please come for tea & sherry

Home-Grown Fresh Lemon Verbena Tea
Bodega Dios Baco Oloroso Sherry
Mini Sherry Tea Cakes with Marcona Almond & Rosemary
Roasted Black Figs, Honey, Fig Balsamic Syrup, Black Pepper, Sea Salt
Cream Sherry Glaze

“You are formally invited to a virtual British afternoon tea party that will take during the week of August 27th! We thought it would be great to follow up our Greek adventures, the original place of Olympics, with a British-inspired culinary theme, the location of this year’s summer Olympics.

Bring a gourmet sweet or savory treat – either a makeover of a classic or your own unique creation. Some general items on a traditional tea menu include: sandwiches, sausage rolls, Victoria sponge, cakes, and scones.”

The 5 Star Makeover Cooking Group hosted by Natasha the 5 Star Foodie & Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks! is an outstanding monthly event for sharing ideas and creating gourmet makeovers of selected classic dishes or flavor combinations. August’s theme is TEA PARTY.

Such a charming theme!
Taste With The Eyes will bring a refreshing home-grown hot tea
and makeover a teatime table setting with sherry paired with sweet treats fit for the Queen.

Roasted Black Figs with Fig Balsamic Syrup

Place fresh black figs in a baking dish. Drizzle with honey and fig balsamic syrup. Season with fresh ground black pepper and sea salt. Bake at 350°F until soft. Let cool to room temperature.

Mini Sherry Tea Cakes

The sherry tea cake recipe is adapted from the Bundt Cookbook.

• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 c. sugar
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 c. sifted flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/16 t. fresh ground nutmeg
• 3/8 c. cream sherry

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift together flour, baking powder, and nutmeg – add alternately with the sherry to the creamed mixture. Mix well after each addition.

Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into batter. Pour batter into greased and floured mini Bundt pan. Bake at 350°F until cake tests done. Cool for 15 minutes then invert to remove cakes. Let cool to room temperature.

Cream Sherry Glaze

Cream Sherry Glaze

• 1 c. powdered sugar
• 3 T. melted butter
• 2 t. cream sherry

Blend all three ingredients together. Add a very small amount of hot water to get the desired drizzling consistency.

Arrange figs and tea cakes on a serving platter. Spoon balsamic syrup from the baking dish over the figs. Place a small amount of glaze on top of each cake and drizzle the glaze over the entire platter in a back-and-forth motion. Then top the cakes with a roasted marcona almond and a few tiny springs of dried rosemary. Top the figs with an edible blossom (these are borage). Garnish with fresh rosemary.

Fresh Lemon Verbena Tea

Lemon verbena was harvested from my garden. The leaves are washed in cool water then arranged in the teapot’s glass infuser.

Bring filtered water to a rolling boil. Pour water into the teapot over the leaves. Cover and let steep 5 to 10 minutes until the tea is a mellow gold color. Remove the infuser. Lemon verbena high levels of essential oil contribute to a strong aroma and lovely lemony flavor. The tea is delightful, refreshing and crisp. I offer honey but don’t think it really needs it…Garnish the tea cups with tiny sprigs of the fresh herb.

Oloroso Sherry

For this party, we have to serve a little booze too. (It’s 5 o’clock somewhere!). Bodega Dios Baco NV Oloroso Sherry from Jerez, Spain has wonderful aromas of nuts, vanilla and caramel. And rich nutty semi-sweet creamy flavors. Oloroso sherries offer a terrific balance between sweet and dry.

Try a sip of sherry and a tea cake together. Then enjoy another sip of sherry paired with the fig. These two mini accompaniments provide very different taste sensations with the sherry. The flavor components of the sweet treats are meant to enhance the flavors in the sherry, and vice versa.

A 5 Star TEA PARTY Makeover

Anglophiles and Lovers-of-Tea please be sure to visit the grand
5 Star Makeover TEA PARTY round-up now posted here!