Alice in Wonderland - A Very Merry Un-Birthday Tea
Our second night of our Disney Movie Week Themed Dinners is themed around the 1951 animated Disney film, Alice in Wonderland. While asking for ideas from the family about which movies they wanted to feature Bug-a-Boo said she wanted her favorite Disney movie, Alice in Wonderland. WHAT??? This was news to me. Never had she ever mentioned Alice in Wonderland, but I figured I would just go with it and I included it on the list.
Fortunately, this is a very easy theme for me to create a menu for. I decided to go with a Very Merry Un-birthday Tea Party.
Luckily, the very week I was putting together the menu I received the July/August 2020 issue of Tea Time Magazine and there was a perfect tea menu for this occasion.
The only addition I needed to think about was a soup, and that would be easy...Wild Mushroom Soup, not only are mushrooms in the movie quite a lot...
...but I'm pretty sure Lewis Carrol was trippin' on them when he wrote the classic novel.
So the menu is set:
Cucumber-Blue Cheese Canapes
Ham and Cheddar Tea Sandwiches
Walnut-Currant Scones
Ginger Hob Knob Cookies
Sticky Banoffee Cake
Raspberry-Elderflower Fool
This is going to be fun!!
As I gathered my recipes I realized that I could make the scones, cookies, cake and egg salad the day before, which would save me a lot of time. If you are planning a tea party, I highly suggest finding the recipes that can be stored for a day or two and make them ahead of time. It is such a time and labor saver.
This left just the soup, raspberry-elderflower fool and the assembly of the sandwiches.
I was able to make the sandwiches early and cover them with damp paper towels and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 hours prior to meal time.
I'm so glad that I did this because as I was using the mandolin to slice the cucumbers and there was a casualty. The tip of my pinky finger!!!!! OUCH!!!!! With all the cooking I do I can't believe that this is the first time I have done this. I did not have the appropriate first aid supplies. Luckily, The Queen Mum only lives a mile away and since she has done this very thing several times (Oy Vey!) she has the correct supplies and was able to come over and help.
After a brief pause to put my finger back together I was able to get back to it. I finished the sandwiches and started on the soup.
Once the food was all ready I fired up my electric kettle and started brewing the tea. I used Bigelow's Rose and Mint Herbal Tea. I thought this was perfect to represent the Queen of Hearts Roses. I served it in a beautiful Alice in Wonderland tea pot that The Queen Mum had gotten for me ages ago.
The first course was Wild Mushroom Soup with Thyme and Sherry.
This soup was so yummy and was a big hit! I will definitely be making this again.
Our Savory Course consisted of 3 tea sandwiches. A non-traditional, traditional cucumber sandwich with a mayo and blue cheese base, an egg and watercress salad sandwich and a ham and cheese sandwich. Keep in mind that the egg salad and the ham and cheese both called for English Mustard. I used Coleman's and let me tell you it has a KICK!!! If you don't like hot and spicy go easy on the English Mustard.
Our scones course I changed up from the original recipe a little. I didn't have any walnuts so I used pecans instead and I added just a touch of cinnamon. At the last minute I also decided to make some clotted cream using a recipe from my Alice's Tea Cup cookbook.
Alice's Tea Cup is a whimsical tea house in New York City founded by sisters Haley and Lauren Fox. Their cookbook has some of the best scone recipes I have ever made and the homemade Un-clotted Cream is to die for. If you are wanting to try your hand at scones I highly recommend this cookbook.
The pecan-currant scones were very good but the cream was amazing! The best part about the cream is that you can store it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and use it for scones or with berries.
After eating the yummy soup, sandwiches and scones we were all pretty full and decided to save our desserts for later and eat them while we watched Disney's 1951 animated Alice in Wonderland.
The movie was as trippy as ever and the desserts were pretty good. We all really liked the Banoffee Cake with Toffee Caramel Sauce. The Hob Nob Ginger Cookies were not a favorite and I don't think anyone actually finished theirs.
The biggest dessert hit though was the Raspberry-Elderflower Fool. It was light and refreshing and a definite repeat for the summer.
So that was our Alice in Wonderland Very Merry Un-birthday Tea. Join us on Wednesday for The Emperor's New Groove and Kronk's Spinach Puffs.
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