Back in 2022 some friends and I had a tea party every month.
It all started when my friend was gifted the book,“The Twelve Teas of Celebration”, a book that has themes to hold a tea each month of the year. She decided she wanted to do this, and had people sign up to share in hosting, planning, and preparing food and games.
The first was in January and celebrated Twelfth Night/Epiphany. I was in charge of the second party (February) and threw a Valentea Party.
The third party was held in March 2022 and celebrated spring! We played a few games and enjoyed several treats as we ushered in Spring. I made Lemon Buttermilk Scones.
We met in April and held a tea celebrating Friendship. It was supposed to be our friend Jack’s turn to be in charge, but he wasn’t able to so my mother and I took it up. We had two weeks to plan and decided on King Arthur Baking Apple cinnamon scones, coffee scones, gluten free cucumber sandwiches, Eating Well radish sandwiches, ham and cheese sliders, and an Earl Grey Bunt Cake. For games we did a tea themed boggle and a teabag toss in teacups.
In May we held a tea honoring mothers and celebrating women, which I unfortunately couldn’t attend as I had to work. I also missed June’s tea for the same reason.
In July my mother held the tea and gave it an independence theme like the book suggested. We had cranberry, blueberry, and white chocolate chip scones; Egg Salad and Cherry Tomatoes Sandwiches, Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Tomato and Butter Sandwiches, Strawberry Shortcake, and Cinnamon & Almond Muffins.
August and September I did not host and was also not asked to bring anything. August was a goodbye tea in honor of Jack who was moving and September was a gothic tea.
In October I held my Hallotean Party.
We meet every November and do a tea advent calendar exchange, inspired by the one I was a part of with TeaisforTravel (back in 2019). I was asked to make two different scones. At the time I was housesitting and cat sitting for a friend and forgot to bring any supplies or the recipe I wanted to use, but my friend is a baker so after some googling I found a recipe that she had all the ingredients to make Cranberry Orange Scones.
I needed to make another but was feeing tired. As I looked through my friend’s pantry and saw quite a few boxes of cake mix I wondered if I could use it to make scones. I know you can use box cake mix to make cookies and figured it can’t be that far off to adapt them to scones? Most of the cake mix ingredients is about the same as scones with flour, sugar, baking powder, etc.
So after a quick google search, I found this recipe on Mom’s Don’t Collect Dust.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cup of lemon cake mix
- 1 1/4 cup of flour
- 8 tablespoons cold butter
- 3/4 cup of milk
- Glaze or Frosting
Directions:
1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
3) Combine the flour and the cake mix.
4) Cut in the cold butter using a pastry cutter or two butter knives until the mixture is crumbly.
5) Create a well in the center and pour in the milk.
6) Gently combine without over mixing. You can always add more milk if the dough is too dry and not sticking together.
7) On a floured surface flatten out the dough into a circle that’s about 8 inches across.
8) Using a greased cookie cutter, cut the dough into eight wedges.
9) Put your scones on the baking sheet and bake for 15-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
10) Let cool and add a glaze or frosting.
These were easy to make and very tasty. They weren’t as popular as the Cranberry Orange Scones, but I only had a few leftover from the party. Great to make if you are short on time or looking for a shortcut in the kitchen.
For more scone recipes, go to Cranberry Orange Scones
For more cranberry scones, go to Cranberry Chai Scones
For more orange scones, go to Martha Stewart’s Lemon Scones
For more tea time, go to Spill the Tea: Proper Rose Garden
For more recipes, go to The Nicest Cold Luncheon in the World: Making My Version of Lydia’s Welcome Tea for our Book Club Meeting
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