Food & Drink
Timeless Recipes For Garden Afternoon Tea
The classics are always the best – a maxim that goes double when it comes to cakes to accompany afternoon tea taken in the garden.
Summer’s upon us. Those with a sweet tooth know that the best way to while away sunny hours between lunch and supper is afternoon tea in the garden. After cucumber or egg and cress finger sandwiches, make space for sweeter offerings of old. Think zingy lemon drizzles, crumbly scones or the unsung hero of teatime, a fluffy Victoria Sponge.
Here are arguably the best recipes for our most favourite old-fashioned cakes. Show-stoppers, each and every single one, that your granny might have made back in the day.
No English garden tea party is complete without simple pleasures like the Victoria Sponge. Nigella Lawson’s Victoria Sponge recipe is unusually brilliant in that she uses a mixture of cornflour with self-raising flour. This both reduces gluten levels and creates an exceptionally light and tender sponge. Sandwich the cakes with sweet jam, crushed raspberries and whipped cream, then dust with caster sugar till it sparkles. Tuck in immediately.
Do leave room for decadent classics like Mary Berry’s lemon drizzle traybake which will get demolished in no time. Known as the best lemon drizzle recipe online; all the ingredients are mixed together in one bowl so the children can easily help make it. This cake boasts a crunchy topping of zingy lemon juice mixed with granulated sugar. Dangerously moreish.
For some, the main event is a freshly baked scone served with a generous dollop of strawberry jam and thick clotted cream. Posted on the Royal Family Instagram page during the covid years, Buckingham Palace released their favourite fruit scone recipe. ‘Every year at Garden Parties across The Royal Residences, over 27,000 cups of tea, 20,000 sandwiches and 20,000 slices of cakes are consumed! The Royal Pastry Chefs are happy to share their recipe for fruit scones.’
You’ll be transported straight back into the garden of your grandparents with this nostalgic shortbread recipe. Using just three ingredients, these crumbly shortbread biscuits are a favourite through the generations. The trick with shortbread is not to overhandle it by either making shapes or over-rolling the biscuit dough. Stretching the dough activates the gluten in the flour, changing the texture making chewy biscuits, rather than crisp shortbread as we know it.
Syrupy-sweet and golden in colour, this Mediterranean orange and poppy seed cake will add an exotic touch to any garden tea. Depending on how much you like the sugar-sharp bitterness of the orange slices, you can boil and rinse the slices three times. This is a delicious addition to a garden picnic, or use it as a reduced-fat pudding, served with light vanilla custard or crème fraiche.
By Annabel Jack
May 2023
Here are arguably the best recipes for our most favourite old-fashioned cakes. Show-stoppers, each and every single one, that your granny might have made back in the day.
Nigella’s Never Fail Victoria Sponge
No English garden tea party is complete without simple pleasures like the Victoria Sponge. Nigella Lawson’s Victoria Sponge recipe is unusually brilliant in that she uses a mixture of cornflour with self-raising flour. This both reduces gluten levels and creates an exceptionally light and tender sponge. Sandwich the cakes with sweet jam, crushed raspberries and whipped cream, then dust with caster sugar till it sparkles. Tuck in immediately.
Mary Berry’s Lemon Drizzle Traybake
Do leave room for decadent classics like Mary Berry’s lemon drizzle traybake which will get demolished in no time. Known as the best lemon drizzle recipe online; all the ingredients are mixed together in one bowl so the children can easily help make it. This cake boasts a crunchy topping of zingy lemon juice mixed with granulated sugar. Dangerously moreish.
Buckingham Palace’s Fruit Scone Recipe
For some, the main event is a freshly baked scone served with a generous dollop of strawberry jam and thick clotted cream. Posted on the Royal Family Instagram page during the covid years, Buckingham Palace released their favourite fruit scone recipe. ‘Every year at Garden Parties across The Royal Residences, over 27,000 cups of tea, 20,000 sandwiches and 20,000 slices of cakes are consumed! The Royal Pastry Chefs are happy to share their recipe for fruit scones.’
The Great British Bake Off Shortbread
You’ll be transported straight back into the garden of your grandparents with this nostalgic shortbread recipe. Using just three ingredients, these crumbly shortbread biscuits are a favourite through the generations. The trick with shortbread is not to overhandle it by either making shapes or over-rolling the biscuit dough. Stretching the dough activates the gluten in the flour, changing the texture making chewy biscuits, rather than crisp shortbread as we know it.
Delicious Magazine's Mediterranean Orange And Poppy Seed Cake
Syrupy-sweet and golden in colour, this Mediterranean orange and poppy seed cake will add an exotic touch to any garden tea. Depending on how much you like the sugar-sharp bitterness of the orange slices, you can boil and rinse the slices three times. This is a delicious addition to a garden picnic, or use it as a reduced-fat pudding, served with light vanilla custard or crème fraiche.
By Annabel Jack
May 2023
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Annabel Jack
Contributing Editor
Annabel is a regular contributor to The Guide, with a taste for the finest in food, fashion and interiors.
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