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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.

This cake was made for a Mother’s Day afternoon tea party to celebrate Mother’s Day and to remember a very special mother who had gone home to be the Lord two years ago on the date of this year’s Mother’s Day.   Mrs. Mulan L. Z., the second daughter of an older couple, was born around the time of the Sino-Japanese War.  Her father, being without any sons and beyond the age of military service , named her after Mulan Hua, the female Chinese warrior from the Ballad of Mulan* who had taken her father’s place in answering the call to fight for her country.  (Yes, you guessed it right – Mulan Hua is the same Mulan from the Disney cartoon, except that the original story did not have the dragon, nor the gods, nor the story of Mulan rescuing the emperor.)  Although Mrs. Mulan L. Z. was far from being a warrior in the physical sense in her lifetime, she was remembered by her family and friends as a woman who, through the strength God gave her,  overcame many fears in her own life, on the behalf of her family, and encouraged many in her quiet manners.  One of her friends fondly referred to her as “the quiet warrior.”  I am reminded of the Word of God from 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness…”

As a way to remember Mulan, her daughter, Flora, wanted me to make a Mulan, which is actually the name of a flower in Chinese.  While not  certain how the flower really looked like, I did some research and was very surprised to find how  befitting that Mulan, without knowing, had named her two daughters “Lily” and “Flora” – as it turned out, Mulan is a type of Magnolia, namely, Magnolia Lillyflora…  Happy Mother’s Day.

*You may find the original Ballad of Mulan in English at http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ballad_of_Mulan.  For Chinese, you may find it at http://home.pacific.net.hk/~shung/favorites/mulan.html.

Bella is a vibrant and sweet girl who was about to turn 11-years-old. After looking through my portfolio of cakes, she decided that she wanted an afternoon  tea cake.  Since I wanted to make this cake special for Bella, I incorporated her favorite color – lavender.  In addition, I wanted to make this cake especially cute for this little princess.  Here is the final product.  I hope you like it!  I know Bella did as she saves all the little decorative pieces for her Barbie doll!

The cake is only 6″ in diameter.  All the decorative pieces are hand made.