Real english tea

[tootles]

No.2 son will be 9 this weekend. For his birthday he has invited a few friends over (the sun WILL shine) for a 'proper' English picnic tea. What should I make?? I was thinking along the lines of;
cuecumber sandwiches (crusts cut off)
jam tarts
fairy cakes (with icing and sprinkles if I can find any icing sugar)


What else???

[jackie j]

Dont forget the jelly and blamange lol

[tootles]

Blancmange - sounds a bit French to me...................

No chance of jelly, sadly.

[di]

By "proper"do you mean posh or more kidie party proper?
For posh you mustn't forget the scones!
For kiddie the sausage and or cheese/pineapple Hedgehogs!

[piskieinboots]

scones, jam and clotted cream
strawberries

[piskieinboots]

By "proper"do you mean posh or more kidie party proper?

ah good point Di, I was thinking posh - yep do posh, get 'em cultured early on

Traditional English Afternoon Tea
An English Afternoon Tea is a very special treat to prepare for your family and friends.
Tea is usual taken between 3 and 5 o' clock. This tradition is still kept up in all the fine Hotels in Britain and in little Tearooms all around the country, especially in Devon where the scones are a specialty.

In The Dorchester and The Ritz London, this is still a big event and one has to book well in advance for this.

You start with a selection of very thin sandwiches, like thinly sliced cucumber, smoked salmon and egg mayonnaise and mustard cress sandwiches. This is followed by scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream and a selection of cakes. Tea with cold milk or slices of lemon is served with this.

[SarzWix]

A Victoria Sponge, for sure! Yummm

[HeyWayne]

"Chickin nuggits"

Where exactly on a chicken can you find it's nuggets?

[piskieinboots]

Where exactly on a chicken can you find it's nuggets?

and what if it's a girl chicken - where then?

[BilboWaggins]

A few years ago some girlfriends and I splashed out and went to The Ritz for tea. One of those "want to do it once" occasions.

I seem to remember two "courses", first of all there was plate after plate of delicate and delicious sarnies - very thin roast beef, smoked salmon, yes - cucumber, not sure what else, very thin bread, no crusts.

The second "course" were the smallest, prettiest cream cakes you could wish for - only two bites big (or one if you were being piggy!).

For some delicious and pretty recipes, have a look at Hannah's blog - she was a finalist on Masterchef a couple of series back.

All washed down with endless pots of tea - and don't forget your nicest china (or raid the local charity shop if you want to buy something gently old-fashioned and floral) cloth napkins, pretty flowers on the table and some gentle Mozart in the background (unless you can stretch to a tame piano player in the corner ). Yes I know this is 9 year-old boys but why not?

[di]

And don't forget the Bunting!

[Norburger]

deffo vic sponge and scones!

[tootles]

Yes, by 'proper' I mean posh.
I need to inject some English culture into the little French savages!!!!

so;

Cuecumber sandwiches
Egg sandwiches (they call them oeuf mimosa here)
fairy cakes
scones (err............)
victoria sponge.
pot of real tea (not just a bag of floor shavings in a cup).

wicker basket and tartan rug.

add a pass-the-parcel and they wont know what has hit them!!!!!!

[Sanjo]

Good old English trifle? And musical chairs and blind man's buff and pin the tail on the donkey and tag (or he as we called it) Hope you've got lots of room for the little froggie sprogs to expend all that energy in before they sit down to a very refined English event!! I wish you heartfelt luck. I'm sure it will be an event to remember.

[basketcase]

Don't forget the jam and cream for the scones...

ETA: Just seen the post above. Trifle! How could I forget TRIFLE!