How to Throw a Valentea Party

I’m not one of those people who likes to take their holiday decorations right when the holiday ends and set up for the next one. I also celebrate Valentine’s Day until February, but last year I threw a Valentea party in two weeks and wanted to share it with you all. However, I know people need more time than that and wanted to share it with you all.

Christmas 2021 my friend was given a book that had ideas to hold a tea party every month. She held the first party on January 29th and no one wanted to do the next one, the Valentine’s Day party. I agreed and of course had to change the direction to Valentea and Jane Austen.

Invitations:

So the first thing you need for a party is invitations. I like to make my own cards and sent everyone a Valentine. I used romantic and love quotes from my favorite books.

Decorations:

After planning that came decorations. I’m lucky that I still have the ones from my bridal shower. I have reused those so many times! Yep, I used my pink floral table runners, framed Jane Austen quotes (which can be purchased from this shop); along with pink and white flowers.

Menu:

I was able to figure out my menu pretty quickly as I have a Tea Time magazine subscription, a Betty Crocker holiday cookbook, a Nancy Drew Cookbook, etc. I had a lot of recipes to choose from.

Tea Choices:

I wanted everything to be pink and red as it was a Valentea party so I had MadsenCreations make a Red Chai and Pink Moon Tea. I also picked Tiesta Tea Nutty Almond Cream Tea (which turns the water pink).

Food Menu:

We made Teatime Magazine Orange Cream Scones, Tea Time Magazine Lavender White Chocolate & Cranberry-Raspberry Scones, Tea Time Magazine’s Triple Stack Red Bell Pepper and Cream Cheese Sandwiches, Tea Time Magazine’s Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Eating Well’s Radish Tea Sandwiches, French Onion Soup, Tomato Soup, a tart, and Heart Shaped Rice Krispy Treats.

Tea Time Magazine Orange Cream Scones

Ingredients

• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons fresh orange zest
• 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon cold heavy whipping cream, divided
• 2 large eggs, divided
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange zest until combined. Using a pastry blender or 2 forks, cut in cold butter until it resembles coarse crumbs.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together ½ cup cold cream, 1 egg, and vanilla extract. Add to flour mixture, stirring until a dough begins to form. Working gently, bring mixture together with hands until a dough forms.
4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead gently 4 to 5 times. Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to a 1-inch thickness. Using a 2-inch fluted round cutter dipped in flour, cut 13 scones from dough, rerolling scraps as needed. Place scones 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together remaining 1 tablespoon cold cream and remaining egg until combined. Brush egg mixture over tops of scones.
6. Bake until edges of scones are golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean, 18 to 21 minutes. Serve warm.
7. Optional: Add a glaze.

Tea Time Magazine Lavender White Chocolate & Cranberry-Raspberry Scones

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all-purpose flour
2. ⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, divided
3. 2 teaspoons baking powder
4. ½ teaspoon dried culinary lavender
5. ½ teaspoon salt
6. 4 tablespoons cold salted butter, cut into pieces
7. 1 cup chopped dried Cranberries and Raspberries
8. 1 (4-ounce) bar white baking chocolate, such as Ghirardelli, chopped
9. 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
10. ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, ⅓ cup sugar, baking powder, lavender, and salt, whisking well.
4. Using a pastry blender, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add cranberries, strawberries, and chocolate; stirring until combined.
5. In a liquid-measuring cup, combine cream and vanilla extract, stirring to blend. Add to flour mixture, stirring until mixture is evenly moist. (If dough seems dry, add more cream, 1 tablespoon at a time.) Working gently, bring mixture together with hands until a dough forms.
6. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently 4 to 5 times. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to a ½-inch thickness. Using a 3-inch heart-shaped cutter, cut 12 scones from dough. Place scones 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet, and sprinkle tops with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
7. Bake scones until edges are golden brown and a wooden pick inserted in the centers comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Games:

Game 1: Who Said It?

For this game I took all the romance quotes I had used on the Valentines and people had to match up the quote with who said it.

Game 2: Who Can Name the Most Romance Movies?

For this game I had everyone turn their sheet of paper over and write down as many romance films they could think of in a minute. This was a ton of fun as afterwards we all talked about which ones we liked and what films were our favorites to watch.

I had a lot of fun with our tea parties, and I hope this helps if you want to plan a Valentea party.

Valentea food also doesn’t count.

For more party posts, go to Jane Austen Birthday Party Music & Party Review

For more Valentine’s Day posts go to, Jane in Love

For more tea posts, go to Spill the Tea: Alley Cat Cafe

For more recipes, go to Dragon Cheddar and Tomato Scones

Jane Austen Birthday Party: Decorations

Party time!

So I have been planning my Jane Austen 29th birthday party for a few years, and when the lockdowns happened last year I began to grow worried that I wouldn’t be able to have it. But we moved down a tier, so I decided to continue and we had such a wonderful time.

So in my previous posts I went over the invitations, the prizes, and now I thought I would discuss the decorations.

You know how I like to party plan!

So the first thing I decided was to reuse the table runners and Jane Austen framed quotes from my bridal shower. Yes, even though the marriage didn’t work out the decorations from the party did.

So besides the floral table runners and framed quotes: I also used three of my teapots as vases and filled them with fake flowers. Each one sat in a wicker tray and of course had books and doilies. The white teapot with the diamonds on it and the Chinese teapot both used to be my grandma’s while the doilies were made by my abuelita. Even though they couldn’t be with me, it was nice having them there in spirit.

On the food table, I used another teapot to hold flowers and placed my Mr. Darcy in a stick from Modesto Jane Con. I had wanted to do that with all my teapots, have different Austen heroes, but I just ran out of time.

I also put flowers on the dessert table, and around the cake although I forgot to take a picture of it. The cake sat where the little cupcakes are featured in this picture.

So far all the decorations were ones that I already owned, which saved me a lot of money. I only had to pay for the tablecloths ($1 each at the Dollar Tree). I also hung up Chinese lanterns in the trees and was able to get a pack of 5 for $9 on Amazon.

For plates I could have just gone to the Dollar tree, but for $18 I found this pretty floral set of 144 Pieces (Serves 24) of Pink Floral Paper Plates, Napkins, Cups and Plastic Cutlery. Since I hadn’t spent that much on decorations, I decided to splurge on it.

In the back of the above photo, you can see how we also put these flowered hoops up in the tree and decorated my parent’s backyard bench with lace and flowers. The tables were borrowed from our church or ones my mom owned. The chairs were a mix of borrowed ones from church and ones we owned.

As I mentioned in a previous post, from the beginning I wanted to have a teacup for everyone and have those be part of their favors. All the cups I purchased were about $2-$4, most being $2.50. I found a few in local thrift, resale, and vintage shops-but I really lucked out when I went to Reno and their Goodwill had sooo many. I laid them out on a table and let everyone pick out the one they wanted to use.

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: Prize One

For more Jane Austen party ideas, go to Jane Austen Birthday: Teapot Piñata

For more on Northanger Abbey, go to Northanger Abbey Audiobook Narrated by Anna Massey