High Tea

Having been given the notice to ship out of our apartment by the end of the month, there can be no better way but to say farewell with high tea (the high tea was actually planned before but where's the drama in that?).

I made my own Raspberry Jam in the microwave and cheated by adding gelatin to set the jam. It tasted pretty good and it was so quick and easy. I used 1 cup frozen raspberries, 1 cup caster sugar, squeeze of lemon juice and 2 sheet gold strength gelatin leaves. First you microwave the berries and lemon juice for 5mins, then add sugar, stir and microwave for a further 10mins (be careful as it might boil over the bowl). Soak the gelatin leaves, squeeze the excess water, stir into the mixture, put it in the fridge and voila! homemade jam.

To save time, I brought the sweet tart shells and filled it with various flavoured creams. You can add anything to whipped cream: berries, lemon, lime, chocolate, nuts, candied fruits....the list goes on.

Also, thanks to the 'cake baker' for baking such a yummy flourless Mandarin and Almond cake.

Buttermilk Scones
Ingredients
1 tbsp icing sugar

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tbsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 cup buttermilk

30g butter, melted

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200c.

2. Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix. Add the wet ingredients and stir with a cutting motion with a knife.

3. Knead quickly and press out onto a floured surface to 3 cm thick. Cut with a scone cutter or round cookie cutter.
4. Bake for approx 10mins until slightly golden and puffed. Served warm with jam and cream.

Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
250g dark chocolate
200ml thicken cream

Method
1. Chop the chocolate into fine pieces and put into a bowl. Heat 1/3 of the cream but do not boil. Once warm, pour into the chocolate and mix until smooth.

2. Whip remaining cream until thick and fold into the chocolate mixture. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Lemon and Mint Cream

Ingredients

250ml thicken cream

zest of 2 lemons

2 tsp vanilla

handful of mint leaves, finely chopped

Method

1. Whip cream until thick and mix in lemon zest and vanilla.

2. Just before serving fold in mint leaves.

The tea and coffee bar

Pre-high tea chocolates

Flourless Mandarin & Almond Cake, Moroccan Chicken and Smoked Salmon finger sandwiches

Scones with homemade Raspberry Jam and Chocolate Mousse Tarts

Lemon and Mint tarts

Chocolate Raspberry Hazelnut Cake

Sometimes when I make things up the photos and the story don't always end up here, mainly because it turns out slightly weird and I wouldn't recommend the recipe to anyone. It is to my delight this time, its actually really really good.

I took the base recipe for a plain sponge cake, halved that (it was for two sponge cakes) and added a few extras. I had it in my mind I wanted to make a chocolate raspberry and hazelnut cake. As I started to pour the mixture into the tin, I realised it was abit gluggy so in order to make it moist I added about half a cup of milk.


The baking time for the original sponge cake took only 20mins at 180c. From experience I knew the baking time for my cake will take longer because I've added a liquid ingredient and additional ingredients but after 30mins my cake was still runny in the middle. So I turned down the heat, to prevent burning on the sides, and baked it for 50mins (checking every 15-10mins).

Since the mixture was so gluggy to begin with (almost like brownie mixture), I thought the result would be like a brownie but no! It was so soft and airy (must have been the milk!). Needless to say, am very chuffed with the result. The best cake I've ever made up...


Chocolate Raspberry and Hazelnut Cake

Ingredients
150g butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup self-raising flour (or 1 cup plain flour + 2 tbsp baking soda)
1/2 cup raspberries
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1 handful hazelnuts, roughly chopped
1/2 cup milk

Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 160c.

2. Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and beat in eggs one at a time until combined.

3. Mix in flour and cocoa powder. Then add milk. When combined mix in hazelnuts and raspberries.

4. Pour into a cake tin and bake on 160c for approx. 50mins. It is recommended that you check the cake after 30mins, then every 15-10mins after that until baked.