Ladies High Tea

"It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it."

— Julia Child

In the first week of May, some ladies I know will be throwing a Ladies High Tea. I love "high tea" themed parties and showers. In summer of 2008 my friend Michelle's bridal shower was tea party themed, and last July I threw a ladies tea party/ baby shower for my friend Cindy. It was a blast! I didn't make all the fancy sandwiches and scones with clotted cream that you normally have, since it was an evening ladies tea, but we had cupcakes and tea. I brought out all my teapots and borrowed one from my mom and mother-in-law. We had over 6 different teas, and 4 different types of cupcakes- chocolate, Vanilla, butter pecan and lemon. Each batch were designed differently with butter cream icing. Check out my baby shower cupcakes, just one platter of five :

      (This says "Baby Lorkovic"- in an up and down kind of way!)

I think the reason I've always loved tea parties is because from a young age i've collected tea cups and tea pots. I think now I have about 8 full sets, and over a dozen miss matched pots and cups. 

I had to run to my local baking supply store to see if they had teapot cookie cutters- I looked high and low, over racks and racks of cookie cutters. There was no teapot to be found, I was looking around for other things when I noticed a box of discount items on the floor... who doesn't want baking supplies at a discount price? So, I riffled around a bit and, surprise! I found the cutest cookie cutter set called "Tea Party!" In the pack there's:

1-Teapot

1-Tea cup

1-Ladies hat

1-Lemon and

1-Circle cookie cutter.

You can also find them online Here.

Now I had to find a really great sugar cookie recipe, because not only do I want them to be pretty but i want them to taste really good. So, it was My Mom to the rescue! She told me one of the most yummy and easy to back sugar cookie recipes she has ever used was from Wilton. I was really surprised. The recipe sounds delish Here it is! (There's also an option to have chocolate sugar cookies with that recipe.) 

Cookie cutters- check, cookie recipe- check, now I just need to figure out the nicest way to ice them. Youtube to the rescue! I found an AMAZING tutorial on 5 completely different ways to ice a cookie! Huh- who would have thought!

If you have any interest in learning how to ice a cookie as wedding gifts, gifts, holidays, fundraisers, or even for a tea party- you need this these tutorials in your life! Lol

I hope you learned something from those videos, I know I did!

Also, If your planning on throwing a tea party soon, I recently saw an episode of Ricardo and friends (Ricardo is a well known Quebec cook) and the theme of the show was "Tea Time Baby shower"  the recipes are to DIE for! With recipes like:

Chicken sandwiches with curried mayonnaise, mini ham scones, and a delicious dessert of mini strawberry scones! Check out his recipes at the food network! 

Happy Tea party planning and I'll give you an update with how my cookies turn out!

Have something indulgent tonight!

Ok- I LOVE BAKING!

Vegetables are a must on a diet.  I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.  ~Jim Davis

So, it's out there. I love to bake! Since getting my own place a couple of years ago I have become a baking fanatic. I think most people know me as the person you invite over who always brings a freshly baked pie or cupcakes, or the flight attendant (Yes, I'm a flight attendant!) who brings goodies for the crew.

I think I fell in love with baking about 3 years ago when I baked my first cake from scratch. (*However, I think it needs to be mentioned that not only did I grow up around baking, but I grew up around enough baking for an Army! My mom is a pastry chef, who's specialty is  cake decorating. As I'm sure you can imagine, I had no interest in baking growing up. And to add insult to injury for my poor mother I would ask for anything but cakes for my birthday- I always wanted pies or cheesecakes just because it was different.)

Getting back to my first homemade cake- I was making a cake by Paula Deen. It was to celebrate a friend who had recently quit their job.  :P

It was in one of my favorite cooking books by Paula called Paula Deen and friends: living it up, Southern style . The cake was called Bobby's Caramel Cake, and if you know anything about Paula the reciepe called for Lots of butter and Lots of sugar. Which, in all fairness is the key to any delishious dessert and heart failure. It was a a pound cake of three layers and you would poke holes through the cake and pour over a thick, light colored caramel that would go deep into the cake and get absorbed. You would repeat this for each of the three layers until you came to the last layer, over which you would coat it with a drizzle-y caramel frosting. Mmmmm delish! Since this cake was so big it stuck around my place well after my friend and I celebrated her farewell from her rubbish job. So ,I had plenty of dessert to serve to people who would just pop around my place for a cup of coffee for the next couple of days. It was a huge HIT!

This is a picture off Paula's website of what the cake should look like. I regret forgetting to take a picture  of mine.

If  your mouth is watering and your looking for the recipe, you can find it here. It's such an easy dessert to make, even if you don't have a ton of experience in the kitchen, or don't happen to have a mom who is a pastry chef. I'm a big fan of no nonsense recipes that are yummy. 

So, after the whole Caramel cake excitement I got the baking "bug". Things didn't seem to be as awful tasting as I remembered they were in home-ec class, and up until then that was my memory of "homemade" goodies that my hands had touched. We're talking, homemade vanilla cake that when you take a bite you get a mouthful of baking powder! Really Yummy stuff! Ha!

My next dessert became a little obsessive. Pies. I made pies for dessert, I made pies for company, I made pies to bring to other peoples houses when we were invited over for dinner. Pies, Pies, Pies! Apple, Apple Caramel, Cherry was a favorite for a long time, cherry cranberry, strawberry rhubarb. I think that what made me obsessed with baking pies was that they were simple. The recipes were easy, and when I made them... they didn't flop- which to me, was AMAZING! 

I remember the first pie I made was with apples I had picked myself, peeled, sliced up, tossed with lots of cinnamon-y goodness, and the crust was hand made as well. I was so proud I had to take a picture, and then post it on FaceBook! Here it is:

I was so proud of my first pie, but even more excited at how easy it was to make. Here's the recipe for  the crust if you want to try it yourself:

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup water

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in water until mixture forms a ball. Divide dough in half, and shape into balls. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
2. Roll out dough on a floured counter. Don't over work it. Use as directed in pie recipe.

Why I started this blog was essentially to add pictures of my desserts and to promote my business, but also to encourage novice bakers with easy and yummy recipes. So this blog will be a bit of both! On some posts you'll get to see what I've recently made for a customer, or it might be a blog post of a really easy dessert I want all of you to try!

I hope you visit again and if there's a recipe you'd like me to try and blog about, email me at madelinegifts@gmail.com

Now, go bake something yummy!