Delightful Sweets — Dragonfly Delights Tea Room

Afternoon Tea

A three course Delight to be shared with your favourite people.

Consisting of dainty Savories (sandwiches), delicious Scones and delightful Sweets along with fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and condiments such a jam and clotted cream.

This month I began my blogs writing, research and sharing a discussion of Afternoon Tea. I have had opportunity to share thought on what I have learned, and what the tearoom has offered for the Sandwiches and the scones now finally, we can chat about the delightful sweets.

The options for Afternoon Tea sweets are endless. When planning an afternoon tea event, I choose a theme, a holiday, a season. Giving myself a focus. Then I choose colours, flavours, and shapes. Having these boundaries or parameters allows me a focus that I otherwise would not inflict on myself which in turn would make the planning near impossible. As once again I say the options for sweets are endless.

Macarons, madeleines, little mini cheesecakes, cookies, petit-fours, fanciers, Victorian sponge, fudge, tarts, little mini pies, meringues, puff pastry, pavlova….

We taste first with our eyes. Teatime foods should be beautiful and presented in a fashion that pleases the eye before it pleases the taste buds. In the past the kitchen had great fun using edible flowers, multigrain breads, or fruits to brighten the teatime color scheme.

It has been taught that by using glazes rather than frostings for tea cakes the sweets are lighter easier to digest, not overly sweet. Victorian sponges and cakes sliced into small portions or baked in a mini version have been so much fun to serve on the afternoon tea tray. Other recommendations for a great afternoon tea are avoiding heavy chocolate icing or sugary fillings that might overpower other foods on the plate.

Well, I have not, up until now, thought about a few of these suggestions for creating an afternoon tea tray. Every time I “google” a topic I learn something new. Find something most interesting to read thus get lost in my learning and loose an afternoon. Glad to have a great pot of tea with me for the adventure.

Make your food easy to manage the instructions suggest. Your guests will appreciate the effort you put into making sandwiches, canapés, and tarts easy to eat. Most foods should be small enough to consume in two to four bites. Everything should be in miniature form for those who may be standing or seated away from a table while eating. This helps diners feel at ease and will enjoy conversation easier, and it gives them more opportunities to compliment the kitchen on the skill and thoughtfulness that went into the afternoon tea culinary creation!

Something I adore about afternoon tea is that everything on the tea tray is small. So cute, so adorable. The delightful sweets look delicious and when the colours and flavours blend well along with the shapes being different this makes for a most DELIGHTFUL afternoon tea experience.

So much to learn, so many different opinions and endless information on the web, in magazines and books. I really enjoy learning, reading, and researching. But there comes a moment when all that learning, and research must be put into practise. That time is very soon.

So is there anything that doesn’t work on a three-tiered tray for sweets. Yes! Really tall cakes, really big cookies and some have the opinion that cupcakes are not afternoon tea proper. Opps, the tearoom has served little mini cupcakes on a couple occasions. A delicious strawberry cupcake with a strawberry buttercream frosting. Thank you to Grand Valley Strawberry Farm for delicious fresh local strawberry early July every year for the Tearoom. And we have made chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate buttercream frosting. Thank you to Black Wheat Brewing for the beer that made these cupcakes extra special. I am not strict enough in my following afternoon tea etiquette I suppose to stop serving these delightful mini cupcakes.