Snickerdoodle Tea Cake
Delicate tea cake with highlights of cinnamon and white chocolate
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup butter, cubed 2 (4 oz bars white chocolate, broken in pieces or chopped)
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar, divided
6 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 Tbs ground cinamon
Recipe
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 13x9 inch baking pan with cooking spray. In a large microwave safe bowl, heat butter and white chocolate for 30 seconds at a time (about 2 1/2 minutes total) until melted and smooth, stirring occasionally. Let cool for 10 minutes. In another large bowl or mixer, beat 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Gradually beat in flour until combined. Stir in butter mixture until smooth. Spread half of the batter into prepared pan.
In a small bowl, whisk together cinnamon, remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. Sprinkle half of the cinnamon mixture onto the batter in the pan. Top with remaining batter. Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture, and bake for 10 more minutes. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars. Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days. I like to individually wrap each bar with Saran Wrap and freeze. Take out an individual bar while you are preparing your tea and it will be ready to eat with your favorite tea blend! Enjoy!
Italian Bruschetta Recipe
A delicious tea savory of Italian Bruschetta for your tea table
Tea and sweets has always been my favorite combination when enjoying afternoon or evening tea. When I want something a little bit heavier and more of a High Tea setting, I add in a few savory treats as well, and these little bruschetta bites are some of my faves! So easy peasy to make and actually make great quick appetizers before a family gathering or holiday meal as well! There are many many ways to make bruschetta but this is my “go to” recipe and is delicious every time I make them. You can add your own toppings to either spice things up a bit or add little touches of various flavors. Just remember to cut the bread on the thinner side because I have been told (by my family mostly) that thicker slices makes it more difficult to eat and tends to get a bit messy. So for the tea table, I cut the bread on the thinner side so it’s easier to enjoy and doesn’t end up all over the table linens. Enjoy!
Italian Bruschetta
1 loaf soft French or Italian baguette
4 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
1 Jar of your favorite Pesto Sauce
Fresh Basil, chopped
Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
I start by lining a cookie sheet with aluminum foil but you can use a non-stick cookie sheet as well. Slice the entire baguette into about 1” pieces, thicker if you would like but I like to keep the slices thin so they are easier to eat. Place each bread slice on the cookie sheet. Spread each slice with a layer of pesto sauce. Make sure you cover the entire surface of each slice of bread. I add some parmesan cheese at this point sprinkled on top of the pesto because, well, you can never have too much parmesan cheese. Add the chopped tomatoes making sure you have covered every slice.
Sprinkle with freshly chopped basil leaves and I add another covering of freshly grated parmesan cheese again. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes. That’s it!! Easy Peasy, smells divine and looks incredibly colorful and fresh on the plates! Enjoy!
These Bruschetta bites are shown here with a little Spanikopita. I will be sharing this recipe with you in my next blog post!
5 ways to enjoy Tea with your quarantine Time
How is everyone doing today? We are in our 6th day of quarantine from COVID-19 and some of us (like California) are in a mandatory “safe at home” quarantine with no business opened anywhere except really to get food. I know so much good will come out of this because God is just putting this backdrop into place so He can really show off some miracles. I can not wait for this to happen but until then, we will be safe and stay with our closest family members and try to keep busy. So now that we have all of this “time” on our hands, what are we to do? I have cleaned my house, cleaned out some closets and watching the Hallmark Chanel Christmas movie marathon right now as I write this but I have to admit, I am getting really antsy. How can I contribute to all of you and my community? Well, last night a put together some tea gifts for my wedding industry peeps to send out on Monday. We have all had a very busy week rescheduling our Spring weddings and I know the wedding planners all over the country are having a tough time reworking entire vendor teams not to mention soothing emotional brides. My heart breaks for our brides and then I started thinking… I am a wedding planner known for bringing a sense of “calm” to a wedding day and I attribute this all to my tea! So I am giving out my “calm” to my brides and my planner and vendor friends! I hope it does just a little bit of good and brings some smiles.
So what can WE all do at home to enjoy some tea with all of this time we have acquired? Here are 5 suggestions to do with or without the kiddos……. things that you have always been saying to yourself “when I get some free time, I will do………”. So here we go!
Tea, Bible Study and Prayer - I do like to start my day every morning with my bible study and most days I do. Sometimes though my phone will begin to ring before my feet even hit the ground. Now I am in full blown work mode not realizing the time slipping by until at least lunch. Last week was a bit crazy with rescheduling weddings but the phone has been eerily quiet this weekend. Bible study is always something I wish I had more time for. Our country is in need of prayer right now more than ever. So let’s take some time with our tea to pray for those who are sick, for those who are healthy to remain healthy, for our president, our country, all the health care providers working endless hours, grocery store and take out restaurants who are serving us daily, for our communities and our families. The unity I see in our country right now is so heart warming and prayer is a good way to spend some of this time we have.
Picnic Outside With The Kiddos - When my boys were younger, they would love when we read Winnie the Pooh books together. A lot of the stories from Winnie the Pooh involved tea time and they would always be outside playing. This gave me the idea of having a Winnie the Pooh picnic outside in our backyard. We would bring all of our stuffed animal friends and sit on a blanket on the grass with crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Oreo cookies and tea. I would be drinking the tea and the boys would be sipping their apple juice. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate picnic and sometimes you can do the exact same things you would be doing inside the house. It’s a different scenery though and getting some fresh air at the same time. So bring some puzzles out, read some Winnie the Pooh books (or whatever books the kids like), coloring books and crayons, trucks and cars, dolls and stuffed animals and a nice fluffy blanket. Somehow PB&J and Oreo’s just tasted good outside!
Do some Baking with or without the kiddos - After I work a heavy week of wedding planning and then execute the wedding day, Sunday’s are for rest. I don’t any wedding related things but for some reason I love to do normal household things like laundry and cooking. Baking is something that I love as well and love to try out new recipes. This has been something on the back burner lately with Spring wedding season starting but then coming to a halt quickly. Now we all have the time to bake up some goodies. The kiddos may like to get in on this as well so make some cookies, bake a pound cake or try out some other yummy dessert you have been wanting to try. I usually have lemon bars individually wrapped in my freezer at all times along with some other treats that I can easily take out one at a time to enjoy with my tea especially when my neighbor drops by. I would see her coming to my back door and before she has time to say “hello” I am getting out two of whatever I have in my freezer and filling the tea kettle with water for our tea time. Those were some of my very favorite memories when we were all raising the littles. Here is the lemon bar recipe from Paula Deen I use for a tea time treat!
Paula Deen’s Lemon Bars - anytime I try a Paula Deen recipe it turns out delicious.. This is not a low cal dessert and the ingredients are good and full of fat but you don’t have to eat the whole pan either. Just a square (or two) with your tea is enough to give you a joyous tea experience!!
4 large eggs 1 cup confectioners sugar
6 Tbsp fresh lemon juice 2 3/8 cup flour
2 sticks of butter, unsalted 2 cups granulated sugar
A pinch of salt
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees - Lightly grease a 9x13x2 inch pan
Make the crust by combining 2 cups flour, confectioners sugar and pinch of salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter to make it a crumbly mixture. Press the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
While the crust bakes, mix the filling by mixing the eggs, granulated sugar, 6 tablespoons flour and lemon juice. When the crust is finished, pour the filling over the crust and put back in the oven to bake for 25 minutes. Dust with confection sugar before serving.
Vision Board - So this is something I have been really wanting to do and has been on my “New Year’s Resolution” list since December 31st but I have yet to get to this…. A vision board is a visual board we can look at all the time and have it in full view to remind us what our goals and dreams are. This is the chance to dream big, dream way outside the box as if these dreams have already happened to us and it is all right there in real time and real life. Get creative and get detailed. The more details the better. I have had dreams of my future tea room for years but have it all on Pinterest and have not yet put this into a visual that I can see everyday when I get dressed and ready for the day ahead, when I get ready to put my head on the pillow and anytime in between. This is the vision you have for your future. We now have some time to really dig into our dreams and put it into action by making the vision come to life!
Polish Your Silver Tea Set - I know, I know…. polishing silver is not my favorite thing to do either. But doesn’t your silver tea set just sparkle when it’s all cleaned up looking shiny new? I should polish my silver so much more than I do but never really have the time to dedicate to this. So here we go! This doesn’t have to be just for your silver either. If you have some fine china tea sets or the pretty things that sit in your curio cabinet that you love to look at but never use so it is probably pretty dusty by now, here is your chance to make all of it shine. Maybe it will even motivate you to use these pieces and enjoy them more than just looking at them!
Photo by Kelli and Daniel Taylor Photography
I pray all of you stay safe, healthy and keep looking towards a very bright future ahead when we can all be together again and enjoy tea in the same room with each other…. until then my tea friends, prayers and blessings to all of you! Cheers!
Special thanks to the additional sweet vendors for your contributions in these images: