Tag: Afternoon tea

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.

Many flower trees bloom in the spring including dogwood.  These beautiful large and flat flowers, when blooming, look as though they are suspended in the air.

According to www.myflowermeanings.com, “the Dogwood flower means endurance, for durability through all seasons.”  This cake was made for a luncheon meeting of a few good friends.  I think the meaning of the flower was the perfect symbol for the friendships that have formed among them.

I created a new cake flavor for this Dogwood Cake, a green tea sponge cake with vanilla pastry cream, covered with green tea chocolate ganache.  This is a wonderful cake for green tea lovers.

For a celebratory party, a client requested an Afternoon Tea Cake to ring in the new year.  He was so in love with the Afternoon Tea Cake that I made couple months ago that he wanted exactly the same cake!  Being that I do not like to “look back”, I made a more elaborate Afternoon Tea Cake to go with this special celebration of 2012.

The entire cake is edible with the exception of the 2 rods in the tea stands.  All the decorative pieces are made with modeling chocolate and sugar paste.

Here is the tea set with some gold lines and rims.

The napkins are made with gold borders for the new year occasion.

A tray full of colorful cookies.

A tray decked with Battenburg Cake and Swiss Roll and all of their details.

A tea stand filled with Red Velvet Cakes, Eclairs, and Cupcakes.

The other tea stand filled with multi color Petit Fours.

Trying to incorporate in the celebration of the new year, four plates are filled with oval cookies that shaped into “2012”.

Dessert plates with goodies from the tea stands and trays.

Last but not least is a three-tier cake topped with a hand-made rose set on a golden platform.

I got a text from the client next morning letting me know that the new Afternoon Tea Cake became the attraction at the party and that the guests did not want to eat the cake but to stare at it!  I was very happy to receive the news.  Happy New Year!