Valentine’s Day Tea

I am nowhere near the deft photographer I might like to be, and sometimes I think reading so many food blogs and magazines maintained by people who are not only very talented and creative cooks but also stylists and photographers makes me feel slightly inadequate.  But!  This past Sunday was Valentine’s Day and I took it upon myself to entertain my friends with a refined array of cookies and tea cakes befitting the theme.  Mostly it was an excuse to try out a bunch of things I’ve been thinking about lately.  With my lovely fellow baker Rhyannon I spent all weekend cooking and decorating various sweet delights, and here is the result:

Originally, the tea party was set to take place outside, but the weather conspired against us and we were crammed into the living room instead. I used an array of vintage (and a few faux-vintage) plates, cake stands and trays along with lace doileys handmade by my grandmother and great aunt to get right into the Sunday tea spirit.

Lemon Meringue cupcakes, coconut ice and gluten-free cherry florentines

The lemon meringue cupcakes you see here were my personal favourite. I’ve always wanted to combine the charms of my two favourite deserts – cupcakes and lemon meringue pie – but previous versions I had tasted never quite lived up to my expectations. The cake was too dry, the lemon curd not tart enough or too stingy. These are kind of a cheat’s version – I used cake mix and store-bought lemon curd because there was so much baking to do – but they were truly delicious. Since you have to double bake them (to set the meringue) the key is to use a very moist vanilla cake that won’t be dried out by a little extra time in the over, but is still light and fluffy. Green’s Vanilla Cake Mix does the job beautifully! I might have to try and make these from scratch sometime soon, though; watch this space.

Vegan chocolate chip cookies, vegan sugar cookies and lemon and berry tartlets

These chocolate chip cookies are absolutely to die for, and you would never guess they were vegan. I adapted a Martha Stewart recipe to exclude butter, milk and eggs and make these lovely chewy cookies safe for my vegan friends. The sugar cookies come from another veganised Martha recipe, complete with vegan royal icing, which I’d never managed before!

Lemon and blueberry friands and finger sanwiches

What’s a tea party without finger sandwiches? We had cucumber, tomato (pictured), egg, and salmon-and-cream-cheese. The friands were Rhyannon’s creation and they were absolutely as delicious as they look.

Vegan chocolate cupcakes

These beauties were made from the famously divine recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, with my own simple vegan vanilla buttercream. Mmm.

Pink lamingtons

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day, I certainly did! Although I had a bit of a sugar hangover on Monday morning…

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