Nearly every Sunday, on Instagram, I share photos, a menu and recipes for my Sunday Tea Tray Supper. My posts are always very popular, so I thought why not share them here too.
Musings, Menus, and Recipes for a Cosy Sunday Tea Tray Supper
Nearly every Sunday, on Instagram, I share photos, a menu and recipes for my Sunday Tea Tray Supper. My posts are always very popular, so I thought why not share them here too.
Sunday’s used to be my least favourite day when I was growing up. It meant it was an early night and school next day.
I used to wake up happy in the knowledge that there would be a lovely home-cooked Sunday lunch, and then as the day grew to an end, there was that sinking feeling of school on Monday!
However, I absolutely love Sundays’s now, it’s a relaxing day, a day when you can read the Sunday papers in your pyjamas, until late, with a coffee or a pot of tea.
Today’s post is all about Sunday tea time, and my antique tea tray……which makes an appearance every week.
As well as sharing some images I posted on my Instagram page, I’ll be sharing some of my musings, menus and our favourite Sunday Best cake recipe.
I hope you enjoy reading my posts, as well as the photos, and the menus too of course. I have some new recipes to share next week, ones that I will be serving tomorrow night! Have a wonderful weekend, Karen
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Setting the Scene with my First Sunday Tea Tray Supper Post
My instagram post from the 23rd October 2022
The nights are drawing in, fires are lit and candles are glowing. The smell of cherry wood smoke hangs heavy in the air when I take the milk bottles out.
The candles splutter and spark as I open and close the door.
I’ve been busy in the kitchen today, baking and cleaning, washing treasured china and lining drawers and cupboards.
Now it’s time for Sunday tea in the salon…..the polished butlers tray comes out – no table cloth tonight as I admire the chestnut patina glow of old carved wood.
Assorted china is set out, Spode, Booths, Minton, Ridgeway and Burleigh set the scene.
There is a freshly made fruit cake – Mrs Beeton’s Luncheon Cake, with cheese scones, celery, homemade pickled onions, crisps, tangerines and dainty cream cheese & cucumber sandwiches with oat bread.
The fire flickers as I draw the hot water which I pour into the old teapot. My late mother’s “cat” creamer holds just enough milk for 2 cups of tea each.
The rain is now lashing against the window panes, and the wind has picked up and is moaning down the chimney.
But what do we care? We are tucked up in our cosy Victorian cottage, the scent of beeswax mingles with fresh bread and cake – it’s quietly seductive.
Recipes for the luncheon cake and rather enormous cheese scones to follow.
Have a wonderful Sunday evening wherever you are, Karen
Vintage Table Cloth for the Tea Tray
Sunday Tea from the 30th October 2022
The last rose of summer clung on to the old rose bush in the wind and rain – beautifully defiant and glowing yellow in the pale light of dawn.
Sunday arrived one hour later for us, with the autumn clocks back, we lingered in bed for a few minutes longer, relishing that feeling of a lazy Sunday morning.
But, I had to get up, I had been awake since 5am (but that’s really 6am I told myself!) and went outside to put the milk bottles out.
It’s there that I spied the last rose of summer, hidden amongst rain battered leaves. The garden was fiery with rust, orange and glowing red leaves, pirouetting and twirling in the wind.
Spiders webs adorned each bare branch and hung precariously from the roof of the garden shed. It was unseasonably mild, but the wind and rain brought a dampness to the garden.
As I laid out our “Clocks Back Sunday Tea Tray Supper” later on in the day, I thought of that yellow rose in the garden, and decided to bring it in to grace our tea time tray.
A vintage tablecloth from Oxfam covers the old butler’s tray tonight, freshly laundered and starched, the embroidery still bright and colourful.
Vintage China and an Indian Tree teapot are set out with freshly baked scones, malt loaf, egg & bacon flan, sandwiches, cheese & crackers, salad and tangerines.
I’ll leave this Sunday night spread here for late afternoon and evening nibbling, as we read by the fire in the fading light…..in the manner of a running buffet. The cottage is cosy, the curtains are drawn and all is well with the world. Have a wonderful Sunday wherever you are, Karen
Mrs Beeton’s Luncheon Cake
Our Sunday Tea Tray supper is a little different than advertised in my stories!
We had to go out today, an unplanned trip, so I didn’t get around to cooking my ham!
I was also asked to make Mrs Beeton’s Luncheon Cake, as the Christmas cake is a little too sweet for my husband, as a change from all the rich food we’ve had over the festive period.
So, it’s cucumber & cream cheese sandwiches, homemade pickled onions, a simple fruit cake, crisps, brandy snaps with cream (a Sunday tea time treat) and tangerines……with a pot of tea.
The fire is crackling away, the candles are glowing, the doors are locked, the curtains are closed and we’re all snug and cosy inside our Victorian cottage.
Have a wonderful evening wherever you are, Karen
PS: I’ve shared the recipe for Mrs Beeton’s Luncheon Cake below, again!
Todays recipe is for Mrs Beeton’s Luncheon Cake - a light fruit cake that would have been served at luncheon or for afternoon tea.
A luncheon cake is a general term for a soda-raised fruit slab cake. In her original recipe, Mrs Beeton adds caraway seeds, currants and candied peel.
My adapted version uses mixed fruit in place of just currants and uses caster sugar.
A fabulously moist, buttery cake that improves with keeping despite it being a “light fruit cake”.
Ingredients
225g butter
450g flour
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
125g mixed fruit
25g candied peel
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
150ml milk, freshly boiled
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F and grease and line a round 8”/20cm cake tin.
2. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the mixed fruit, peel, and sugar.
4. Mix well and then add the beaten eggs. Mix well again.
5. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the boiled milk and mix well.
6. Pour the milk into the other mixture and mix well until you have a smooth cake batter.
7. Spoon or pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 to 60 minutes.
Notes
Original Receipt in 'The Book of Household Management', 1861, edited by Isabella Beeton
LUNCHEON CAKE.1765.
INGREDIENTS :½ lb. of butter, 1 lb. of flour,½ oz. of caraway seeds, ¼ lb. of currants, 6 oz. of moist sugar, 1 oz. of candied peel, 3 eggs,½ pint of milk, 1 small teaspoonful of carbonate of soda.
Mode: Rub the butter into the flour until it is quite fine; add the caraway seeds, currants (which should be nicely washed, picked, and dried), sugar, and candied peel cut into thin slices; mix these well together, and moisten with the eggs, which should be well whisked.
Boil the milk, and add to it, whilst boiling, the carbonate of soda, which must be well stirred into it, and, with the milk, mix the other ingredients.
Butter a tin, pour the cake into it, and bake it in a moderate oven from ¾ to 1 hour.Time: 1 to 14 hour.
All the little treasures that family and friends have given to me over the years, and some of my food styling props, as well as vintage linens, antique lace, table cloths, tea cosies, candles, memory boxes for my late parents, are all stored in this antique French Gard-Linge (linen press).
It’s a beautiful piece of furniture, which used to have small legs, but sadly it was too tall when we moved to our Victorian cottage here in the Lincolnshire Wolds, so my husband had to remove them (but we have kept them!)
I love rummaging through all the contents, and yes, I know where everything is!
Do you have a piece of furniture that you had to adapt to fit into a new home?
More Fireside Sunday Tea Tray Suppers
New Year Fireside Sunday Supper Recipe
Not just for Christmas, but for leftover Sunday Lunch veggies
Todays recipe is for a new Christmas recipe I’ve created, for Bubble & Squeak Christmas Scones - using Christmas leftovers such as cheese, sprouts, carrots and crispy bacon, they rise spectacularly and have a light and flaky crumb.
Ingredients
450g self raising flour
1 teaspoon English mustard powder
100g butter, cut into small pieces
50g grated mature cheddar cheese (plus extra for topping)
12 cooked sprouts, shredded
1 large carrot, very finely diced
3 to 4 rashers cooked crispy smoked bacon, crumbled
1 large egg, beaten
250ml buttermilk or skimmed milk
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
1. Pre-heat oven to 225C/450F/Gas mark 8. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
2. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs then add the mustard powder, grated cheese, sprouts, carrot and bacon. Mix well before adding the beaten egg and buttermilk. Season to taste. Mix until it is soft and sticky, then turn out onto a well floured board.
3. Gently push the dough down into a big square with floured hands, don't handle it too much, the stamp out 10 to 12 scones with a biscuit/scone cutter.
4. Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk or extra beaten egg with milk, transfer them to the baking sheet.
5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until they are well risen and very pale golden brown.
6. Remove them from the oven and allow to cool slightly before splitting and spreading with butter.
Notes
Use any leftovers you have to hand, such as parsnips, or finely diced pigs in blankets.
Make them vegetarian by omitting the bacon.
Reheat the next day in a low oven to "refesh" them.
Karen Burns-Booth says
My pleasure
Ruth Humphrey says
Are sprouts Brussels sprouts?
Karen Burns-Booth says
Yes they are!