A Lovely Tea Party

It all started with a blue, or rather teal, dress that Grandma Gay gave Ellie. She's sifted from large sports jerseys to more fitted clothing. She even likes dresses.
Along with that came the desire for a tea party, principally for the occasion to dress up. Only, the dress shifted. The teal one is a tad too large, and much fancier than the ones the other girls wanted to wear. It shifted to a cute summer dress in the cold of January. Ellie had a vision of what she wanted so we, or rather I, set to work on Friday night. First up were the petit fores (some call then petit fours). After doing a lot of research I settled on an unconventional choice - a pound cake with fruit filling. Next up, I made candy roses from Starburst candy. I used some of the royal icing from that project to make decorated sugar cubes. Now, you might be sayin' to yourself, decorated sugar cubes? isn't that a bit much? If I were reading this, I might be saying the same thing. I saw some in the tea shop I stopped by when I thought I'd have to go there to get the sugar cubes. They were so cute, so expensive (15 decorated cubes for $11.95) and so do-able. Ellie said that Christy is crazy for sugar cubes, so they were a must-have, too.
Finally, were the sandwiches. I was going to make very traditional British ones, but the girls asked for ham and Swiss, as well as a Peanut Butter and Jelly.

We pulled out some of my fun serving items, packed them up and went to Christy's house for the party. The kids were there and excited. They dove into the food and enjoyed nearly all of it. Then the itch to be a kid took over. Jeans were pulled on under the dresses and they headed out to play on the trampoline.

Ellie was very happy with how it all came out. She say, "Mama, thanks for doing that for me. It was even prettier than I thought I would be. I love you." You can get a better reception than that.

Here's the recipes in the event that you want to put a tea party on too:

Chef Heather Hurlbert's Magnificent Moist Whipped Cream Pound Cake
(From Bakewise by Shirley Corriher)
** This is a truly fabulous recipe. It may even be my favorite cake recipe.)

2 TBL. each Flour and Butter to prepare the pans

2 cups Butter, unsalted, at room temperature and cut into smallish chunks
2 3/4 cups Sugar
1 TBL Vanilla Extract
6 Eggs, large, at room temperature
2 3/4 cups Flour, all purpose, spooned and leveled
1/2 cup Heavy Cream, whipped
(2 cups Blueberries - I did not use these for this go round.)

(** I jar nice fruit jam - I used raspberry - for the filling**)

For a regular pound cake you would butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan (or two- three loaf pans). For my purpose I made a half recipe, cooking them in loaf pans that were lined with no-stick foil.

Arrange a shelf in the lower third of your oven and preheat it to 350 degrees.

With the mixer on medium, beat the butter to soften it. Add the sugar and continue to beat/cream until it is light and fluffy, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl at least once. While creaming, feel the outside of the bowl. If it is not cool, place it in the freezer for 5 minutes to cool it down.

Beat in the vanilla. On the lowest speed, beat in the eggs one at a time.

Add the flour in several batches, mixing until just blended.

Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the batter. Gently fold in the rest, being careful to not pop many of the bubbles in the whipped cream. If using, fold in the berries. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Place the cake in the oven and cook until a toothpick inserted comes out moist but without crumbs, 50-60 minutes for the Bundt cake, 20-30 minutes for smaller pans. Place the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for at least ten minutes to cool.

*** From here I removed the cake, cut it into 1" slices. I then used a square fondant cutter from Wilton (a cookie cutter would work, too)to cut out the small cakes. While the cake was baking I placed the jam in a sauce pan with 2 TBL of water and warmed it up to make it easy to spread. I then spread a small, even layer of the jam on half of the cake squares and placed another bit of cake on top of that.***


Lovely Glaze - From Martha Stewart
Makes enough for 32 petits fours

* 9 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
* 1/2 cup light corn syrup
* 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
* 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
* Gel food coloring, in desired colors

Directions

** Be sure to take the time to sift the powdered sugar to reduce or eliminate lumps in your glaze. Also, be very careful to not stir too quickly or too hard. This may cause bubbles in your glaze. This is a job for your spatula in hand, not your mixer! I used half a recipe. ***

1. In a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water, mix sugar, corn syrup, 1/2 cup water, vanilla and almond extracts together until they are warm, well combined, and smooth. Stir in enough food coloring until desired color is reached. Do not overheat. Let cool about 8 minutes before pouring.


Candy Flowers

Starburst Candy or Laffy Taffy (I used 2 pks. for 22 petit fores)

Unwrap the candy. Soften it in the microwave. I needed to heat the red and orange candies for 12 seconds while the lighter colors only needed abut 8 seconds.

While the candies are warm, place them on a piece of waxed paper and use a rolling pin to flatten them. Then use scissors to cut them into long strips. Roll then up loosely, using your fingers to form petal. Be sure to curve some of them outward.

Attach them to the petit fores with royal icing.

Royal Icing (made with real egg whites) from The Joy of Baking

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

For Royal Icing with Egg Whites: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

*Note: You can also buy meringue powder if you would like to avoid the raw egg issue.