Desserts for Afternoon Tea Bridal Shower

[achevres]

I'm glad you got the list finalized! It looks like a good variety. Scones are really not as good baked the day before. However, you can make them a few days before, form them and freeze them on parchment in an airtight container. Then bake them right out of the freezer the morning of. It will probably take a couple minutes longer. Best wishes!

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Thanks!!

[Tweety69bird]

Please take pictures of your spread and post!!

Oh, and good luck!!

[K8memphis]

You are purchasing the clotted cream aren't you? I had wholesale prices from one place then found some retail prices that were even more reasonable than that. Geez where was that stuff from? If you're buying it online and you don't have a source, I'll dig around & try to find a packing slip if you're buying it online.

Edited to say I have good plain scone recipe too. Easy peasy and way good.

Edited June 8, 2006 by K8memphis (log)

[JFLinLA]

What about almond macaroons/amaretti?  Easy, delicious and would go well with this.  My recipe is just blanched almonds, sugar, egg whites & almond extract whirled together in a food processor. 

If you want, you can check out my thread from last year when I was planning the dessert bar for my daughter's Bat Mitzvah.  You can find it here.  Head to the end for the photos of what I actually ended up with, including the amaretti.

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Thanks! I saw part of your Bat Mitzvah thread last year, but had not seen the pictures. You did a great job. The pictures help me a lot to see how things similiar to what I'm planning would look. And ideas on transporting the goods.

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If you look in the pictures, you will see many of the things stacked on my dining room table ready to transport. From memory (so perhaps not completely accurate) those were the chocolate chip cookies, toffee chip cookies, chocolate almond brownie bites, amaretti/macaroons, biscotti and apricot tea cakes. The lemon layer cake was kept whole, frosted middle and top and kept in the fridge on a half-sheet board, in a box. Transported in the box, sides trimmed and pieces cut on site, each piece placed in a decorative muffin wrapper, then put back in the box and into the fridge. The lemon slices were placed on top just before serving. Bars -- coffee/kahlua chocolate chip blondies, caramel cheesecake squares, raspberry bars, and something else I think I'm forgetting -- were all baked way ahead, kept whole, wrapped well and frozen. The cheesecake bars were kept frozen and transported that way, cut when partially thawed, then back in the fridge till time to serve. The rest of the bars were taken out of the fridge the night before to thaw, sliced the next day but kept together as originally baked and wrapped to keep fresh. The caterers did the rest.

To answer the other question about the lemon cake, as I said above, frosted between layers and on the top. Then sliced with no added frosting on the sides of each piece. I'm nuts but that's a little over the top even for me.

[achevres]

You are purchasing the clotted cream aren't you?  I had wholesale prices from one place then found some retail prices that were even more reasonable than that. Geez where was that stuff from? If you're buying it online and you don't have a source, I'll dig around & try to find a packing slip if you're buying it online.

Edited to say I have good plain scone recipe too.    Easy peasy and way good.

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I got them locally for $6.95 for each bottle. The cheapest online would've been around $6 and I couldn't risk not getting them in time. They are a separate charge, so it's no big deal.

PM me the scone recipe or post it here and thanks. Never too many recipes for me!

[achevres]

JFLinLA: Thank you so much for the prep and transport advice. That's the kind of information I can only get on egullet .

[K8memphis]

~ Either ~

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder } combine well

1/2 teaspoon salt

~ Or ~

2 cups self-rising flour

~ then ~

2 tablespoons sugar } add to flour

6 tablespoons of butter } cut into dry mixture until it resembles cornmeal

1/2 cup buttermilk } pour into a well in the center of the mixture & mix lightly

Mix only just until a soft dough is formed.

~ Either ~

On a baking sheet, pat into a circle 1 1/2 inches thick and score 8 wedges.

~ Or ~

Pat into 1 1/2 inch thickness and cut little scones out of it--You want it to be one inch high after cutting so that's why you leave it so tall to begin with because cutting squishes it down. Use the sharpest cutter you have--spray it with pan release so it slides good. The sharper the cut the nicer the rise. Brush with beaten egg or buttermilk. I sprinkled a little sugar on top. Use your softest fingers to place them on the baking sheet.

425 degrees 10-12 mins until light brown (I seem to remember baking them hotter than that for a shorter time. Maybe 450 for 8- 10 mins because I baked minis all the time too.

I think sometimes I added some well beaten egg to the cup before I poured in the buttermilk to the half cup line.

Serve blazing hot.

[achevres]

Well, the tea was last week and they loved all the pastries . I was just happy I could actually deliver. I am so grateful to everyone in egullet, especially those who gave me advice.

My photos are not good, but I’m posting them anyway, since I enjoy seeing pictures rather than just descriptions. I did a lot of work at night and there’s no way to take a good picture at home at night. It makes me admire even more the good food photography here on egullet (like Patrick S).

Anyway, here it goes.

These are the high-hat mini cupcakes, first with just the meringue and then dipped in chocolate. I used Trader Joe’s Pound Plus Belgian chocolate. The hostess had liked the cupcakes with Baker’s, so I knew this would be better. My daughter agreed. Tip: Put the cake batter into large pastry bag and pipe it into the paper liners. Don’t know why I didn’t do this before.

These are the lemon-coconut tarts, which were not burnt like they appear here.

The high hats are from Cupcake!, via Martha Stewart. The tarts are also from Martha Stewart. I have better directions for both, so let me know if anyone is interested.

These are the Korova cookies.

I put the Korovas on the menu based just on the many posts on egullet about them, since I had not made them before. They are really good. I used Maldon salt. I took the advice of Patricia Austin and did not roll and cut them, but instead patted them out to 1.5 cm and cut them out with a fluted cutter, moistened the tops with water and dipped the moist top unto sanding sugar. This way I had control over the shape and the sugar looks very nice. She used egg wash, but I didn’t like the whittish color of egg wash. I forgot to do it on the final batch, but, if I were making them for me I would also add Maldon salt to the sanding sugar for the tops.

How not to do poundcake sandwiches:

I know there are more efficient ways, but I only had to do 20 and at 8am the day of, this is the best I could do. I am glad I bought the square cutters, so it was one less thing to worry about. I piped the filling on the cake slices, put 4 pieces of strawberry, toped with the other frosted cake slice and finished the sides with a little spatula. As you see, I added a rosette on top and left it at that.

The pound cake recipe is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated (quick, easy and foolproof and delicious). The strawberry buttercream (neoclassic) is straight from The Cake Bible (well, except that I used the sweetened strawberry puree, since I think that RLB’s buttercream recipe needs a little more sugar). I loved this buttercream.

The alfajores:

The “ugly” one in the front was quickly eaten by my daughter.

I dipped half in white chocolate and sprinkled teeny hearts that I had. That really dressed them up and the white chocolate added that extra over-the-topness. I trimmed the "feet" with a knife. These are soo good. I used the cookie recipe from Betterbaking.com (the cookbook) which has almond flour in addition to regular flour and cornstarch. I used already-made dulce de leche by Nestle. I’ve boiled the can of condensed milk before, but I happened to have pre-made already. Put the dulce de leche in a pastry bag also.

I don’t have photos of the scones. I cut them with a 1 ¾” round cutter. I was really hard to get them to rise evenly. The main problem was getting the scone out of the cutter evenly. If they get mangled in the cutting process they don’t rise correctly. Now I know why they cut them in triangles here in the USA. I tried flouring and also oiling the cutter, but that sticky dough always stuck. I wounder what they do in England, where I've only seen the round ones. I make biscuits a lot with no problems, but scones are very picky. I made 3 recipes and all tasted great and had great texture and were light, but the ones that rose most evenly and most reliably were from baking911.com (the cherry scones without the cherries). I did not follow her mixing directions exactly, but rubbed the butter and flour with my cold fingers added cream etc. I baked the scones until just starting to brown. Froze them and finished baking them the morning of the party, as suggested here.

I really enjoyed doing all this. It was a lot of work, especially because, since I’m not professional, I had to re-do several things and also because I don’t know (yet) production techniques. Some things you learn as you go and you don’t know that you can do it until you do it, such as doing desserts for 15 people.

I ended up pricing the items similarly to a nearby bakery. In retrospect, my only mistake was not charging extra for delivering to her house. I didn’t mind because she’s a good friend, but will not forget if there is a next time. Three women asked for my number, but right now, I’m just enjoying the free time.

Thanks again for all your help!!

[alanamoana]

great job achevres! congratulations on your first paying job and hopefully that will mean many more to come. one thing great about the process is you'll continually learn what to do and what not to do. eventually it will all become a streamlined process.

[StephMac]

I like pictures, too - thanks for posting those!

Everything looks delicious, but those highhats - too much fun! I'm definitely interested in how you put those together, especially the dipping/coating process. They look like they're about 2" high, is that right?

Congrats on the successful party, and may your next one be even better...

[gfron1]

I was just wondering when the party was...and here is your post! Thanks for the pics and the tips. Everything looks great and I'm glad it was fun for you. Your post is helping me warm up for a big baking weekend!

[CanadianBakin']

Great job! I was wondering about the high hats too. Did you use an Italian meringue?

[achevres]

Everything looks delicious, but those highhats - too much fun! I'm definitely interested in how you put those together, especially the dipping/coating process. They look like they're about 2" high, is that right?

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The high-hats are a mini chocolate cupcake with piped Italian meringue. You put them in the refrigerator to set and then dip them in chocolate so that no meringue shows. I used a ratio of 4 oz bittersweet chocolate and 1 TB non-trans fat Crisco (the original recipe called for oil). They are 2 inches high. They 'officially' last 3 days in the fridge, but my friend just had one (9 days old) and said it was good. I was just saving them to show her.

The recipe is on the Martha Stewart website. I don't have time now, but I do have my own instructions, which are clearer, and can post the recipe later next week.

[achevres]

great job achevres!  congratulations on your first paying job and hopefully that will mean many more to come.  one thing great about the process is you'll continually learn what to do and what not to do.  eventually it will all become a streamlined process.

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I know. I learned something every time I re-did a recipe.

Thanks for all your help.

[Tweety69bird]

Everything looks beautiful! I'm sure the host and her guests were very pleased. I have to make some of those alfajores. By the way, I'm still trying to figure out which one is the ugly one, they all look beautiful!!