Foodie Friday: My Tea Party Recipes

Last Wednesday was the first Wedding Wednesday (well, this whole past week has been the first of everything since it's a new blog!), and I shared all about my bridesmaids tea party! I promised the recipes, and here they are! Some of them are approximations since I was just winging it for some of the recipes (thankfully they turned out well).



Tarragon Chicken Salad

You will need:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 stalk of celery (you can use less if you want, I really like celery)
• Approximately 1/2 cup Mayonnaise*
• 1 spoonful sour cream
• 1-2 tbsp tarragon*
• A little bit of honey (less than 1/2 teaspoon)
• A dash of salt
• Pepper to taste
  *I just eyeballed it, so I am not sure exactly how much I used

1. Trim and boil chicken breasts, or use the pre-cooked chicken found near the tuna-fish salad at the store
2. Allow to cool and do any trimming you may have missed
3. Using a fork and knife, cut up and flake the chicken into small pieces and put into medium mixing bowl
4. Pour mayonnaise in and mix with chicken. Use enough to make the chicken stick together, but not so much that the mayonnaise outweighs the chicken
5. Spoon in sour cream and stir
6. Pour in honey and stir until incorporated
7. Chop up celery and mix in
8. Add tarragon, salt, and pepper and stir
9. Serve and enjoy! I sliced up a baguette and spooned them onto the slices to serve them

Cranberry-Orange Scones
(originally from Tea Time magazine)

You will need:

• 2 cups self-rising flour (if you don't have self-rising flour, see Kitchen Basics)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
• 1/2 cup cold butter (softened slightly)
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon turbinado sugar (optional

1. Preheat oven to 425F
2. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and orange extract
3. Beat in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (do not cream the butter)
4. Add cranberries and stir. Set mixture aside
5. In a small bowl, combine milk and 1 beaten egg, stirring well
6. Add milk and egg mixture to flour mixture, and stir until just combined
7. Prepare a clean, floured surface. Turn dough out onto and knead gently 8 times
8. Roll dough out to a 3/4" thickness, as much like a rectangle as possible (this helps cutting the scones)
9. Using a pastry cutter, or a pizza cutter (my tool of choice), cut into nine small squares, then cutting each square in half diagonally to create the traditional scone triangle
10. Beat second egg and brush onto scones
11. Place scones onto baking sheet covered in parchment
12. Sprinkle scones lightly with turbinado
13. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are golden brown

Scones Cream

• You will need:
• 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In medium bowl, beat cream at high speed until stiff peaks form
2. Add sugar, sour cream, and vanilla and beat at low speed until well mixed
3. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving
4. Use within three days

Butter Cake with Raspberry Filling

I'm not going to lie, I was so busy doing everything else I used a boxed cake mix (Betty Crocker Classic Butter- or something like that). However, when I do make my own butter cake, I usually use this recipe from MarthaStewart.com. The raspberry filling was made fresh by my wonderful fiance though! This is the recipe he used.

You will need:

• 1 pkg fresh raspberries
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp raspberry extract (optional)
  

1. Wash raspberries
2. Put raspberries in medium saucepan
3. Fill pan with water until raspberries are just covered
4. Heat to a gentle boil
5. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
6. Using mesh strainer, filter mixture into small saucepan. For a smoother filling, use a mesh coffee filter (non-disposable) after the initial straining
7. Bring back to a gentle boil
8. Add sugar to the boiling raspberries, and stir until incorporated
9. Add raspberry extract
10. In a separate bowl, mix one cup water and 2 tbsp cornstarch
11. Add cornstarch mixture to raspberry mixture
12. Boil gently for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it begins to thicken
13. Remove from heat
14. Pour into tupperware or bowl and cover. Place into refrigerate until ready for use, at least one hour

If you are interested in doing the ruffle icing, it is very simple. You just need butter cream icing and the right icing tip! For instructions, I would suggest going to Strawberry Chic.