If you are looking for an easy, light (no butter or any other fat used) , and dainty cookies, this is a recipe for you.  This is a very simple recipe, quick baking, and produces wafer thin delicious cookies.  In taste, these cookies resemble lady fingers or zwieback cookies.   I used vanilla extract in this recipe, but  almond extract would also create a very interesting flavor.

These crisp and feather-light wafers make a great addition to a dessert platter for a tea party.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• 1 ½ cup all purpose flour, sifted
• Colored sugar or sprinkles, for decoration

Directions:

1. Beat the eggs until light.
2. Add the sugar gradually, and continue beating (it will turn to lemon color and custard like texture).
3. Stir in vanilla and salt.
4. Add the flour and mix well.
5. Drop from a tea spoon onto a greased baking sheet, placing them well apart to prevent from sticking together.  Do not make your batter mounds bigger than 1 inch in diameter.
6. Sprinkle with  colored sugar or colorful sprinkles.
7. Preheat the over to 350 F, and bake on the middle rack for 5-7 minutes, or until the edges are delicately browned.
8. Remove from the baking sheet, one at a time, with a spatula, and spread out on a cookie cooling rack to cool off.  Do not stack them up while warm, as they will twist, and lose their shape.

Tip: This recipe produces 6 dozens of cookies (about 1 ¾  inch in diameter)

For variation and richness, I sometimes dip the bottoms of these wafers in melted dark semi-sweet chocolate, then place them, bottoms up, on a waxed paper, for the chocolate to fully set.  You can also lightly drizzle the tops with melted chocolate, instead of the colored sugar or sprinkles.

I have a very special friend who loves tea so much that she organizes tea parties with her adult friends, attends tea parties, and now organized a tea party for her grandchildren and their friends.  She was so nice to share this experience with me, so I just could not resist not to share it with all of you (with her concurrence of course).  She is very talented and creative, and does not only make these special costumes for tea parties, but she also makes beautiful costumes for performances at the Northern Virginia Community College, and Diesels Films ( I will post a few pictures of these costumes in my future posts).  Her tea party guests  immensely  enjoy these events, costumes, and stories that go along with each theme.

What a great idea for a party.  Here is her short story, including the menu, and lots of pictures:

THE TEA WAS FUN.  HERE ARE SOME PICTURES OF THE DECORATIONS.  SYDNEY’S MENU WAS PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICHES CUT IN STAR SHAPES.  EGG SALAD SANDWICH CUT IN TRIANGLES, AND CUCUMBER SANDWICHES CUT IN SQUARES.   SYDNEY HAD A GOOD TIME MAKING THE SANDWICHES FOR THE PARTY.  SHE HAD ORANGE SPICE CELESTIAL SEASONING TEA, PUNCH, AND JUICE, BECAUSE NOT EVERYONE LIKED TEA.  THE SWEETS WERE LITTLE TEA CAKES, LEMON BAR COOKIES,  CREAM SCONES WITH STRAWBERRY JAM AND WHIPPED CREAM.  SHE ALSO HAD SOME GINGER COOKIES, AND CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES.

I READ THEM A STORY OF THE TOOTH FAIRY, WHICH THEY ENJOYED.  ALL AND ALL WE HAD A GOOD TIME.  THE NEXT TEA IS  GOING TO BE  PINK PRINCESS TEA PARTY.

The Fairies set the table for Tea

Pixie Hollow

The Fairy from the Woods

The Guest of Honor Fairy Chair -Queen Liana

The Fairy Godmother’s Chair

Prince Brennan’s Chair

Princess Sidney’s Chair

The Fairies have set the table for tea

I love tea, as you know from my previous post, so when a friend of mine told me about this tea room in our area, I shared that information with my daughter, and we decided to definitely stop by for tea one day.

This Saturday was a perfect day for such an outing, since my daughter, granddaughter and I, celebrated Mother’s Day together.   To our surprise, the tea room was fully seated (that is about 50 people), and since they do not provide seating accommodations for small children, the baby had to stay in the stroller during our afternoon tea lunch.  She was so cooperative, and loved tasting all the goodies we shared with her.

The Tea Room décor is of course a classy Victorian style.  Each table is set with a votive candle in a crystal candle holder,  cute tea cups, a silver, lacy design, chafing dish with a tea light, to keep the individual tea pots warm, doilies for place mats, and very elegant silver utensils.  The tea sandwiches and sweets are served on three tier silver trays, where the bottom tray contains the tea sandwiches, the middle one has the scones ( a must at a tea lunch), and the top layer displays the additional dainty sweets, which nicely finish off the rest of the selection.

The British Bell Tea Room menu offers Brunch, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, and High Tea.  As a special treat for Mother’s Day, all the mothers were presented with a complimentary chocolate dipped strawberry, accompanied by an edible orchid (I took a nibble, to find out if it actually has any special taste, but to my surprise, it resembled a rather neutral taste of a lettuce leaf).

My daughter and I selected the Afternoon Tea, which included an individual pot of loose-leaf tea of your choice, out of the 40 different flavors they offer, I selected the Lotta Colada, a pineapple, coconut fruit blend, and my daughter selected the Spring Breeze, a citrus vanilla taste.  In addition to the tea, we had a choice of 3 Tea Sandwiches, Scones served with clotted cream, lemon curd and preserves, and an assortment of baked goods.  All of this for only $19 per person, and they also provide boxes and cups for your leftover food and tea, which is very thoughtful, since the tea is so tasty, but too much to finish in one sitting.  The atmosphere was very relaxing, and almost made you feel like you are at a tea party at a friend’s home, rather than in a restaurant.

The staff was very courteous and hospitable, and the owner mingled here and there, despite being very busy.  A real family atmosphere in a family owned Tea House.

There is also a gift shop in the entry to the tea room, which is well stocked with myriad of varieties of loose-leaf teas, cook books, tea sets, even jewelry.  It is a nice place to shop for something special for a tea admirer.

They also host Tinkerbell Tea Parties for children:

And now they are adding a Wine and Cheese Gallery, for Friday and Saturday, to cater to those who also enjoy wine in addition to the tea:

My daughter and I are planning to visit again, and try different flavors of their delicious tea.