Home time!

A lovely trip home to cater for Granny Jeans 80th Birthday was great fun. We also stumbled accross this little gem of a shop: http://capercaillie-antiques.co.uk/ with an amazing collection of vintage and retro furniture and crockery.



Rebecca & Laura

Vintage Styling - Lipstick & Curls

We found this amazing company offering vintage hair styling and make-up.

We love thier style.

So if you're thinking of adding a further vintage touch to your vintage afternoon tea party then have a look at thier website:



http://www.lipstickandcurls.net/

Lunch with Lady Eaton!

This is a must for our reading list!

 

Flora McCrae Eaton was a visionary, a philanthropist, a socialite, a businesswoman, a world traveler, and a mother of six, but she also ushered in a shopping and dining aesthetic that revolutionized the retail and restaurant experience for generations of Canadians.

Lady Eaton oversaw the architecture, staffing, and menus for more than a dozen grand dining rooms few have forgotten despite their eventual demise: the flagship Georgian Room (Toronto), the Round Room (Toronto—now the Carlu), Le Neuf (Montreal), the Grill Room (Winnipeg), and the Marine Room (Vancouver). For more casual fare Eaton's offered soda and ice cream counters, snack bars, hostess shops, cafeterias, and bakery counters.

Lady Eaton's direction of the restaurants "created" a Canadian cuisine — chicken pot pie, cheese dreams, Waldorf salad, honey drop cookies, gingerbread, butterscotch pie, and Queen Elizabeth cake. Thirty recipes make this trip down memory lane as savory as it is nostalgic. Put on your gloves and hat and relive an era of elegance all but vanished. Lunch anyone?

Dress for the occasion!

 

Having a Vintage Tea Party? Why not dress for the occasion?

 

We found this beautiful site offering free vintage sewing patterns:

 

http://www.soubrettevintage.com/category/downloads/

 

 

Couture Inspired 1950s Day Dress – Victoria & Albert Museum

 

Have a go!

Enjoy xx

Tea production to help Peacebuilding in the South Caucasus

On 16th October, International Alert’s partner Caucasus Business and Development Network (CBDN) organised the annual Caucasus Tea Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia. The aim of the Festival is to promote sectoral cooperation and popularise the Caucasus Tea brand across the region.
The event was part of CBDN’s ongoing work in engaging different economic sectors in regional dialogue.

Hundreds of people – ranging from tea experts, business representatives, authorities, diplomatic missions, NGOs and international organisations, to producers from across the South Caucasus, including Shirak, Karabakh, Samegrelo, Imereti and Zaqatala rayon – attended the event, and enjoyed tastings of the finest teas from across the region.

The event received widespread media coverage, including on national TV stations and print media. As one of the guests said, ‘I enjoyed trying the tea that is produced by tea-makers across the region. I think it is important to have these kind of initiatives where people of the Caucasus work together and events where the public enjoys tea, wine, cheese and honey without thinking about where it was made’.

CBDN promotes peacebuilding through regional economic cooperation and dialogue between all business communities across the South Caucasus. CBDN was founded in 2005 and its work is guided by a shared vision of an economically connected and cooperating peaceful Caucasus and by a set of commonly agreed principles. To find out more, please visit: www.caucasusbusiness.net

http://www.international-alert.org/fr/news/caucasus-tea-festival

How to make the perfect Cucumber Sandwich

We came accross this article in The Guardian online, enjoy:

The whole point about cucumber sandwiches is that, unless done really well, they're as dull as the sum of their ingredients. They glory in their own delicacy: rumour suggests the nutritional redundancy of a thin, white bread sandwich filled with a fruit that's 96% water was intended to celebrate the sedentary lifestyles of the Victorian upper crust. Certainly they're not going to sustain anyone through a hot afternoon at the plough, but it's this very insubstantiality that attracts me – they're perfect for afternoon tea, because, unlike a ham or a cheese variety, they won't spoil your appetite for dinner.

(Makes 9)
1/2 cucumber, peeled
Salt
6 thin slices of good white bread
Unsalted butter, at room temperature
White pepper

Cut the cucumber into slices as thin as you can make them, and put in a colander or sieve. Sprinkle lightly with salt (don't go overboard) and leave for 20 minutes. Taste to check you haven't oversalted them: you can rinse them at this point if so.

Lay out a few pieces of kitchen paper on the work surface, place the cucumber slices on them, and pat dry with more paper.

Lay out the bread and butter each slice generously. Arrange the cucumber on half the slices, overlapping each round, and sprinkle with ground white pepper. Top with the remaining slices.

Pressing down firmly, cut the crusts off, and then cut into neat fingers, triangles or quarters of roughly equal sizes. Serve immediately, with good tea.

Our trip to the Hampstead pop up vintage fair

 

Laura and I visited the pop-up fair on Sunday and hand-picked some amazing props for our next event!

We made our way around the great stalls and found the most amazing items including some pretty plates and hand-stitched napkins.

Looking forward to the next one!

A cup of tea solves everything!

MacMillan Coffee Morning

Thank you to all those who donated to this amazing cause today. The late night baking was worth it!

I hope you enjoyed your cupcakes, scones, cheesecake and the vintage cake stands!.

Thank you

http://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/About/Aboutourevent.aspx

Mary Berry's Scone Recipe

Have a look at this recipe from the Queen of baking Mary Berry. We'll definitely be trying it tonight!

The secret of good scones is not to handle them too much before baking, and to make the mixture on the wet, sticky side. Either eat scones on the day of making or freeze once they have completely cooled. If time allows, thaw them at room temperature for a couple of hours and then refresh in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes. If you like large scones, this amount of mixture will make 8-10 9cm (3 ½ inch) scones.

INSTRUCTIONS

Preparation time: about 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Makes about 20 scones

1. Lightly grease two baking trays. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7.
2. Measure the flour and baking powder into a processor. Add the butter and process until a crumble, then add the sugar. Or make by hand by rubbing the butter into the flour using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
3. Beat the eggs together until blended and make up to a generous 300ml (1/2 pint) with the milk, then put about 2 tablespoons of the egg/milk aside in a cup for glazing the scones later. Gradually add the egg/milk mixture to the dry ingredients until you have a soft dough. It is far better that the scone mixture is on the wet side, sticking to your fingers, as the scones will rise better.
4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and flatten it out with your hand, or use a rolling pin, to a thickness of 1-2 cm (1/2 – ¾ inch). Use a 5 cm (2 inch) fluted cutter to stamp out the dough by pushing the cutter straight down into the dough (as opposed to twisting the cutter) then lift it straight out. This ensures that the scones will rise evenly and keep their shape. Gently push the remaining dough together, knead very lightly then re-roll and cut more scones out as before.
5. Arrange the scones on the prepared baking trays and brush the tops with the reserved beaten egg/milk mixture to glaze. Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the scones are well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack, covered with a clean tea towel to keep them moist. Serve as fresh as possible, cut in half and spread generously with strawberry jam and top with a good spoonful of thick cream

http://www.maryberry.co.uk/recipes/baking/devonshire-scones

'at half past three, everything stops for tea'

 

 

Where it all began:

 

Tea consumption increased dramatically during the early nineteenth century and it is around this time that Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford is said to have complained of "having that sinking feeling" during the late afternoon. At the time it was usual for people to take only two main meals a day, breakfast, and dinner at around 8 o'clock in the evening. The solution for the Duchess was a pot a tea and a light snack, taken privately in her boudoir during the afternoon.

 

Later friends were invited to join her in her rooms at Woburn Abbey and this summer practice proved so popular that the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for "tea and a walking the fields." Other social hostesses quickly picked up on the idea and the practice became respectable enough to move it into the drawing room. Before long all of fashionable society was sipping tea and nibbling sandwiches in the middle of the afternoon.

Occasionally you will see hotels serving a 'high tea'. Traditionally, the upper classes would serve a 'low' or 'afternoon' tea around four o'clock, just before the fashionable promenade in Hyde Park. The middle and lower classes would have a more substantial 'high' tea later in the day, at five or six o'clock, in place of a late dinner. The names derive from the height of the tables on which the meals are served, high tea being served at the dinner table.

'at half past three, everything stops for tea'

http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/information/history-of-afternoon-tea/