Easy At Home Afternoon Tea

Ever since I was a child, I always loved afternoon tea. Going to a fancy restaurant or cafe to enjoy a sample of a mixture of sweet or savoury items was a foodies heaven for me. But it's not too difficult to do it at home. It just takes some time to make all the separate things. I recommend doing this if you are having a get-together with friends and family and want to elevate your usual at-home lunches. Below I have attached some recipes that I don't find too difficult, for you to try on your next afternoon tea get-together.

Tea

Tea is essential in afternoon tea. The idea is that people would gather at a table in the afternoon to enjoy sipping their tea and eating an assortment of foods while gossiping about the latest news.

You can enjoy any tea you like here, but the staple is a variation of black teas like Earl Grey tea. One special thing you can try to incorporate, is that afternoon tea places usually have a cool set of tea offerings, which are different from your usual cafe offerings. You can buy a cool tea flavour at your local grocery store or Davids Tea to spice up your afternoon tea event and to create a talking point on the tea of choice.

One fancy tea brand that people love is Sloane tea. Here are 2 of my favourite teas from them:

1st course: Savoury

Afternoon tea always starts off with savoury items. Usually, when going into a professional place to have afternoon tea, they will serve the savoury items before they serve you the tower of sweats that afternoon tea is known for.

The key to making your sandwiches look like professional afternoon tea sandwiches is to have no crust on your bread, making the bread 1 uniform colour. They sell these types of bread at the grocery store as well, making your life a little bit easier.

• cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches

• egg salad sandwich

• smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches

• pear and prosciutto sandwich

• ham, brie, and apple sandwiches

Other savoury items include mini quiches, tartines (open-faced sandwiches), and more. Feel free to adjust the items based on your taste and preferences. There is no set rule book on what to include so feel free to incorporate any items you like.

2nd course: Scones

Scones are a staple for afternoon tea. They usually serve a plain or savoury scone with a sweet scone. These scones are served with Devonshire cream and some jam to spread on top.

• Berry scones (my go-to recipe for scones)

3rd course: Sweet

This is my favourite part of afternoon tea. Usually, the sweat items are stacked on a tiered cake stand, however, if you don't have one, you can just place them nicely on a plate. Just like the savoury items, you can include anything you want in the sweets section of your afternoon tea. From macarons, mini cakes, croissants, and scones.

• mini layer cakes

• mini fruit tarts

• macarons

• cream puffs

• mini cheesecake

• mini carrot cake

Since I've only added a few ideas for your next afternoon tea event, I hope that you will use your own creativity to decide on what to include in your sweet and savoury menu. Let me know if you find a delicious recipe to be added to the list or something I should try as well!