How about some recipes for dainty wee morsels for afternoon tea, like cucumber or ribbon sandwiches, butterfly cakes, mini scones with jam and cream etc... . all the lovely "old style" goodies that are now so poopular again. I will start with the cold savouries such as these delicious cucumber sandwiches. 1 thin cucumber 8 slices brown bread, sliced 8 slices white bread, sliced 115g fresh unsalted butter 1-2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh mint salt and pepper
Peel cucumber and slice in paper-thin rounds. Salt rounds lightly and place in colander for 15 minutes to drain. Press to release water; pat dry with paper towels.
Spread sliced bread with softened butter. Put 2 layers of cucumber slices on bottom slice, sprinkle with finely chopped mint, salt and pepper to taste, and top with another buttered slice. Press lightly with palm of hand. Cut all crusts off with a sharp knife. Cut sandwiches in half diagonally and then again into quarters. Serve in alternate rows of brown and white bread sandwiches, points facing up!
cookessentials,
Feb 6, 8:22am
SHOULD say OLD fashioned afternoon tea LOL
hlblanchett,
Feb 6, 8:24am
Don't forget cream horns. Cornucopias of puff pastry filled with raspberry/strawberry jam (deseeded as it's more genteel) and whipped cream. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar.
cookessentials,
Feb 6, 8:32am
Recipes please
cookessentials,
Feb 6, 8:34am
LEMON BARLEY WATER
90g pearl barley 3 lemons 100g caster sugar Place barley and 1. 5L of water in a saucepan and bring to boil. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes then strain into a bowl or jug. Remove lemon rind in strips, discard pith and slice flesh. Add rind and flesh to barley water, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Strain the mixture the next day and discard the solids. Add the caster sugar and stir to dissolve. Serve chilled.
100g butter , softened 140g icing sugar , sifted drop vanilla extract (optional) 340g jar good-quality strawberry icing sugar , to decorate
cookessentials,
Feb 6, 8:54am
Heat oven to 190C. Butter two 20cm sandwich tins and line with non-stick baking paper. In a large bowl, beat all the cake ingredients together until you have a smooth, soft batter. Divide the mixture between the tins, smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon, then bake for about 20 mins until golden and the cake springs back when pressed. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely. To make the filling, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, then gradually beat in icing sugar. Beat in vanilla extract if you're using it. Spread the butter cream over the bottom of one of the sponges, top it with jam and sandwich the second sponge on top. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving
cookessentials,
Feb 6, 8:55am
Great ideas, but can we have the recipes for them as it will be much easier for people to use.
cookessentials,
Feb 9, 6:24am
So, I am sure some of you must have some delicious old fashioned recipes you might like to share?
doug57,
Feb 9, 7:22pm
Beautiful vintage china plates, cake stands, teacups, a nice teapot and a freshly ironed linen cloth are necessities! [this could be classified as ingredients! lol]
janeny1,
Feb 10, 11:59am
Check if your public library has this book... Ladies a plate, traditional home baking by Alex Johnston... . the photos are lovely ... the recipes include ginger gems, cinnamon oysters, louise cake, etc
letitia,
Feb 10, 12:18pm
If you want to make your cucumber sandwiches look interesting, use a telegraph cucumber (the one with edible skin). Using a potato peeler, peel stripes down the cucumber's length, then cut into thin slices as usual.
cookessentials,
Feb 10, 6:00pm
doug57, absolutley, that iis exactly what you need, all the pretty china and dainty morsels make it a real occasion.
doug57,
Feb 10, 8:01pm
I went to a coffee shop recently and it was totally unexpected, but they served my long black in a bone china mug with a pretty china hot water jug, A cream dish, a bone china plate with the dreaded piece of carrot cake [my weakness] that I succumbed to! It was LOVELY. . an experience, rather than 'just' a coffee. Needless to say, it's now become one of my favourite places to go. I've made a mental note to make more of a 'thing' about morning/afternoon tea at home on weekends now. It only will take a few extra minutes to tart everything up, but I think it makes you relax more and you feel that you've done something rather than simply scoffed and gulped! LOL
cookessentials,
Feb 10, 11:26pm
The great thing about the old fashioned afternoon or morning teas is that they serve dainty sandwiches, muffins and cakes instead of "supersized" everything! Buying most things at a cake shop now, you end up with huge portions which I am sure contributes to the countrieweight problem dont you think? We have a place in the Wairarapa - in Greytown that is an old fashioned tea shop with the white linen, china cups and creamers, napkins and two or three tiered cake plates and it is very popular.
245sam,
Feb 10, 11:49pm
Here's a couple of recipes for little cakes from a fund-raising recipe book for my secondary school. The book was produced in1971! ! ! so is from the days before, as you said Pam, everything became "supersized". The metric conversions are mine and they do work well... . .
MALAY COFFEE CAKES 85g each ofbutterandsugar 1 egg 1 tbsp coffee essence vanilla essence - I use just a few drops 140g flour 1 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp mixed spice ¼ cup milk
Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and essences, then mix in the sifted dry ingredients and the milk. Put into paper patty cases. Bake at180ºCfor10-15 minutes. Ice with coffee-flavoured icing or serve as butterfly cakes (i. e. filled with a little whipped cream and topped with a sprinkling of icing sugar).
"MIRACLES" 1 cup flour 1 tsp each ofbaking powderandbaking soda ¼ tsp salt 1 tbsp cocoa ½ cup each ofsugarandmilk 2 tbsp golden syrup 55g butter, melted 1 egg, beaten
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa together, then add the sugar and mix it through lightly, with a fork. Carefully and gently warm the golden syrup in the milk without allowing it to boil. Remove from the heat and add the melted butter, then the beaten egg. Add the dry ingredients and carefully mix all together. Place the mixture into patty pans or patty papers. Bake at 180ºC-200ºC. Allow to become cold then either a) ice the top of each cake with chocolate icing and decorate as desired OR b) scoop out of the top of each cake with a tsp, then add a small spoon of raspberry and replace the top of the cake and ice with chocolate icing OR c) make butterfly cakes by scooping out the top of each cake with a tsp, then adding a small spoon of whipped cream and replacing the top piece of cake, cut into 2 and placed to resemble wings.
Both of these are very tasty wee morsels and not the over-sized offerings that are normally available nowdays - both myself and my DH do have a fairly sweet tooth but in general nowdays we actually need to share any purchased slice or cake because they're just too big for us to manage a whole one each. :-))
janeny1,
Feb 10, 11:54pm
Correction to post 12the author is Alexa Johnstonand there is a second bookcalled Second helping
andrea1978,
Feb 11, 2:21am
Cute!
I wouldn't mind doing a little afternoon tea for my daughter's 5th birthday as she is such a little lady and loves everything pretty and proper (where did she get that from? ! lol)So this thread is awesome thanks :)And I now have a reason to use my 2 tiered cake stands that have never been used!
andrea1978,
Feb 11, 2:42am
These aren't old fashioned but they are gorgeous and every time I make them people rave about them!
Little raspberry cream cakes (from NZ House & Garden Entertaining Cookbook)
100g butter 100g caster sugar 2 eggs, room temperature 100g self raising flour Mascarpone or whipped cream Raspberry Jam and icing sugar (I use strawberry jam)
Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius. Grease mini muffin tins
Melt butter on low heat; cool to just warm. Beat sugar and eggs until very thick and creamy.
Sift flour and lightly fold half into eggs with half the melted butter. Repeat with remaining flour and butter. (If any lumps remain, whisk very lightly to smooth but not deflate mixture. )
Half fill tins (mini muffin tins) and bake 8-10 mins until just golden and springy - do not overcook. Turn out and cool.
Cut the top off each cake (not the whole top more like a five cent piece) and fill hollow with cream and jam. Replace tops and dust with icing sugar. makes about 30.
Janet Dunn
cookessentials,
Feb 11, 3:18am
Shirley, thank you and to Andrea, we have got the thread rolling now with some great recipes. i do have a Madeleines recipe i must get around to posting. My Mum used to do another type of madeleine which was cocount, but shaped like a pyramid with a cherry on the top, they were delicious.
510,
Mar 21, 5:11pm
Just put the gem in the oven to heat up as I am about to make some ginger gems to take for alunch with other family members. I love the smell of them baking. I will probably just use the edmonds recipe for ginger gems.
korbo,
Mar 21, 6:55pm
my dream is to have someone show me how to make cream horns. when my mum passed on, she had 20 cream horn things, and i have tried a few times. all i end up with is pastry sticking, and just no use to anyone, except the birds... .
snapit,
Mar 21, 8:03pm
This is an old recipe from an Edmonds book but seems to have vaniished from the later ones. Duskies 4oz butter 3/4 breakfast cup icing sugar 1 egg 5oz flour 1 tsp Edmonds baking powder 1 heaped tablespoon cocoa 1/2 breakfast cup coconut 1/2 breakfast cup chopped walnuts
Cream butter and sugar, add egg then beat. Add dry ingredients, mix, and place in small spoonfuls on cold greased trays. Bake 12 to 15 minutes at 400 degrees. When cold ice with chocolate icing and decorate with shredded coconut.
I have noted try orange icing as it will give jaffa flavour, or chocolate icing with orange in it.
Also when making muffins make them in the mini tins rather than a monster.
cap,
Mar 21, 9:05pm
I am glad to see someone mention Cream Horns. Haven't had one of those in years. Now this probably isn't helpful as I don't have a recipe and I'm not even sure of the name but I wonder if someone could help. I think they were called "cheesecakes". They were like little tarts that had a pastry base them some jam and then a cakey topping I think and then a bit of pastry on the top to decorate. Does anyone know what I am on about? LOL!
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