Clayson House Tea

A couple weeks ago, my husband and I attended a tea at the local historical society museum, the Clayson House. It was a fundraising event that included eight seatings over two weekends.

When we arrived, the butler greeted us at the door. What a fun way to start the event!

They had turned the 1874 home into a tea parlor, with guests seated in the two parlors and in the dining room.

We were seated in the dining room near the kitchen. The ladies who volunteered were dressed as servants, with long black dresses and white aprons!

The fine china and silverware was set out. Everything looked so nice!



Each table had a tiered tea tray filled with finger sandwiches and sweets.



There were scones with strawberry butter,

Lemon curd tarts and cream puffs,



And fancy candies and cookies!



I thought these Wedgwood cameo candies were adorable!



Darjeeling tea was served in a variety of pretty tea pots.

One lump or two?

Our table was next to the sideboard. On it I spotted the most beautiful gold cup and saucer!



Needless to say, this set was not being used for guests today!



After the finger sandwiches had been eaten and the beautiful sweets were gone, it was time to have another pot of tea and listen to the presentation given by the volunteers. This year's theme was "Things Found on a Lady's Dressing Table." Items from the 1890's, the 1920's and the 1950's were shown and passed around to each table. It was fun to see how these items changed over the decades.



I didn't get any photos of the presentation items. Before we knew it, it was time to leave.



Have you been to a Victorian Tea lately? If you get the chance, I highly recommend it! You'll be transported back in time to a more genteel era. And it really is delightful if the setting is a beautifully restored Victorian house!

Tea Time

My favorite teacup, Lady Carlyle!

Oh, I've been so bad lately! I only pop onto Blogger sporadically to catch up with you all, and haven't posted anything for months! Truth is, I've been hanging out a lot more on Facebook and Pinterest lately. I try to keep my "real" identity private, but my Pinterest boards can be accessed through the link on my sidebar (if you want to see all my Victorian pins!).

Every year, we have an annual tea at Eastlake Victorian! This year, we had it later than most. Our goal is to invite our tea-loving friends over for some lively conversation, delicious teas and scrumptious desserts.

This year, I started baking a week early, and either baked or prepared something almost every evening leading up to the event.

Just before the guests arrived, I set the plates and napkins out on the sideboard.

I set out the cookies on the center table.

I opened up the old 1908 White treadle sewing machine, and used it as a serving table for the cakes!

I made two varieties of cakes this year. One was a cake I've made many times before, a Tomato Cake. It's quite like a fruit cake, and freezes well for leftovers.

The other cake I tried was from a new recipe I found on Pinterest, a Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake. It was the best lemon cake recipe I've ever made! I'll definitely be making that recipe again!

I also make 2 different cookie recipes found on Pinterest. The first was a Strawberry Cream Cookie which turned out really well.

The second were Viennese Fingers, which were a pressed butter cookie dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. Yum!

I also tried these miniature Fruit Tarts from a Pinterest recipe.

I altered them a bit by filling with a custard I like to make for eclairs, and leaving out the almond meal from the crusts. I wanted the sweets I baked to be nut-free, since a few people who were coming have nut allergies.

I supplemented the homemade sweets with store-bought orange chocolate Piroulines, which I placed upright in a goblet, some chocolate raspberry candies, and some ginger snaps.

And what's a tea without scones? As usual, I made some scones using the Sticky Fingers brand mixes, and served them with blackberry jam, lemon curd and homemade Devonshire cream. I don't shape them into triangles, but plop them onto the baking sheet like drop biscuits. I always prepare these just before the people begin arriving, so they're very fresh and still a bit warm!

We had a variety of teas, including decaf and herbal varieties, for everyone to try.

And as usual, we let everyone chose their cup and saucer!

We set up our 42-cup Westbend pot, which made self-serve extremely easy.

Our tea was an open house, from noon till 5PM. People came and went, and it seemed everyone had a good time!

In all, we had 23 friends stop by to enjoy our tea.

If you'd like to try any of these recipes, here are the links to them on Pinterest:

Mini Fruit Tarts

Strawberry Cream Cookies

Viennese Finger Cookies

Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake

An Early Birthday Present

This weekend, my sweet husband Terry took me out for an early

birthday present! We hopped on a train to downtown Chicago...

We passed through the Christkindlmarket for a quick

glance at all the pretty things for sale...

The food smelled SO GOOD!

But there was no time to eat anything today...

We had a little time to kill,

so we walked around the mall awhile...

Oh, the Apple Store! But no, that wasn't in today's plan...

The Allsaints Store! Oh, I just HAD to stop and gaze at

the wall of antique sewing machines!

I mean WALLS of sewing machines!

Steampunkers would absolutely love this store! Pricey, but fun!

I had to make a stop to visit with my pals, the carriage horses!

And gaze upon the famous Chicago Water Tower...

Finally! We're here!

The Peninsula Hotel!

I paused to pose by the piano...

Then climbed the grand staircase to...

Afternoon Tea in the lobby!

Doesn't Terry look dapper?

We love that the Peninsula serves a vegetarian tea on request.

We both ordered a pot of Earl Grey decaffeinated.

Then our 3-tiered server was placed on the table,

along with a basket of scones and the jam,

lemon curd and Devonshire cream!

We enjoyed our finger sandwiches first...

Followed by these scrumptious three cheese and leek quiches...

And finally the scones and the sweets!

A warm chocolate chai moelleux was a delicious bonus!

We sipped, and ate, and sipped some more...

Until everything was gone.

The darkness fell over our view from the window.

We took one last look at the tree, and were on our way back home.

Thank you, Terry, for the elegant and delicious birthday present!

______________________

If you've never walked down the streets of Chicago at night,

come along with us as we leave the Peninsula and

walk back to our train. We cross the Chicago River in two

spots, pass the Christkindl Market at Daley Plaza, and

happened upon PuppetBike.com... and I gave the puppets

a dollar bill!