.  The syrup was really a lot when I added it - it was drowning in it.  But after I left it to cool there didn't seem to be any problems with that.  Perhaps using the wrong container to cook it didn't help?  I was relieved that it came out of the container quite easily though.  I kind of like this as a vegan cake recipe, and like the use of semolina - worth playing around with?

The scones were awful.  The sweet ones were edible with the addition of jam or curd, but didn't rise or colour properly.  Was the oven temp too high?  The savoury ones were overpowered by the gram flavour and texture (better to use half and half gram and cornmeal?)...  Beth's were much better!

The sandwiches were surprisingly good, esp the cucumber and mint.  Seb had a pretzel embarrassment - he was very disappointed.