We had a bread-free Easter. Actually, it happens every year. I know - no hot cross buns, the horror! - but every year at this time of year we celebrate Pesach (Passover) which happens to coincide with a bread-ban over Easter time.
Somebody didn't think this through when they came up with religious calendars.
Anyway - so this weekend past, we celebrated the end of Pesach and the end of the festive Easter period and just weekends in general with an Afternoon Tea Party.
And I baked.
This is where it all began: the Women's Institute Vintage Teatime treasury. It's filled with recipes held dear to those who are esteemed as the country's best bakers. Who can argue with that? So, I ordered myself a copy from ye olde Amazon shoppe. It arrived on Friday afternoon, just in time for a trip to ye olde shoppe that sells baking ingredients. Mm.
And so. Can you guess the first thing I made from this image?
If you guessed 'beautiful hot cross buns' then you were right. Here they are, on Friday night, cooling down in the kitchen. I managed to contain myself and resist trying one out until Saturday and the end of Pesach - oh, the self-control.
Next up: a piping hot banana bread, straight out of the oven.
I ran out of loaf-tin liners so I improvised with baking parchment and some nifty origami. It worked rather well, and made the tin a lot easier to clean afterwards.
You generally add a cup of mashed bananas to the mix: I tend to add just a bit more, and I squash the bananas into bite-sized chunks instead of a banana purée. The result is a chunkier, tastier banana bread that marbles beautifully in the middle.
Then there were mini quiches. This one is a mushroom and onion quiche.
This one is a feta and red pepper quiche. Can you tell that I've used an oh-so-delicious cheese crust here? It's a combination of equal amounts of cheese, butter and flour. Plus, with added fluted edges, it's rather appropriate for afternoon tea purposes.
Next up: Nigella's Madeleines (recipe etc here). Yes, I know they don't look much like madeleines but that's because they're absolutely smothered in delicious chocolate ganache. I couldn't stop myself. The dish in the middle housed a selection of English Rose tea; it was a set of five on the table, each filled with a tasty tea option. Despite the lack of tea-drinkers at the table, everybody tried an 'interesting' tea for their first cuppa.
Can you guess what this is? Hint: it's batter, not icing.
Ta da! It's a Battenberg Cake. Didn't see that coming, did ya? Sponge-y squares are stuck together with apricot jam and wrapped tightly in marzipan. I'm not the biggest marzipan fan, but the taste combination is just right. Also, it's pink cake. Pink cake.
And what is afternoon tea without a touch of chocolate?
Okay - so - I was lying about the 'touch'. This is a chocolatey-nutty-amazingly-deliciousy-brownie-mix. Unfortunately I ran out of time and everyone arrived before I had finished setting the table up, so I quickly plated and served... without photographs! Oh noes! Needless to say, it all went down very well.
I also made (and didn't photograph) Delia's delicious savoury muffins with a mushroom, feta, rosemary and onion filling and a particularly delicious stack of chocolate éclairs which, um, vanished.
I had also planned to make a coffee and walnut cake but I'm glad I didn't: there was plenty of food for the six of us. It turned out that only two people at the table like marzipan (myself included, it seemed) so the Battenberg didn't go down as well as I had expected. Everything else disappeared like ... hot cakes... (!) and there's a small stack of brownies waiting for tea later. Mm.
