Splendiforous and Spectacular

No corners were cut for Deb's tea. Every surface was adorned. Tiny teacups were wrapped in cellophane and sat at each person's place as favors.

Tea sandwiches were set out and guests arrived ready to enjoy the get-together. One guest brought hats that tempted even the most reluctant to try one on for at least one picture. My sister and I wore hats our mother had worn in the 50's. Everyone seemed to get into the spirit.

Deb started the tea with a toast. Her hubby made up a delicious beverage and I managed to snag the recipe:

1 pint vanilla yogurt
1 pint raspberry sorbet
2 shots triple sec

Half fill a blender with champagne (they used Frexinet) and ice. The amount of ice depends on how slushy you want the drink. Add a scoop each of sorbet and yogurt and the triple sec. Blend on high. Pour into champagne flutes and garnish with mint leaves and a raspberry.

Tiny mushroom pastries, carmelized onion feta cheese bites and the
savories I had made were served hot along with the sandwiches.

The next course was the scones, hot out of the oven. They were served with Devonshire cream, lemon curd and jam. One guest brought marmalde butter which was delicious on the scones. Sometimes a scone is just a lemon curd delivery vehicle but I think the Martha Stewart's Blueberry Scone recipe came out lighter than a lot of scones I've had and were good by themselves.

Finally we brought out all the desserts. The miniture lemon cakes came out cute. Maybe they were a little too big for one serving but they were basically the size of a cupcake. The little strawberry cakes were pretty on the table but a little too sweet. I made sure to add enough butter to the crust for the Key Lime tarts so they held together for once.

I think Deb was happy with the overall impression the desserts made.Everyone had a wonderful time and no one left hungry!

A Fantabulous Tea

Creating tiny tidbits and nuggets for Deb's upcoming tea had my sister and I zipping around the kitchen in a creative frenzy. We had the best time playing. Here's what we made:

Savories (Artichoke Cheese and Pesto Cheese)
Chicken Salad in Cream Puff Shells
Bluberry Scones
Golden Almond Scones
Miniature Bete Noir
Strawberry Mini Cupcakes (with jam chamber!)
Key Lime Tartlets (the tangy version)
Lemon mini cakes

Most everything was from a tried and true recipe but after extensive testing a spinach filling for puff pastry savories and coming up with a really delicious recipe it was determined that it was not a good thing to even think about right now so I wound up with an artichoke and cheese and a pesto and cheese substitute. It was OK but neither of them really filled out the puff, not enough to it. Maybe I'll try adding an egg to the mixture next time and see if that helps add substance. Washing off the marinade from the artichokes, or using plain artichoke hearts, might also help allow more artichokes to be added to the mixture.

The pate choux for the chicken salad came out fine. I had used Alton Brown's recipe for an earlier tea and they fell flat! Trying to resuscitate them was useless. After consulting my Good Houskeeping recipe it seemed like either the time was wrong on Alton's (how can that be?) or I did something wrong. I cooked them for 30 minutes at 400 degrees and they puffed and stayed that way. Alton says to pipe them immediately and, as you can see from the picture, they are a bit flabby at first but stood up better after about a 10 minute rest before piping. The chicken salad was an old secret recipe - plain ol' chicken salad with a dollop of the ever elusive mango chutney.

The scones were a hit. I've learned through my biscuit adventures to handle with care. I used Martha Stewart's Blueberry Scone recipe, but I halved the amount of blueberries and considered myself lucky to get the fresh blueberries I needed.
My sis is a wiz with a pastry bag and created the snazziest decoration for cakes. Detail is her thing. She decorated the little chocolate cakes with tiny, itty bitty teapots and teacups and the mini pink cupcakes were festooned with little pink flowers. They were cute but more trouble than they were worth. The jam chamber alone took forever.

Miniature versions of the lemon cake I made for Deb earlier this summer were the the center piece for the desserts. Cooking with my sister is always fun. It's great to see what she comes up with.

A Cake and a Cobbler

A casual labor day cookout gave me the opportunity to experiment with something I've never made before - cobbler and an office birthday had me whipping up a cake this week.

Ripe peaches on hand were just begging to be made into something lucious. I've had my eye on the Cupcake Queen's peach cupcakes but the vote from my significant other was for a cobbler so the search for a recipe began. I wound up with one from FoodTV's Tyler Lawrence. It called for bourbon, yum, but I didn't have anything but brandy so I used that. I also thought that the cast iron skillet could be used on the BBQ but wound up cooking it in the oven anyway. It came out bubbly and crispy on top. I think I like cobbler. Here's the recipe:

Bourbon Peach Cobbler
8 peaches, peeled and sliced, about 6 to 8 cups
1/4 cup bourbon
3/4 cup sugar, (1/4 cup in filling & 1/2 cup in dumplings) plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl add the peaches, bourbon, 1/4 cup sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon and mix well to coat the peaches evenly; set aside.

Prepare the dumplings: Into a bowl sift together the flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter into small pieces. Add it to the flour mixture and cut it in with a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs. Pour in the cream and mix just until the dough comes together. Don't overwork; the dough should be slightly sticky but manageable. (I used a food processor and was VERY careful not to over mix)

In a 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium-low heat, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons butter. Add the peaches and cook gently until heated through, about 5 minutes. Drop the dough by tablespoonfuls over the warm peaches. There can be gaps, the dough will puff up and spread out as it bakes. Brush the top with some heavy cream and sprinkle with some sugar; put it into the oven on a baking sheet to catch any drips. Cook for 40 to 45 minutes until the top is browned and the fruit is bubbling.

I had a birthday cake to bake this week and tried Billy's Vanilla Frosting for it that got rave reviews from the Cupcake Queen. It was my bright idea to decorate the top with a splotch of strawberry preserves. What does it look like to you? My significant other said it looke like an amoeba. Someone else took one look at it and said it looked like a loogie! Eeeew :( Not the effect I was going for!

Billy's Vanilla Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup milk1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach desired consistency.

Planning a Tea

My friend Deb and I are planning a tea later this month and preparations are in full swing. She loves all things Victorian so her house is perfect for this event. Charming vignettes are everywhere you look and she's created the atmosphere for a fantasy tea. Getting the girls together is the excuse for her to decorate and for me to help with the cooking. This week we got together to play with some recipes for the gathering.


A recipe for key lime pie in Bon Appetit and another one for key lime bars in Cook's Illustrated made me think that key lime tartlets would be a perfect addition to the tea. Since these were both new recipes, and I was fiddling with the presentation I definitely needed to test the tart version. The Bon Appetit version was a traditional rendition with a graham cracker crust while the Cook's test kitchen arrived at a version with a touch of cream cheese and an animal cracker crust.

First we worked on the cream cheese version. We chitted and chatted and patted the crust in a variety of tartlet pans. It was only after the filling had been added that we realized... um you're supposed to like bake the crust first! Ooops. Staring at them didn't seem to change anything so we went ahead and baked them. To our surprise the crusts held together and tasted fine, maybe not as crispy as it would've been otherwise but definitely presentable.

Here's the Cook's Illustrated recipe we used:

Key Lime Bars

Crust

5 ounces animal crackers (vanilla wafers were cheaper)

5 tablespoons packed brown sugar

Pinch table salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Filling

2 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 tablespoon grated lime zest

Pinch table salt

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

1 large egg yolk

1/2 cup Key lime or regular lime juice

Garnish (optional)

3/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut toasted until golden

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and adjust oven rack to middle position.
Line 8x8 inch baking pan with tin foil, leaving overhang that can be used as handles to lift the bars from the pan. Spray foil with non-stick spray. Pulse animal crackers in a food processor until finely crumbled. Add sugar and salt and pulse. Add butter and pulse until combined. Press crumbs firmly into bottom of baking pan. Bake until golden, 18-20 minutes. Cool.

Stir cream cheese, lime zest, and salt in a bowl until softened and combined. Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk until incorporated and lumps are gone. Whisk in egg yolk. Gently whisk in lime juice.

Poor filling into crust and smooth surface. Bake 15-20 minutes or until set and edges start to pull away slightly from the sides of the pan. Cool 1-1 ½ hours. Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Loosen edges and lift bars from the pan. Cut into squares and garnish with toasted coconut.

The Bon Appetit Key Lime Pie recipe is a more traditional version that uses graham crackers and is a bit more tart. It's a matter of taste as to which you prefer. Here's the key lime pie part of the recipe we tested.

Crust

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling

1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

4 large egg yolks

1/2 cup fresh Key lime juice or regular lime juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cracker crumbs, sugar and salt in medium bowl. Add butter and stir until crumbs are moist. Press mixture onto bottom and up sides of a 9 inch pie dish. Bake crust until set and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Cool Crust completely.

For filling whisk sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks in medium bowl to blend. Add lime jice and whisk until blended. Pour filling into cooled crust. Bake pie until filling is set. about 18 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate pie overnight.

My coworkers were my guinea pigs and taste tested both versions. I served both versions with a dollop of whipped cream and some toasted coconut. The voting was 80% for the cream cheese version and 20% for the classic recipe. Deb and I both liked the tangier taste of the Bon Appetit filling but We liked the vanilla crust in the other tarts.