Sunday, June 26

An 18th Birthday Afternoon Tea Party

Sarah didn't want a big do - we aren't really big do people lol! Just a small circle of her closest 10 friends for afternoon tea. So that's what we did - after 7 hours of baking, with everything made from scratch except the puff pastry for the sausage rolls and their sauces.

Purple was her choice of colour and I think I need to invest in some purple food colouring as it's a surprisingly tricky colour to make with blue and red gel colourings. But Sarah is very happy with everything, and man it all tastes sooooooo good!


Raspberry cheesecake Brownies from AWW cheesecake book - I think it needs more a slice tin as it's quite deep but yumm delicious and it pays to read the recipe before diving in, the brownies are made differently and you need to only part cook them before adding the cheesecake baker, consequently we have a spare batch of just brownies, not a bad thing apparently.


Inspired by the divine Rose Cookies from I am Baker and using the sugar cookie recipe from September last year, I made these with a yummy smooth buttercream and piping tip from the stash, they are about 1 1/2 inches across, just a mouthful and perfectly delicious!


Lemon Tart from Masterchef Masterclass I made a double batch of the pastry as I wanted to use this tart tin and I didn't have individual ones. As it turned out I didn't need to have that much pastry, so half is now in the freezer for next time, it was a very easy dough to use. I doubled both the filling and the topping recipes and it fitted nicely, though there was some meringue left over. It's a lovely tart filling. I didn't use the blow torch *yes I have one* cause I was given it but no gas, and I just haven't gotten around to getting some, so I popped it back in the oven for about 10 minutes. Unfortunately I think that leads to some weeping which always seems to happen with this pie.


My standby cupcake recipe with pink and lavender buttercream and decorations!


Sausage rolls - soooooo yummy again from Masterchef, though I've tweaked the recipe to suit us.


And then russian caramels, though they did need to be cooked a wee bit longer, probably to hard ball stage, but delicious and sticky and I think awesome if we melted it and poured it over hot waffles.

And macaroons, I can't quite get that beautiful smooth look of the Zumbo ones, I think because I don't resift my almond meal, but they still taste delicious and they are William's favourite I think - he told me he wasn't eating the brownies but could he please have some more macaroons, they are sandwich with white chocolate ganache ... man that sucker sets fast.

There you have it - all day of baking and it was so worth it just waiting to cut into the lemon tart, so I can have a piece.

8 comments:

  1. Sensational! I only wish I had half your baking talent Lesley!

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  2. Looks fab Lesley. Happy 18th birthday to Sarah :)

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  3. Simply gorgeous Lesley! It's a big job, cooking for parties :)

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  4. Purple colour has a bad tendency to go grey when you mix it. I've found it's best to use a white colouring first (yes, white) and then a lavender gel/paste colour. Buttercream has a natural yellow tinge, and it changes the lavender tint.

    Awesome spread Lesley, you should be really proud of yourself!

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  5. I am adding my drool - oops! - I mean my 2c worth too. Looks LOVELY Lesley and bet it tasted twice as good!

    ~yum~

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  6. Happy birthday Sarah!

    Wowsers. Impressive effort, mum!

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  7. Thank you ladies, was delicious!!!

    Melinda, I did use the white colouring, just didn't work as well as it should have using the colours that I have. Will get lavender/purple next time I get baking supplies.

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  8. Fantastic... well done. You should be so proud of yourself. You're a great mum! xox

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