The afternoon tea party was prepared for a great friend.  Knowing that these are my friends, I felt a bit more free to experiment with a number of new things on the menu.

For scones, in addition to the Lemon Blueberry Scones that I make often, I also made candy ginger scones.  The true ginger lovers were the ones who liked them.

For the tarts, in addition to the typical Vanilla Pastry Cream Tart topped with fruit, I decided to experiment with Rose Water flavored Pastry Cream.  It turned out fabulous.

The best part about this birthday afternoon tea was the reaction of the birthday girl when she saw the cake.  She was so excited that she was jumping up and down while clapping her hands.  I think we all got a kick out of it.  This cake was highly experimental, using all Asian flavors.  Being a fan of green tea and red bean, I decided to combine the two flavors.  The cake was a green tea sponge cake.  For the filling, I layered green tea pastry cream on top of red bean paste.  For the outside coating, I made a green tea white chocolate ganache.  Then topping the cake with a few pink dogwood flowers along with a bow on the side, the pink and green color combination was just beautiful.

As for the cake, while all liked it, I think I will make some modifications in the future as both the green tea white chocolate ganache and the red bean paste were very sweet.  I look forward to experimenting with this green tea cake again.