Ninety Minute Tea Party

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while may have formed the opinion that I am something of a perfectionist when it comes to entertaining.  You would be justified in holding that opinion.  So on Saturday when I found myself in the position of having invited several friends around for a tea party at two hours’ notice (it’s a sad story involving puppies in the rain) I panicked a little and then immediately set about designing a menu that could be thrown together in two hours (including the time it took to buy the ingredients) but still look like it had taken two days.

Here’s the menu I ended up with:

Rosewater cupcakes

Mini lemon meringue pies

Chicken and chive sandwiches

Mini spinach and cheese rolls

 

Ingredients

Cupcakes

250g butter (half for the cake and half for the icing)

¾ cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1½ cups flour

½ cup milk

¾ cup icing sugar

½ tsp rosewater essence or 2tsp rosewater

Lemon meringue pies

Pre-made mini pastry cases (I found them with the frozen pastry in the supermarket)

Store-bought lemon butter

2 egg whites

4 tbsp caster sugar

Chicken and chive sandwiches – this is a cheat’s version of a recipe in the Victoria Room High Tea Recipe Book.

One hot barbeque chicken (most big supermarkets have these)

One bunch chives

One tub store-bought aioli

1 loaf sliced bread (whatever variety you prefer)

Mini spinach and cheese rolls

I ‘adapted’ these from some savoury cheese and spinach rolls I found in the frozen food section of the supermarket.  If you can’t find anything similar, I would recommend mini quiches or pastizis.

Method (or perhaps more appropriately, ‘madness’)

Before you do anything else – before you even unpack your shopping – put the oven on 180 degrees. Good. You may unpack.

First, get stuck into your cupcake batter – chop up the butter (setting aside 125g for the icing) and cream with castor sugar and vanilla essence.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Add sifted flour and milk and mix until smooth.

Ok. Is your oven hot? Put the pastry cases in and stick a timer on for 10 minutes (assuming this agrees with the directions on the packet).  Set out the patty pans and fill them with cupcake batter.  If this takes you less than 10 minutes, I’d suggest using the remaining time to tidy up a bit because it’s so much easier to work in a clean kitchen.  As soon as you take the pastry cases out of the oven, stick the cupcakes in and set your timer for 25 minutes.  Set the pastry cases aside to cool.

Now it’s time to make the filling for your chicken sandwiches.  Get out two bowls and a big, clean chopping board.  With clean hands, pick all the meat off the bones.  This is easiest while the chicken is still hot.  Set aside the skin (or eat it, like I did) and stuffing.  The empty bag/container from the chicken is a great place for the discarded bones and gristle and one of the bowls is for the chicken meat.  Once your chicken is stripped, grab a sharp knife and, working in batches, finely chop all the chicken meat, transferring it into the mixing bowl as you do.

At some point during this process, your cupcakes may finish.  Check that they are done using the knife test and take them out to cool.  Do not turn off the oven.

Once you have a big bowl full of chopped chicken, wipe your hands, knife and chopping board and wash the chives.  Finely chop them and add them to the chicken.  Empty the tub of aioli into the bowl and mix it all together.  Set aside and take a moment to clean up.

Now it’s time to make the least labour-intensive dish.  While they are still frozen, cut the cheese and spinach rolls into smaller rolls (I cut mine into four).  Stick them in the oven for as long as it says on the packet (35 minutes in my case).

Turn your attention now to the lemon meringue pies.  The pastry cases should have cooled by now so spoon a little lemon butter into each of them and spread it over the base (you want it about 3mm thick). Separate your egg whites and beat them in a clean, preferably metal bowl until stiff peaks form.  Add the caster sugar slowly while still beating.  Spoon meringue mixture over the lemon butter and brown gently with a blowtorch.

Now it’s time to assemble your sandwiches.  Get out several slices of bread, thickly spread the chicken mixture over them and use a large, sharp serrated knife to cut them however you’d like.   I cut mine in triangular quarters with the crusts off.  The chicken mix recipe makes a huge amount so do as many (or as few) as you’d like.

By now your cupcakes should be cool, so get the remaining butter and beat it until light and fluffy.  Add the icing sugar and rosewater and beat until well incorporated.  Spread over the cupcakes.

Your spinach rolls should be ready to take out of the oven by now.  Arrange everything on a plate and serve!