Jane Austen Birthday Party Menu, Plus How to Dip Cookies in Chocolate, and a Sugar Cookie Recipe

So as you know if you have been following my page, I just celebrated my 29th birthday with a Jane Austen Garden Tea Party.

Some of you might be wondering why I am so extensively going through all the party planning and it was because I had been planning to have this two years ago, but life got in the way so I decided to wait and now I’ve finally been able to have it.

Party time!

So far we have gone over invitations, decorations, prizes, activities to have, how to make your own piñata, etc. Before we go over the games I thought I would share the menu.

So starting with sandwiches, remember how we’ve been having those The Magician’s Nephew Bible study/book club/tea party? Well, those have also been a dry run for me as it gives me a chance to try out recipes and see which ones I really love. I decided to start off with one I really loved: Curried Egg Salad Triple Stacks Sandwiches

I also really love cucumber sandwiches and wanted to use the recipe from Spend With Pennies but to save time I used Chive and Onion Cream Cheese Spread.

I know not everyone will be into them so I needed some regular sandwiches. I decided on Turkey-Apple Tea Sandwiches:

And I rounded it out with Tea Time Magazine’s Ham and Cheese Tea Sandwiches:

Out of all of them, the Ham and Cheese did the best. They were all gone before the party’s end.

My mom made a salad for a side and then we went to the strawberry farm down the street and bought a ton of strawberries. Yep, I wanted it to be like Donwell Abbey.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any scones. I had wanted to make some, but I ran out of time. I had also planned to buy some, but when I went to the store they were all out.

But I had lots of desserts! I had made them a few weeks earlier and put them in the freezer until the day before the party. The first cookie I made was Crispy, Chewy, Matcha Green Tea Cookies.

People didn’t really like these as much as the other cookies, but I love them. They were eaten, just not as much as all the others.

The next cookie I made was Basic Shortbread:

But I used a cookie cutter to make them into teapot shape; along with cutting the other half of the cookies into a teabag shape. And I dipped them in chocolate

Chocolate Dipped Cookies:

1. Have your cookies baked and cooled.
2. Using a double broiler, melt a chocolate bar or chocolate chips.
3. If you do not have a double broiler, get two pots about the same size or have one be slightly smaller than the other. Heat water in one until it boils. Turn down the flame and take the other pot and hold it over the one with boiled water. Place the chocolate in the top pot and stir until melted.
4. When chocolate is melted, dip cookies and lay on wax paper. Put cookies in freezer or fridge to get chocolate to harden.

The last cookie I made was Better Home and Gardens Sugar Cookies.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 Cup of Shortening
• 3/4 Cups of Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla
• 1 Egg
• 4 Teaspoons of Milk
• 2 Cups of All-Purpose Flour (Sifted)
• 1.5 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

Directions:

1. Throughly cream shortening, sugar, and vanilla.
2. Add egg; beat until mixture light and fluffy.
3. Stir in milk.
4. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Blend dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
6. Divide dough in half.
7. Chill for one hour.
8. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 of an inch thickness.
9. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters.
10. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees F for 6-8 minutes.
11. Cool slightly, then remove from pan.

I had wanted to make Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cake but I ran out of time and I ended up just buying an Almond Poppyseed cake from Raleys. It was good, but not as amazing as the Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cake.

My friend also made Carrot Cake (my favorite) and carrot cake cupcakes. I didn’t take a picture of the cake (so good) but in the picture below, where the cupcakes are is where the cake was placed. All the cupcakes were gone by the end of the party. The recipe is a secret or else I would have shared that too.

I’ve been having so much fun sharing all these things with you, and even though the party has ended I will be continuing to share all my other party plans!

For more of my Jane Austen Birthday plans, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party: Croquet

For more Jane Austen party ideas, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party: Paper Fan Making

For more desserts, go to Melt-in-Your-Mouth Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies

For more cookie recipes, go to The Picture of Earl Grey Tea Cookies

For more recipes, go to Savory Beef Hand Pies

Lavender Earl Grey Tea Shortbread Cookies

So last month my friends and I were supposed to meet up for high tea, but then COVID-19 happened and screwed up all our plans.

So we decided to throw a virtual tea party.

We each set up a space with snacks and tea, I drank Earl Grey Tea and made Cucumber Sandwiches to snack on. When it came to the sweets, I was going to make one thing, but then decided now was the time to try and make something I have wanted to for a long time, Earl Grey Cookies. You all know how much I love Earl Grey Tea:

I have always wanted to make Earl Grey Cookies, I have a ton of pins of them on my pinterest board.

Thats me

The only issue is that you have to chill them for a while before baking and I just haven’t had the time to bake, let alone bake something that had to be chilled first. But with quarantine, I have both the time and the ingredients. This recipe originally comes from Let’s Eat Cake.

Ingredients:

• 3.5 Cups of Flour
• 3/4 Cup of Sugar
• 1 Tbsp of Lavender Earl Grey Loose Leaf Tea
• 1/2 Tsp of Salt
• 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1.5 Cups of Unsalted Butter

Directions:

1. Pulse flour, sugar, tea, and salt together for one minute in a bowl or food processor.
2. Add butter and vanilla extract.
3. Pulse until shaggy dough is formed, about two mins.
4. Remove blade and transfer dough to a working surface.
5. Work dough until it comes together and shape it into two discs.
6. Place each disc on parchment paper and transfer to refrigerator for 30 mins.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
8. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
9. Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut out cookies using a 1 inch wide cookie cutter.
10. Transfer cookies to baking sheet.
11. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are a light golden brown.

So these cookies were good, but after they had been chilled they were so difficult to scoop out, like they were a rock. I had to use a spoon and chisel the dough, making the cookies extremely tiny. Tiny cookies weren’t all that bad as it let me eat more of them.

I ended up overdoing it though. I drank like 16 cups of tea and I don’t know how many cookies and had a hard time falling asleep.

For more recipes, go to Cucumber Sandwiches

For more tea posts, go to NovelTea Tins’ Romance Sampler

For more cookies, go to Ginger Cardamom Meyer Lemon Crinkle Cookies

For more shortbread cookie recipes, go to Basic Shortbread

For more Earl Grey Tea, go to Iced Blackberry Infused Earl Grey Tea

In other news, this week I am going on vacation.

I know, crazy right? A whole week? I had all these plans to spend the time with my niece doing all kinds of things but now it sounds like it will be a staycation. Oh well.

I’ll be on instagram still but I won’t be doing any posting on my blog.

GOOD!

Basic Shortbread

So Christmas is coming and now is the season for baking!

Thoughts Before Cooking:

This recipe comes from my a book I received for Christmas one year, Christmas Cookies. As I like to make anything Regency or tea related I thought it was no better time than now to include it as shortbread is perfect to pair with tea.

Background on the Cookie:

“Shortbread is made with a few basic ingredients, and the results are sensational. The key to success with this thick shortbread is baking it slowly so it doesn’t brown.”

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup of Butter, Softened
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
• 2 1/4 Cups of Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1/8 Teaspoon of Salt

Directions:

1. Beat the butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating well.
2. Stir in vanilla.
3. Combine flour and salt, gradually add to the butter mixture beating on low speed until blended.
4. Roll dough to 1/2 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.
5. Cut with a 2.5 inch round cutter or Christmas cookie cutter.
6. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
7. Bake at 275 degrees F for 50 minutes or until bottoms begin to brown.
8. Cool 2 minutes on a baking sheet; remove to wire rack to cool.

Thoughts After Baking:

These were delicious and so buttery good.  A perfect compliment to tea, Christmas, or anytime/anything. 🙂

For more recipes, go to Baked Apple Slices

For more recipes from Christmas Cookies, go to Aunt Neal’s Old-Fashioned Tea Cakes

For more cookie post, go to Tea and Biscuits

Tea and Biscuits

I love tea.

Tea time is the best!

And what is best with it? A biscuit!

I’m not talking about our American biscuits, but the European ones-the shortbread cookies.

Yes, my brother and sister-in-law went to Hawaii and brought me the perfect cookies for my tea time. It’s my new ritual.

For more tea time posts, go to Teatime is So Much Better With a Teapot