A .... is for Afternoon Tea.

Today is my first post for The Alphabet Club (one day late, sorry Chiara and Jo).

What is the Alphabet Club, I hear you ask?  Well, it is the brainchild of Chiara from The Grey Tail and Jo from Serendipitous Stitching and is loosely based on the premise of the movie "The Breakfast Club" - you can see the button for The Alphabet Club on my right sidebar.

On the first Saturday of each month, members of the club have "detention" and have to post about something that will enlighten others about their culture (as blogland is so diverse).  Of course, there should be something stitchy in there, if possible. Each month will be a different letter of the alphabet - hence the club's name - and, of course, we are starting with "A".

You can read more about it all here.

So, here is my post for this month's detention. Unfortunately, it is not a stitchy post (does that mean I fail detention Chiara and Jo?) but is about one of my other passions - Baking!  So, here goes!

Yesterday, I hosted a small Afternoon Tea for the newly engaged son and his fiancee of my very dear friends, Linda and Terry.  I have known this young man since he was very little and he is a good friend of my DS1 and is actually one of DD's flatmates.  So, I wanted to do something a little special for him and his fiancee.

Apart from the scones, everything I made was from this new recipe book: Lime curd tarts, Ginger and cherry cake, cheese twists and two types of scones: Herb and cheese and plain, served with two types of jam and cream.  It was all served with coffee and two types of tea: Madagascan Vanilla and Earl Grey.  I had so much fun getting out all of my fine china and my good tablecloth and so on.  It was a roaring success, if I say so myself!  (Sorry, we were so busy enjoying the food 

that we forgot to take photos of the people)

 

So, what is the history of Afternoon Tea?   Apparently: Tea consumption increased dramatically during the early nineteenth century and it is around this time that Anna, the 7th Duchess of Bedford is said to have complained of "having that sinking feeling" during the late afternoon. At the time it was usual for people to take only two main meals a day, breakfast, and dinner at around 8 o'clock in the evening. The solution for the Duchess was a pot a tea and a light snack, taken privately in her boudoir during the afternoon.Later friends were invited to join her in her rooms at  Woburn Abbey and this summer practice proved so popular that the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for "tea and a walking the fields." Other social hostesses quickly picked up on the idea and the practice became respectable enough to move it into the drawing room. Before long all of fashionable society was sipping tea and nibbling sandwiches in the middle of the afternoon. (from: http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/information/history-of-afternoon-tea/)

Here in
Australia, though, we often call it having a "cuppa in the Arvo" with Arvo being slang for Afternoon - we colonials, we just cannot get rid of our

convict origins, can we?  lol!

Well, that is it from me for now.  If you want to check out the other detainees - please go to this link here.

hugs,

P.S. Sorry about the gaps in the post but blogger is playing up for me today.