Most people love enjoying afternoon tea with their friends—either at their home or at a hotel. However, going out for an afternoon tea with your friends can be a challenge to sustain. That’s why throwing an afternoon tea party is the best way to enjoy tea with your friends. This allows you to control the budget and choose the best accompaniments. In this post, we shall discuss a few ideas on how to throw an afternoon tea party. Let’s delve in!
The starter kit
If you have a tiered cake stand, it’s time to put it into use—just dust it off, and use it as the centerpiece. However, you don’t have to worry if you don’t have such a stand—make good use of your fine crockery, and make it a bit unique with folded napkins, name place cards, and dollies.
Charity shops sell some reasonably priced chinaware, which can give your tearoom an authentic look. Mismatches patterns shouldn’t concern you at all—these make your party a bit more unique. Also, you will need teacups, teapot, cutlery, as well as cake slicers to serve the accompaniments.
The setup
Set your table and use a tablecloth to dress it. Most fabric shops sell spotted, striped, and floral material at a cheap price by the meter—which can make your tea party more colorful. Make come bunting, or if you are feeling more creative, bake some edible bunting cookies or biscuits.
Also, you can go ahead to prepare some name-place cookies, and ice them with the names of your guests. Then, put them in paper bags for your guests to carry as presents or just let them take the biscuits as entrees.
The welcome drinks
Ensure that milk and sugar are set on the table, ready for your guests to pour as they sit down. Also, plan to provide different flavors of tea, like chai, chamomile, peppermint tea, herbal, ginger tea and fruit.
In case you are throwing a party during the summer season, iced tea can be an additional option. Add a touch of Pimm’s to help break the ice. Also, you can open the fizz and serve a juice-based mimosa or sloe gin royale.
What about the spread?
There’s no standard rule about the foods you need to throw an afternoon tea party. However, there are a few things that you shouldn’t forego—a tier of cakes, a tier of sandwiches, and another tier of tea cakes or scones. Besides, you can add in some pastries, biscuits, or petits fours.
Don’t stress yourself over impressing your guests with too many bites—but if you want to do it, get your timing correct—the last thing you’d want is your guests to arrive before you’ve finished setting up everything.
Sandwiches
Although these don’t require a lot of effort, you should start by preparing the filling in advance, and then assemble them a few minutes before your guests arrive—this helps to avoid the most dreaded damp sarnie.
Here are a few sandwich options:
- Salmon club sandwich
- Eggs and cress club sandwich
- Katsu Sandos
- Crab sandwiches
Scones
Scones are best eaten during an afternoon tea party, and they don’t take long to prepare. However, it can be better to make the work of preparing your tea by freezing a portion and then defrosting them on low heat in an oven. Serve your scones warm with jam and cream.
Here are a few scone flavors to prepare:
- Cherry scones
- Walnut scones
- Lemon drizzle scones
- Fruit scones
- Classic scones with clotted cream and jam
Biscuits
You need less than an hour to prepare your biscuits—so, you can prepare them early in the morning of the tea party. If not so, prepare the dough the day before and freeze it. Then, bake and ice your biscuits on D-day.
Here are a few options for you to prepare:
- Basic cookies
- Coconut nice
- Carrot cake cookies
- Sugared flower shortbreads
- Ginger cookie sandwiches with lemon mascarpone
- ● Strawberry and cream roly-polys
Cakes
Individual cake portions are important during an afternoon tea party, as they make the occasion colorful. Therefore, plan to bake lots of cakes, with attractive decorations. Here are a few options for you to consider during your next afternoon tea party:
- Easy caramel cake
- Coconut chai traybake
- Strawberry and polenta cupcakes
- Coffee and walnut flapjacks
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