Category Archives: Mother’s Day

Ruffle Cake for Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea

Happy Mother's Day

 

While Mother’s Day is over, I thought I would share some photos from my Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea.  We celebrated pretty much the whole weekend.  On Saturday, I made and decorated this ruffle cake.  Doesn’t it remind you of the old-fashioned ribbon candy that used to be so popular around Christmas time.

I don’t tend to use this method of decorating often because it takes a powerful amount of icing…surely enough to set anyone on a sugar high for days!  However, it is a real feminine cake style so it is perfect for Mother’s Day.  The photos are showing the color of the icing quite a bit deeper than it was in reality.

My tea this afternoon is really simple.  Just the cake and a good cup of “brew”.  I don’t worry too much about having everything perfectly matched.  Part of the eclectic charm of afternoon tea is having a mixture of china cups and saucers, plates, and teapot.  This teapot is a new acquisition to my collection.  So long as the colors blend together, they work.

This is a Sadler teapot.  I like its “perky” shape and simplistic floral design.

DSC_0739

A cut slice of cake reveals just how much icing is on that cake!

A nice sweet treat in the middle of a Saturday afternoon!

Good thing there is a huge pot of tea to go with all that icing!

 

Thank you for visiting “the Bistro” today.

There are lots of ways to connect with “the Bistro” through social media:

Join My Island Bistro Kitchen on Facebook
Follow the Bistro’s tweets on twitter @PEIBistro
Find the Bistro on Pinterest at “Island Bistro Kitchen”
Follow along on Instagram at “peibistro”

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea 2013

I love afternoon tea.  It’s such a peaceful, tranquil, and genteel experience.  It’s the perfect way to celebrate Mother’s Day.  Today, I share photos from my Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea.  Enjoy!

On the tea menu:  Cucumber and tomato sandwiches, strawberry custard, shortbread, and rainbow marshmallow square.  Tea Pairing:  New English Teas’ English Afternoon Tea (Coventry, England).

Cucumber and Tomato Sandwiches
Cucumber and Tomato Sandwiches

Cool and refreshing cucumber sandwiches.

Tomato sandwiches on thinly sliced artisan bread.

Smooth and creamy strawberry custard and fresh fruit skewers.

Strawberry Custard
Strawberry Custard

I love these colorful and tasty treats, particularly when served in these petite dishes!

Dainty spritz shortbread and rainbow marshmallow squares satisfy the sweet tooth!

Love the pastel shades which are suitable for springtime tea events.

I love how these colors blend attractively on the plate.

Teatime treats are typically petite and dainty.

Teacups and teapot are Japanese porcelain.

Tableware does not need to all match perfectly for a tea table.  It just needs to blend well and the pieces compliment each other.  Having different patterns creates interest and doesn’t look so matchy-matchy.

These are marvelously-designed delicate cups on pedestals.  They look very grand, stately, and elegant, don’t you think!

Love the filigree trim on the saucers.

This slim-line teapot looks very stately and in command on the tea table.

A mixed bouquet of roses is a great compromise when I can’t decide on one particular color theme!

Although by no means the only floral option, roses tend to be perennial favorites for tea table accents.

This four-tier stand is a great space saver, particularly for small tea tables.

While my favorite plates are white because the food shows up so splendidly on them, I like the floral on these plates for a tea table.

Beautiful roses!

I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse into my Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea.  It was grand fun.

Happy Mother’s Day To All Moms!

Thank you for visiting “the Bistro” today. There are lots of ways to connect with “the Bistro” through social media:

Join My Island Bistro Kitchen on Facebook
Follow the Bistro’s tweets on twitter @PEIBistro
Find the Bistro on Pinterest at “Island Bistro Kitchen”
Follow along on Instagram at “peibistro”

Mother’s Day Tea

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers.  I hope you were wonderfully spoiled today.

There are so many ways to celebrate Mom on Mother’s Day.   Some years we have been travelling, other years we have gone to brunches at a favorite hotel restaurant, and other years we have stayed home and had our first lobster “feed” of the season (which is part of what we did this year, too).  However, I decided to host a Mother’s Day Tea this year, also.

I love afternoon teas – they harken back to the genteel days where life moved at a slower pace and times seemed gentler.  Hosting a tea is a wonderful, relaxing way to savour a light meal.  Afternoon teas need not be extravagant (although they are wonderful when they are!).  They can be very simple but, for Mother’s Day, the special day to celebrate mothers, it is nice to dress up the event.  Do set a lovely table complete with pristine linens and your finest china (we all know that tea, for some reason, always tastes best when served in a china cup, right?)

Of course, Mother’s Day in Canada, falling on the second Sunday in May, always coincides closely with the opening of the Spring lobster fishing season in Prince Edward Island.   The first traps were set on May 1st this year with the first catches being landed on the following day.  Many families celebrate Mother’s Day along with their first official “feed” of lobster of the season.  Many a lobster are cracked open and savoured on Mother’s Day weekend in PEI!

For my tea, I opted to make lobster the star attraction.  I made lobster sandwiches and also tried a new recipe for lobster salad in puff pastry from the Spring 2012 issue of Victoria Classic “Teatime Bliss“.  I was not disappointed.  The delicate, flaky pastries filled with lobster salad were a tasty savory addition to my tea.  For those not liking lobster, I included the quintessential cucumber sandwiches as well.

On the beverage front, I served Yellow Tail “Bubbles Rosé” followed, of course, with tea.  My tea offering was “Traditional Afternoon” from Williamson Tea.

For the Mother’s Day cake, I chose a traditional teatime cake – the Battenburg cake.  This is a sponge cake of two colors, assembled in checkerboard fashion, then covered in marzipan and iced with fondant icing.  This made a colorful finale to a wonderful afternoon tea.

Sweets included an assortment of tiny cookies, French Macaroons, coconut macaroons, squares, Scotch cakes, and lemon Madeleines.

I highly encourage afternoon tea any time of the year as a relaxing way to spend some quality time and have some great conversation with those who mean the most to you.  What a grand afternoon!

 

Thank you for visiting “the Bistro” today. There are lots of ways to connect with “the Bistro” through social media:

Join My Island Bistro Kitchen on Facebook
Follow the Bistro’s tweets on twitter @PEIBistro
Find the Bistro on Pinterest at “Island Bistro Kitchen”
Follow along on Instagram at “peibistro”