Tea Party Desserts

Well, I’ve finally made it to telling you about the fabulous dessert plate we had at our tea. I know that is really the part you wanted to know about, right?! We were all on a total sugar high the rest of the day.

Let me give you a little tour of the plate.

A. Lemon Bars

B. Sugar Cookie Fruit Cups

C. Cream Cheese Melt Away Mints

D. Fudge Bites

E. Chocolate Covered Tea Bag Cookies

F. Petit Fours with Cream Cheese Filling

Some of the work did get farmed out to a couple of other ladies. My sweet friend, Kathy, pictured here with her fiancée, made the Lemon Bars. She slaved all night to get them just right. I must say, I’m a sucker for any lemony dessert. Kathy’s were fabulous! We cut them into little fingers to add variety to the plate.

Kaye made the Melt Away Mints. I could eat my weight in those things! Here is Kaye, dutifully getting instructions on how to serve tea. She’s the one in the middle. Thank you, both!

Today I’m going to share with you the Petit Fours. I didn’t get too many “in progress” pictures of the other items. I’ll share them, none the less, in following posts.

I was really pleased with the way the Petit Fours turned out. I had been really nervous about making them. They weren’t hard, but they were time-consuming. Knowing that, I made the cake in advance and froze it.

I made just a basic pound cake. You could even use store-bought if you wanted. I made mine in a 10 x 15 bar pan lined with parchment paper. I split the cake and spread strawberry ice cream topping on each half.

The filling was the same  yummy, lemony, cream cheese filling I use on my Luscious Lemon Angel Roll. When I put the layers together, I used a baking rack to help with the transfer. It was tricky, and I did have a little breakage. (The Critics got to do some sampling for me !) Then I wrapped it all, whole, in plastic wrap and said a prayer as it went to the freezer.

When I was ready to fix them up for the tea, I defrosted the cake a bit, then cut it into 1 1/2 inch pieces, roughly. Being partially frozen made the cake a little easier to cut.

I only cut what I could handle frosting. I didn’t want the cake to dry out too much. I even kept the large piece covered with a damp paper towel while it waited to be cut.

I was not nervous about how the cake would taste. I knew that part was okay. It was the frosting and decorating I was worried about. I had made petit fours exactly ONCE before in my life. I used a powdered sugar glaze that time. I was disappointed that they didn’t look like the ones I had seen in the magazine. It was for a friend’s baby shower. There were only a few people there. I guess it was okay that they weren’t perfect. These, however, I felt had to be more on the mark. People were paying to eat them, after all!

I know you are wondering what I used on as the frosting.

Yep! Store-bought vanilla frosting!

Just heat and stir!

Okay, I poured it in a squeeze bottle to make things easier.

I squirted,

and squirted,

and squirted,

and squirted some more!

When the frosting started to cool off, I just reheated it in the microwave.

While the frosting was still wet, I gently placed a little purple violet on top.

Tweezers made this a little easier.

I went ahead and tapped the flower into the frosting. Since I didn’t make sugared violets, I was afraid they might wilt.

I had made plans to use cupcake papers on the cakes. I’m glad I did. The sides of the cake just didn’t look as covered as I wanted them to look. I guess you have to use fondant for that look. No thanks!

These were just regular, cheap-o, generic cupcake papers. They were just a little too tall So, I recruited my daughter trim them down for me a little while I worked in the kitchen. I just kinda mushed the papers into the frosting. The papers covered my non-covered sides and they looked pretty that way.

Well, my Petit Fours still didn’t look like the ones you see in the glossy magazines, but they looked better than my first attempt, that’s for sure. Everyone seemed to love them!