Our first stop in our ‘globe trotting’ culinary journey was England. I wanted our first top to be England after watching the Great British Baking Show. I had been baking along with them, challenging myself to bake things I had never heard of before. Since we had already made fish and chips in the past, we had to choose out a different entree, which was a bit of a bummer since that’s what England is known for. I had to do some research to discover a menu that would do England proud.
My husband’s ancestry is 1/4 English, so when I ran across this article about the Coronation Teas taking place to celebrate King Charles’ Coronation, I knew I wanted to do something similar for our culinary adventure to England.
The Rubens at The Palace Afternoon Tea Menu
Savouries
- Spiced welsh lamb sausage roll with spicy mayonnaise
- cucmber, apple and dill creme fraiche sandwich
- BLT sadwich on beetroot bread
- baba ganoush sandwich on spinach bread
- wild mushroom parfait sandwich on brown bread
Scones
- Plain, fruit and cheese scones served with homemade seasonal strawberry preserve, lemon curd and clotted cream
Pastries
- cherry chocolate brownie, mousse and cherry cream
- guanaja chocolate mousse, cherry chocolate brownie, cherry cream
- apricot and almond taret
- orchard fruit on madagascan vanilla spnoge
- pistachio financier with raspberry ganache
I chose to try the spiced lamb roll, a riff on the cucumber sandwich, savory scones (with green onion, cheese, and bacon), and Madagascan vanilla sponge cake. The lamb rolls were surprisingly good! Even my boys ate them with their spicy mayo. The biggest surprise hit were the cucumber sandwiches. They were light and refreshing, and they will be regular events during the summer here in Texas when we need snacks or a lunch that beats the oppressive heat! I had never tackled a sponge cake before. It was delightfully light and not at all sickly sweet.
The Recipes Used
Spiced Lamb Sausage Rolls
Not very spicy (keep in mind, these are English), but very tasty!
Cucumber Sandwiches
Holy cow, these were delicious! Light and refreshing, they will be a routine snack during Texas summers.
Savory Scones
I used a basic scone recipe from my cookbook and simply added ham, cheese, bacon, and green onion.
Madagascan Vanilla Sponge
This was fun to make. I hadn’t tried a sponge cake, even though I’ve heard them talked about on baking shows.
Just a few recipe notes: I followed the lamb sausage roll and Madagascan vanilla sponge exactly. I turned the cucumber sandwiches into cracker hors d’oeuvres because I ran out of time during my day. I made a basic scone recipe from an old cookbook and simply chopped green onion, bacon, and sharp cheddar cheese really small and folded it into the dry ingredients before adding the milk.