10 July 2009

Tea at Three ... Part 4

The tea has been sipped, the savouries nibbled, and now comes my favorite part of the tea tray: the sweet treats.

Every good tea should end with a selection of small cakes, tarts or cookies. Personally, I am happiest when I see a little fruit tart as part of the offering. There is something so infinitely satisfying about a shortcrust pastry, filled to toppling with ruby-red berries, or sunnily bitter lemons.



Another popular tea-time sweet treat is the ever pretty petit-four. Admittedly, I don't know if I would be up to the challenge of making these myself. And again, I caution that if you are not 100% confident in the kitchen, this is the part of the service that you may want to leave to the professional bakeries. There is no shame in carrying home that little string tied box of sweets. Just look at this wonderful little package from etsy seller, lorisplace.


And since, I think desserts are always best served in threes, maybe add a small cookie for good measure. Really, I will look for any reason to have shortbread, and tea is the perfect reason. Especially after I spied these beautifully crumbly looking cookies in groovycookies shop on etsy:



And that's it. The tour of the serving tray is complete. One last step though in planning your party, and that is setting the perfect table. Tomorrow, we'll look at setting the scene.

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