Halloween Themed Afternoon Tea

Those of you who have been following my blog posts will know that I LOVE the whole traditional afternoon tea experience and I am always on the lookout for any excuse to partake in a spot of afternoon tea.

Today I will be sharing my very first attempt at a DIY afternoon tea with you. With Halloween fast approaching almost every supermarket and food store is brimming with Halloween themed treats, so I thought why not organise my very own Halloween inspired tea party.

Moving away from the elegance and refinement associated with a traditional English afternoon tea, I decided to unleash my inner child and go all out with spooky decorations, complete with Halloween themed paper plates! :) 

As this was my first afternoon tea at home, I decided to keep it simple and make three different cupcakes: 

Spider Web Cupcakes: This is by far my favourite cupcake, I made a chocolate buttercream and tried to spread it as smoothly as possible. I then piped three circles of white chocolate and used a toothpick to drag through the circles, from the centre to the edge, in order to create a cobweb effect

Tombstone Cupcakes: To make the tombstone cupcakes I spread the same chocolate buttercream I made onto the cupcakes and topped it with an edible tombstone decoration.

Scary Pumpkin Cupcakes: To make these I added orange food colouring to some butter cream I made and for some extra flavour I grated some orange zest into it. To create the scary faces I used ready rolled black icing – mine look slightly evil, but I can assure you they tasted divine and were perfectly sweet!

Sandwiches: Again I kept it simple with my favourite veggie options: cucumber, cheese and onion and egg mayonnaise.

And finally no afternoon tea would be complete without some freshly baked scones topped with jam and cream! In keeping with the Halloween theme I decided to give these an evil face as well :) 

My first DIY afternoon tea was soo much fun to make I would definitely like to do another girly tea party at home. Next time I will ditch the paper plates and try to recreate the elegance of the traditional English tea room - putting my inner child away until next Halloween!

Have you ever hosted your own afternoon tea party? Any ideas on what sweet treats I could make for next time?

See you next time for more of my ramblings!

xx

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National Chocolate Week

Did you know that it’s National Chocolate Week?? - Chocolate week is an annual celebration of all things chocolaty in the UK. This year the celebration runs from 13th to 19th October and is apparently in its 10th consecutive year. With my weakness for a sweet treat, why in my 16 years of existence haven’t I heard about this before?!?

a motto I seem to live by...

I’ve decided that chocolate week is my new favourite week of the year and to get in the spirit of things I decided to dig out my fave chocolate recipe book and get involved in celebrating chocolate!!

This little book is packed with lots of yummy recipes,  all using my favourite ingredient…chocolate!

Today, I decided to have a go at making Chocolate and Vanilla Creams. This is a really elegant yet simple treat to make at home. It only took 15 mins to make and tastes amazing!

I would love to see what all my fellow chocoholics got up to during National Chocolate Week, you can email me pictures on ramblingsofadevotedteadrinker@gmail.com 

See you next time for more of my ramblings! 

xx

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White Chocolate and Raspberry Tart Recipe

I was watching the Great British Bake Off the other day and every time without fail no matter how full I am that show always gives me the sudden urge to rush to the kitchen, grab my “I’ll diet tommrow…” apron and whip up some scrummy sweet treats! Today I will be sharing my latest attempt at home baking with you. I’m certainly no Nigella that’s for sure, but I love to bake, and I reckon I’m alright at it (…well as far as my food technology GCSE stretches!).  

In today’s post I will be sharing my utter most favourite sweet treat – White Chocolate and Raspberry Tart (ooo - just saying it is making my mouth water). I hate sickly sweet cakes… however, with the power of trial and error I have finally found the perfect amount of each ingredient without it being too sweet, but still satisfying my sweet tooth.

This recipe is incredibly simple to make and truly amazing! Hope you like it as much as I do :) So without further ado - let’s bake!!!

Ingredients:

For the Shortcrust Pastry:

180g Plain Flour

110g Butter

45ml (2-3 tbsp) Cold Water

For the filling:

150g White Chocolate

250ml Double Cream

For the topping:

150g Raspberries

Method

Step One: Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line the flan dish that you will be baking it in.

Step Two: To make the pastry, put the flour in a large bowl and add the butter. Just a little warning this bit could get a little messy, especially if you are a clutz (like me) Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until there are no large lumps of butter remaining and it resembles breadcrumbs.     

Step Three: Now in order to bind the dough, stir in just enough of the water you may not need the full 45ml

Step Four: On a lightly floured surface knead the dough for a few seconds until it is smooth. Then, roll out the pastry, make a bigger enough circle to fit in your 23cm flan dish! If you use your rolling pin to lift the pastry over your dish it will prevent from those dreaded tears in the pastry! Make sure you leave enough of the pastry to overhang the edges of the dish slightly.

Step Five: You will need to blind bake the pastry so before you put it in the oven make sure you line your dish with baking parchment and fill with baking beans so the pastry doesn't rise in the oven – baking beans can be fairly pricey so instead you could use any dry rice you have lying around to prevent the pastry rising!

Step Six: After all that hard work put your feet up while the pastry blind bakes for 15 minutes! or if you are good you can start on the washing up…

Step Seven: After 15 minutes take it out the oven (using oven gloves!!) Remove the baking beans (or whatever you used) – be careful they will be VERY hot now and bake for 10 minutes more. Then, leave it to completely cool.

Step Eight: While the pastry is cooling you can start on the scrumptious filling…I like to melt my chocolate in the microwave as I feel it’s the easiest way, but you can use a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water if you feel more comfortable doing it that way. Start by breaking your white chocolate in a microwaveable bowl, then pop it in the microwave for 20 seconds and mix, repeat this step until the chocolate had melted completely - you have to be super careful if you are melting it in the microwave, white chocolate burns very easily!

Step Nine: This is the part where you’ll wish you had three hands! Pour a little bit of the double cream at a time into the chocolate and mix thoroughly – you have to work quickly here as you don’t want the chocolate to harden!

Step Ten: Pour your scrumptious filling into your cool pastry case! This is only part of the whole process I hate…waiting for the tart to set in the fridge, I always end up checking whether it’s set every 5 minutes!!

Step Eleven: Once it has completely set and when you lift it the filling doesn't move then you can move onto the raspberries...if you have the patience you can design a pretty pattern with the raspberries on top, but I like to just scatter them all over the filling! You can also dust it with some icing sugar if you have any lying around!

Step Twelve: Enjoy!...

I hope you enjoyed today's post :) Comment down below if you have any suggestions for future baking projects! You can email me pictures of your creations on ramblingsofadevotedteadrinker@gmail.com 

See you next time for more of my ramblings!

xx

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Tea and Cake at Lou Lou’s Vintage Fair

In recent years I have developed a massive appreciation for all things vintage. I especially enjoy trawling through pictures of fashion from the 1960’s - I just love all the quirky jewellery and vibrant clothing. The other thing that comes to mind when I think of vintage shopping is of course, cute Victorian inspired tea pots and cake stands (what a surprise).

I have to confess though I've never actually brought anything vintage or been to a vintage fair before. When I happened to see an announcement advertising Lou Lou’s Vintage Fair coming to Albert Hall in Nottingham this September, I was super excited and decided I really wanted to go! So last Sunday my mum (who has an amazing eye for a bargain) and I took a trip down to the Albert Hall for our first vintage fair experience. In today’s post I thought I would share a few pictures from our mother daughter outing :)

So first impressions - it was very hectic! I really wasn't expecting so many people! Luckily we got there just as the fair was opening (we were incredibly eager) and were able to have a first look round before it became really crowded.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the sheer variety of stalls and bargains waiting to be snapped up – from cute floral tableware to vintage suitcases and gorgeous handbags – there really was something for everyone.

At one point I managed to lose my mum in the crowd…tracked her down a few minutes later though eying up some gorgeous cake stands - I don’t think she even noticed we’d lost each other! Someone was clearly enjoying themselves :) 

I thought these plates were just adorable – really wish I’d brought one now!!

For the clothing, there’s definitely a bit of rummaging through piles needed but it’s so worth it, as there were lots of hidden gems just waiting to be discovered…

It's a shame it’s not sunny anymore :(

So what did we buy…..

I picked up this cute top from ‘Mrs Bird Vintage’ for only £10. My sister asked me to keep an eye out for a good quality little handbag for her and after sending endless whatsapp pictures of what felt like every bag at the fair, she finally chose the miniscule but very cute bag in the picture above. The lady on the stall informed me that it was from the 1940’s and genuine leather. The bag was only £8… a bargain!  I sort of want to keep it for myself now…(shhh) 

All the jewellery at the fair was beautiful and there was just so much to choose from. I picked up this cute tea pot necklace, which I fell in love with at first sight for £5. I would definitely check out this shop (www.madamecherry.com) it has some amazing other pieces too. Also, I purchased a pair of scrabble piece earrings for £2.00.

And finally something to add a bit of elegance to my bedroom wall…

I am a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn!!

My mum purchased a gorgeous cake stand for only £5. We took ages deliberating between the array of unique designs, but finally chose this lovely one…

What we ate…

No post of mine would be complete without some reference to my love of tea and cake. In fact the first thing we spotted when we entered the fair was the vintage tea party area. It was tempting to make a beeline straight for the cake stall, especially as all the cakes looked so scrummy and enticing. I managed to control my cravings until after we’d trawled around the rest of the fair though, by which time the cakes were looking even more appealing to my tired eyes!

Unfortunately, however while the cakes looked amazing I was highly disappointed with the taste. We had a slice of the Victoria Sponge - it was too sweet and crumbly: I just didn’t like it :(

Despite the disappointing tea and cake, overall we had a great day and really enjoyed our first vintage fair experience :) Lou Lou’s vintage fair will be back in Nottingham on 26^th October I believe if you want to check it out. In fact it travels to lots of cities in the UK so you can click here to see when it's near you! The entry is £2 and under 12’s are free.

Hope you enjoyed today's post :) 

See you next week for more of my ramblings!

xx

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8 random facts about tea...

In today’s post I thought I would give my belly a rest from the indulgence of afternoon tea and share some random and (mostly useless) facts about the world’s most popular drink and my favourite pastime – tea drinking…

Now in my opinion there is nothing better than sitting down with a steaming cup of tea (even better if it’s accompanied by a slice of cake!) and I am clearly not the only one…

Fact One: We Brits seriously love a good old cuppa! It is estimated that in the UK we get through around 130,000 tonnes of tea a year!

And this love of tea is definitely not a new indulgence…

Fact Two: Tea has been a favourite beverage in Britain since the 18th century (blimey)

I am a firm believer that there is nothing more therapeutic than a cup of tea and a good girly gossip, but tea can actually do a lot more than make you feel better after a long week…..

If you stay up late studying or (like me) watching netflix’s when you’re meant to be studying, you have probably at some point experienced those unsightly bags - carrier bags as I like to call them, under your eyes (sigh) -

Fact Three: Placing a cold tea bag on the eyelids can help to refresh tired eyes. Caffeine helps reduce puffiness by shrinking the blood vessels around your eyes. Not sure if this will work on my colossal bags but I might just give it a go at some point!

Fact Four: Cold tea bags can also help to take the sting out of sunburn.

Fact Five: Forget about an apple a day to keep the dentist away…who would have thought a cup of tea would! Tea can protect your teeth from tooth decay and gum disease , as it is a natural source of fluoride!

And finally here are couple of other random nuggets of information that I’ve learnt about tea recently:

Fact Six: *please place the item into the bag* 96% of all cups of tea drunk in the UK are brewed from tea bags!

Fact Seven: Tea bags know days come in all shapes; round, square and pyramid! If you just thought the different shapes of tea bags were to make it look pretty (like I did) then you will be surprised to hear that the shape of the tea bag is actually very significant. Pyramid shaped tea bags allow the tea to move more freely, therefore releasing much more taste than round tea bags!

Fact Eight: There are estimated to be about 1,500 different varieties of tea – how many have you tried??

I hope you enjoyed these little facts!  Let me know if you come across any other weird and wonderful facts about tea ;)

See you next time for more of my ramblings! 

xx

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