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Cupid’s Tea
Tarragon Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches Pears with Gorgonzola Cream Lemon Scones Raspberry Meringue Kisses Chocolate Cakelettes ~ Darjeeling Tea Champagne
Cupid’s Tea is for ladies only, a chance for you and your girlfriends to get together for conversation, tea and cakes, and to make Valentines for your special someone (or someones). Of course, a little Champagne among girlfriends is always a good thing, too.
Set your buffet table with roses, Valentine colors and all your best girlie tableware and linen napkins.
Buy a good supply of fancy papers, doilies, silver and gold calligraphy markers and other decorative items. You can find amazing things these days to tickle your creativity in the scrapbooking section of most craft stores. Lay them out on a table and let each guest design their own beautiful valentine to take home.
Craft Supplies List (Limited only by your imagination.)
Specialty papers: whites, creams, reds, pinks, gold, silver Blank cards with envelopes Gold and silver calligraphy markers Tombo markers Rubber stamps and ink pads Stickers Glue sticks Lace doilies Heart-shaped templates Ribbons Glitter Scissors Pencils Rulers Book of quotations Browse the scrapbooking section of your local craft store for hundreds more ideas.
Tarragon Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches
1 cooked rotisserie chicken, finely chopped 3 green onions, minced 1 teaspoon finely minced tarragon 1 cup mayonnaise plus additional for spreading ½ teaspoon kosher salt freshly ground black pepper 8 slices high quality white bread Romaine lettuce leaves or watercress
Mix chicken and green onions in a bowl. In another bowl, mix mayonnaise, salt, tarragon and a couple of grindings of black pepper. Mix mayonnaise mixture into chicken and chill until ready to make sandwiches.
No more than an hour before serving, spread bread slices with mayonnaise. Spread a thin layer of chicken salad on each slice of bread. Top half the slices with lettuce or watercress leaves, and top with remaining slices of bread and chicken salad, so that the lettuce is sandwiched in the middle between two layers of chicken salad. Cut crusts off the sandwiches, and cut each sandwich in half, and then again in half diagonally to make four triangles. Arrange on a tray.
1 tablespoon softened butter 1/3 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheeses A few teaspoons of heavy cream Pinch of salt Freshly ground black pepper 2 pears 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Smash butter and cheese together to form a paste. Add cream by teaspoons until mixture is a spreadable consistency. Stir in a pinch of salt to taste.
No more that 30 minutes before serving, slice pears crosswise to form disks about ¼” thick. With a melon ball cutter, cut core out of each slice. Cut each slice in half. Drop into a bow of cold water combined with the lemon juice for a few seconds. Remove slices from the water and drain on paper towels. Spread some of the gorgonzola cream on each pear slice. Top each slice with a few coarse grains of freshly ground black pepper.
1 cup cold butter, cut into bits 2 cups flour ¼ cup sugar ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon baking soda 2/3 cup buttermilk 2 teaspoon lemon zest 1 cup confectioner’s sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla A few teaspoons milk
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Add butter and work into flour with your fingers until it resembles coarse meal. It’s ok to leave some larger pieces of butter. Add the buttermilk and lemon juice and mix with a fork until just combined. Gather together into a ball and knead a few times on a floured surface. Pat out into a circle about ¾” thick. Cut dough into strips about 2” wide. Then cut on a diagonal to make small diamond-shaped scones. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake 5-7 minutes, until just beginning to turn golden.
Mix together confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and a couple of teaspoons of milk. Add milk by teaspoons, mixing until glaze is smooth and the consistency of heavy cream. Dip the tops of the warm scones into the glaze and let dry on racks.
2 egg whites ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar 6 tablespoons sugar ½ cup finely chopped almonds 2 tablespoons Framboise liqueur 2 drops red food coloring
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating until glossy and stiff. Beat in the Framboise and food coloring. Quickly and gently fold in almonds. Drop by tablespoons onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake about 25 minutes, until just barely starting to turn golden. Watch carefully, because you don’t want them to brown. Turn off oven, prop open an inch or two, and let kisses remain in oven for 2 hours to dry out a little bit. (Kisses will be dry on the outside and will be the consitency of soft nougat on the inside.)
My absolute favorite chocolate cake recipe is called “Chocolate Domingo Cake”, and comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Cake Bible. If you are a chocolate cake lover, you absolutely must try it. I can’t even begin to improve on any of her cake recipes, so I don’t try. I go straight to her book, and you should, too. It’s to die for.
For this menu, bake the batter in mini-muffin tins for just 5 minutes or so until top bounces back when pressed lightly with finger. Cool on wire racks. When cakes are cool, sift confectioner’s sugar over the top and you’re done. Yum!
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Copyright © 2008 by Charlotte Rose. All rights reserved. |