Hi folks, having some friends over for
Afternoon tea, and apart from home made scones with jam and cream I was looking for some other ideas, sweet aswell as savoury, for things that I can make them.

Thanks!

Ooh, this is a great idea - I hosted an afternoon tea over the summer and we sat in the garden.

I did a variety of sandwiches (on white and brown bread):

cream cheese and cucumber
ham and mustard
egg and cress

and maybe another filling, but I can't remember. I was going to do smoked salmon as well, but our guests don't like it.

Delia's raspberry butter is so easy to make, but good to impress your guests with (unless you're already planning to make your own jam, of course)

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/t...ry-butter.html

As we were celebrating my husband's birthday I also made a very rich chocolate cake http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3...chocolate-cake which was delicious, but maybe a bit rich on top of sandwiches and scones!

Old fashioned afternnon tea was basically sandwiches, fruit cake and scones.

Nowadays, you can put a modern spin on it by serving bruschetta with stuff on top (like sliced mozzarella and olives), or focaccia or just open-topped sandwiches.

But you always have a cake (can be sponge) and scones!

Thanks for the tips guys. Was thinking of doing a
Victoria sponge but thought it would be a bit samey if i was doing cream teas.

I always think nothing looks nicer than petit fours on an old fashioned silver cake stand.

Appara, when the Queen and Queen Mum had tea parties they used to have all their sandwiches cut out with biscuit cutters so they were little circular sarnies, and they also had the same kind of sarnies with jam in called 'jam pennies'.

Bit of an arse doing all that though if you don't have a butler...

I think afternoon teas 'Ritz' style are cakes and sandwiches cut into 4 triangles. I always thing they're really sweet served up with tea. Not sure about fillings, cream cheese and cucumber?
Just noticed that KentishMaid1977 has some great suggestions for fillings!

Right, so I've decided to do, scones with jam and clotted cream, banana cake, raspberry tart and open sandwiches which smoked salmon and dill Mayo, egg and cress and Brie and home made plum chutney, sound ok?

Yummy can I come!! Home made plum chutney sounds fab!

Cheese and apple sandwiches!

There's always room at chez whacky!

Brill idea, I have some apples that need using too, not just a pretty face eh?

Oh absolutely!

When I moved into Maria's flat, not far from you actually,
she did an afternoon tea for her friends and invited me, so her friends could see "the new lodger".

She had scones, cream, cakes. a few types of tea and sandwiches.
Some were pate sandwiches, but I always remember the cheese and apple sandwiches.

how about some cheese straws made with pre-bought puff pastry

'lodger' is that what they call it these days?

Yes, I did think of these, thanks for the reminder!

Saucy!

Yes, I was 'the lodger'.
That was one of 3 places I looked at and picked that as Maria was only a few years older than me, seemed a laugh and the flat was lovely.

I saw another flat much nearer the station. The lady there was in her 50's (I at the time was in my early to mid 20s).
She was nice enough, but a bit bonkers. She wore a floor length baggy dress and told me that 'loves having young men as lodgers' and 'the previous lodger is your age and he comes back to take me out each week'!
I got a bit scared at that! I had visions of me catching her naked 'accidentally'!

Nothing to do with afternoon tea I know, but I thought I'd tell you!

Ooooh er missus! Next she would have got you looking at er leaky pipes!

what time did you want me to get there? just send me a post code. the sat-nav will find it.

I worried that I'd wake up with her standing naked in my room, bringing me a cup of tea!

Well it went down very well, here's a little piccie I took

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...1290284049.jpg

It all looks delish!!

Thanks! I was surprised how well the banana cake turned out, it was really moist and usually baking isn't my thing.

Hot Crumpet every time.

Wow, that looks amazing.

Thanks! Think I over catered though as there were only 6 of us!

That looks lovely! I did a similar thing one year after Christmas (sort of a cricket tea) and couldn't believe how long it took to prepare - far longer than Christmas dinner. Going by the picture, I'm not surprised it went well.

Fabulous.

What tea did you serve?