Time For Tea: 6 Recipes For Tea On The Lawn

There is no greater treat than high tea. A perfectly frivolous, wholly unnecessary meal, it is sweetness, light and all things nice – as well as a sugar hit amid the mid-afternoon slump. It mightn’t be wise to indulge every day, but as the sun slowly ditches its propensity to shyness, there can be nothing nicer than a properly laid table on the lawn groaning with homemade classic cakes to savour. (For inspiration, do look to the high priestess of the garden tea, Paula Sutton at Hill House Vintage, who does it better than most.)



Do not be tempted to be fancy: carrot, coffee and walnut, Victoria sponges and lemon drizzles are the order of the day, all washed down with gallons of hot tea poured from a pot. Tea dresses, tablecloths and tea cosies at the ready: these are the recipes we adore for a decorous afternoon amidst the inevitable swarm of wasps.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Delish


We always enjoy a classic cake in cupcake form (or, indeed, fairy cake as we insist that they are, in fact, called). These offer the perfect bite: warm, sweet, spiced and topping with cream cheese icing. Get the recipe.

Earl Grey Teacakes

Olive Magazine


There is something endlessly evocative about a teacake. Warm, comforting and slathered in butter, this one, with its delicate Earl Grey tea twist, could not be nicer for devouring with a pot of the piping hot stuff served in proper china cups. Get the recipe.

Torta De Dulce De Leche With Strawberries And Cream

Taste


If you prize prettiness on your high tea table, then this Torta De Dulce De Leche simply cannot be improved upon. Strawberries and peach slices make it sing of summer, while the condensed milk and buttercream sweeten the whole affair beautifully. Get the recipe.

An Easy Fairy Cake Recipe

House & Garden


Have you got little folk coming to tea? These fairy cakes are the sweetest of them all, and will doubtless delight revellers big and small in between rounds of croquet. Get the recipe.

Macarons

Olive Magazine


They may not strictly adhere to our policy of teatime simplicity, but these macarons, made with feather-light meringue discs and white chocolate ganache filling, are so delightfully pretty that we cannot resist them – even if they do require a few attempts to attain perfection. Get the recipe.

Mary Berry’s Lemon Drizzle

Cooking With My Kids


Mary Berry is the reigning queen of cakes, thus only a fool would dream of hosting a tea party without first consulting her. Moist, easy, refreshing and practically perfect in every way, you will never need another lemon drizzle recipe once you’ve sampled this one. Get the recipe.

Victoria Sponge

Nigella


And finally, we cannot possibly entertain the notion of high tea without the appearance a classic Victoria Sponge. This one comes courtesy of Nigella, who always knows how to do a thing properly. She writes, ‘A Victoria Sponge is one of the simplest cakes there is and quite one of the best. Plain, airy cakes, sandwiched with sweet jam and smooth, whipped cream: it is no wonder that it has been such a favourite through the generations… Here, I’ve used raspberry jam and raspberries, but I can tell you that some sliced strawberries with strawberry jam, or blackberries with their corresponding jam, are also to be considered.’ Get the recipe.