High Tea

Update: Card-Reader located!

It was SIL's birthday on April Fool's Day, and her party was yesterday. She had a Sunday High Tea, here at MIL's, and asked certain people to make various signature dishes: D his lemon tarts, me my stained-glass cookies.
Preparations began the day before with the purchase of local butter, local eggs, and whilst not local sweets they were bought from a local sweet store (support your locals!)

 

The butter was chopped, then sugar and vanilla added, then I left it to sit to soften.

But it was quite cold on Saturday, and it was very reluctant to cream. What better place to very gently warm and soften it than on top of the coffee machine?

Then I had to leave my preparations there, in the fridge, while I went to work and D came home. Unfortunately, SP turned into a Leech-Baby at this point, and he only got to half make his pastry cases and then MIL finished them and made the lemon filling the next day.

I finished off the cookies the next day too.

And then we set up for tea:
We put out the teacups;

The plates, napkins and cutlery;

Flowers on the side table;

Hydrangeas and magnolia leaves from the garden in the darkened hallway;

 Food plated up and ready to go;

MIL made the most beautiful, luscious, special birthday cake (recipe at end);

Which we ate...

And as the afternoon progressed, and the sunlight filtered through the trees into the garden, we became aware of the sugar-overload invading our systems and resolved to eat bread and water for tea.

Happy Birthday SIL! :)

***

Recipe
MIL's Special Birthday Cake: I insist you try it; it is divine.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Cake
(also known as 'Mary Phillipou's Wonder Cake', from Trick or Treat by Kerry Greenwood, 2001, Allen and Unwin)

2 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
300ml cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1 cup frozen berries (or dried fruit)
1 cup white chocolate bits

Grease a 20cm baking tin and line with baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Beat the eggs and sugar together until thick.
Add cream and essence and mix well.
Add the sifted flour and fold until until smooth.
Fold in berries and chocolate bits.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes. It's cooked when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the tin and turn out.
Dust with icing sugar and top with berries.