Vintage Tea Party

Description

Everyone loves an old-fashioned tea party. Mix-and-match crockery, bone-handled knives, lace and linen, teapots with cosies, sweet peas and roses, home baking and Victorian cocktails in tea cups – they're all back in vogue. Indoors by the fire in winter or outside in summer sunshine, hosts and guests can relax together with none of the stress or formality of a dinner party. Afternoon tea is the quintessential British tradition that has developed from its modest beginnings to become a much-loved celebration of indulgent pleasures. With evocative photographs and mouth-watering recipes, this stunning book shows how you can re-create a nostalgic world of classic comfort, elegance and delicious treats. Try Carolyn Caldicott's perfect cucumber sandwich, Victoria sponge cake, rose petal jelly, English muffins, crumpets, Earl Grey tea with gin and lemon, 'the best chocolate cake you will ever taste' and much, much more with this celebration of the quintessentially English tea time, a must-have recipe book for any vintage-lovers.  

Everyone loves an old-fashioned tea party!

For many years, Carolyn Caldicott and her husband Chris owned the World Food Cafe in London's Covent Garden, where they cooked and served delicious vegetarian food from recipes collected on their travels. They are the authors of three vegetarian cookery books published by Frances Lincoln. They now live in Winchester.

Chris Caldicott is a journalist and photographer. With his wife Carolyn, he owned and ran the World Food Café in London's Covent Garden. He and Carolyn are co-authors of three Frances Lincoln vegetarian cookery books and his photographs also appear in a wide range of newspapers and magazines. Since 1991 he has been an official photographer for the Royal Geographical Society. He lives in Winchester, U.K.

Teatime

Afternoon tea is the quintessential British tradition. At a tea party you enter a nostalgic world of comfort food and vintage style.

This is the story of how afternoon tea developed from its modest beginnings to become a much-loved celebration of indulgent pleasures that include cakes large and small, dainty cucumber sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, crumpets, muffins, and all manner of teatime tipples and its assorted paraphernalia.

Forgo the stress of a dinner party and instead gather at home with friends for chat and relaxed afternoons, as enjoyable indoors by the fire in winter as outside in summer sunshine. We show you how to recreate the elegance, tradition and fun of a vintage afternoon tea party with mix-and-match crockery, cutlery, napkins, tablecloths, teapots with cosies and old-fashioned cocktails served in tea cups.



Treasured Tea Things

Vintage: ‘characteristic of a past period of quality; excellence, maturity, enduring appeal…’ It’s a word that might describe an antique or something just plain old fashioned, valued because of its age. A vintage tea party is a chance to re-discover beautiful things, traditions and recipes in a celebration bathed in the rosy glow of nostalgia.

Rescue old china from the back of cupboards, under the stairs or the attic. If you can’t find a complete tea service simply gather all the china you have and add new pieces with the same feel or colours. Store loose-leaf tea in a caddy and brew in a teapot, perhaps fitted with a tea cosy (vintage of course) to keep it warm. The milk jug and sugar bowl need not match but a tea strainer is a must.

Does tea always taste better from a cup? It certainly looks and feels better; holding a cup and saucer almost makes you sit straighter! Dainty cake plates are the perfect accompaniment for teatime treats but the cake itself, the crowning glory of any table, deserves a special plate or, even better, a cake stand. Little cakes and sandwiches always look their best on a tiered cake stand.

There is a plethora of accessories to complete the tea table, for example bone-handled and other types of old-fashioned cutlery; I like to buy bundles of knives, forks and spoons of all shapes, sizes and uses when I see them for sale. I love a cake knife for cutting that first slice, and a cake fork to savour eating it; or a jam spoon to dollop homemade jam, scooped from a cut-glass jam pot, on to a scone; or a butter knife to spread lashings of butter (taken from a proper butter dish, naturally) on to a toasted crumpet. My most treasured find is a domed muffin dish with a secret compartment for hot water to keep the muffins warm and a specially designed toasting fork to toast and serve them with.

The table itself is not complete until covered, and if you ever see old linen for sale, snap it up. I love hand-embroidered lace-trimmed tablecloths, but a white sheet is a good substitute (or can be used underneath a too-small decorative table cloth). Cover a wooden tray with a tray cloth for cosy teas by the fireside and don’t forget the all-important napkin to catch the crumbs.

Finally, you have to have flowers. Old roses are ideal, but anything fresh and pretty will add style to the table.



How to Cheat in Style

You don’t have to be a domestic goddess to have a tea party. As long as the tea ingredients look home-made and are served with vintage style, there are ways to cheat and make life easier.

Women’s Institute stalls and farmers’ markets are a good secret source of home-made cakes, biscuits, jam and all things delicious. No one will know you haven’t been slaving over a hot stove all day. The freezer is also a great aid. Many cakes, muffins, scones, crumpets (the list goes on) freeze very well; if you do bake, next tim

Teatime

Treasured Tea Things

Where to find the Vintage Look

How to Cheat in Style

The Start of the Affair

How Teatime Began

From Drawing Room to Tearoom

Choosing Your Tea

Milk and the Perfect Cup of Tea

The History of the Sandwich

Teatime Tipples

Preserves

Tea in the Drawing Room

High Tea

Tea in the Garden

Fireside Tea

Nursery Tea

Index of Recipes

Captures all the comforting and elegant details of the classic tea party.

A delight to peruse, this sweet recipe book is a must for any vintage-lover’s shelf.

With beautiful photographs and mouth-watering recipes, Vintage Tea Party shows how you can re-create a nostalgic world of classic comfort, elegance and delicious treats.

An enjoyable read, full of interesting ideas from table decoration to recipes.

A delightful secular Easter present in lieu of chocolate eggs or knitted chicks; but also the perfect present for your parish priest, to inspire them to reinvent that classic social occasion, the vicarage tea party… Let everything stop for tea again.

With beautiful photographs and mouth-watering recipes, Vintage Tea Party shows how you can re-create a nostalgic world of classic comfort, elegance and delicious treats.

A guide to the perfect tea time. Packed with historical info and beautifully illustrated.

Brimming with ideas and recipes for cakes, preserves and all those classic English tea-time treats that go down so well at a fete.

Pretty crockery and home baking are definitely back in fashion and this lovely little book is full of ideas for sumptuous teas throughout the year.

Celebrates that quintessetially English feast, and would be perfect for anyone planning a tea party, whether for a whole street at the Diamond Jubilee, or a few friends in the garden or round the fire.

Shows how you can recreate a nostalgic world of comfirt, elegance and delicious treats.

A delight to peruse, this sweet recipe book is a must for any vintage-lover’s shelf.

Captures all the comforting and elegant details of the classic tea party.