THROW A ROYAL WEDDING VIEWING PARTY

As the Royal Wedding draws near, royal watchers all over the world are planning their royal wedding viewing tea parties.

A wonderful  opportunity to pull out the classic scone recipes, and hunt for the perfect jar of lemon curd, devon cream and rasberry jam, the royal wedding tea party will be an event not to be missed.

I plan on celebrating the royal wedding by inviting my friends

over and  watching it  on tv with a full and proper English tea

party. 

The timing is a bit off, since we are in America, and 

the wedding, for us takes place at 6am. 

The re-broadcast is

 still a little early for my taste at 9am, but thankfully TLC is

 broadcasting again at 8pm Eastern standard time. That's 

perfect !

I've invited everyone over at 7pm, and we can catch up and

 enjoy the tea, pictured above, which I ordered directly from

 the palace gift shop,  and I purchased lemon curd, jams and 

English clotted cream at the World Market in Charlotte. 

There, I also found Cadbury fingers, and scone mix. I am sure

 there are some great recipes on the web, but I wanted my

scones to be fool-proof. 

I found adorable teacups & saucers at

 Home Goods store at SouthPark and a various assortment of

 china plates, doilies and silver I have collected over the years

 will be pulled out and assembled into a lovely presentation.

One thing is missing though...the beloved English hat. I am 

thinking about making some precious little fascinators just 

for the occaision. One can never have enough creative 

experience, and millinary is calling my name, I think! 

What a challenge....more later!

Meanwhile,

Here's a link to some adorable invitations you can print from your own computer courtesy of

 Betty Crocker:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/sitecore/shell/controls/rich%20text%20editor/~/media/Files/PDF/RoyalWedding_Invite.ashx

Authentic British Scone Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 6 - 8 scones

Ingredients:

• 2 cups /225g self raising flour
• 1/2 stick/55g cold butter
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 pint / 150 ml milk
• 1 egg beaten with a little milk

Preparation:

• Heat the oven to 400°F/205°C/Gas 6
• Grease and flour a baking sheet.
• Sieve the flour into a roomy baking bowl then add the butter, baking powder and salt. Quickly rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Make a well in the center and using a dinner knife, stir in enough milk to make a soft, pliable dough.
• Turn the mixture on to a floured board and knead very lightly until just smooth then lightly roll out to 2cm / 3/4" thick.
• Cut rounds with a 7.5cm/3" cutter or cut into triangles with a sharp knife.
• Place on the baking tray and brush with the beaten egg and milk mixture. Bake near the top of the hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown and well risen.
• Cool on a wire rack before eating.

Serve with butter, or lashings of jam and cream.

Fruit Scones

Add 1/4 cup/ 50g sultanas or chopped dates to the dry ingredients in the basic recipes.

Cheese Scones

Add 1/2 cup /50g grated cheese and 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder to the mixture after rubbing in the fat and flour and continue with the basic recipe. Sprinkle the scones with 1/2 cup/50g more grated cheese before baking the scones in the oven.