A very British tea party abroad....

[IJumpedAboardAPirateShip]

Hosting a fundraiser and doing a British Tea Party, making scones and cake and finger sandwiches and putting up bunting and finding cath kidston fake material and doing pimms and g&t and elderflower cordial and tea for the —losers— Jon drinkers. We’re in the US so what else should we do to make it “quintessentially” british (as in a bit twee but realistic....not fucking downtown abbeyesque....we did toy with white lightning and fish finger sandwiches but we need them to donate cash for the school!)

I love canapes. But those aren't the same as Tea. So the mini British foods, although adorable, aren't Tea.

Victoria sponge is a must.
Strawberry jam for the scones.
Cheese scones split and buttered are cheap and easy to make for a bit of a savoury.
Cucumber sandwiches, egg & cress sandwiches, cheese & pickle sandwiches, are all traditional.
Gentleman's Relish on toast fingers if it's available there.
Individual sherry trifle might be popular.
Toasted teacakes (fruit buns).
Coffee & walnut cake, banana loaf, jam tarts are all easy to make.
A couple of different teas.
I wouldn't go down the canapés route, as too fiddly and time consuming to make.

@Patroclus - I LOVE cucumber sandwiches with mayo! (They do look at me as though I'm odd when I order them in cafes though)

This is brilliant - I don’t think we’re too worried about it being very traditional in terms of afternoon tea just very british so some sausage rolls and cheese straws are an excellent idea as is the large cut out of Big Ben!

So far I think we’ll be doing:
Finger sandwiches (salmon and cream cheese, ham and English mustard, cucumber, coronation chicken, egg sandwiches and hummus for the vegans)
Home made scones and jam and clotted cream
A Victoria sponge and lemon drizzle cake (and another cake - maybe coffee and walnut?)
Gin and tonic cake
Cheese and marmite straws
Sausage rolls

Elderflower cordial
Gin and tonic
Pimms
Early grey and English breakfast tea

Bunting
Mismatched tea cups and teapots (maybe make up cocktails in them too?!)
Big Ben cut out
Any other decorative ideas?

Prob do a spotify playlist - we were teens of the 90’s and early 00’s so there might be a lot of Stone Roses and Happy Monday’s....

Americans I know love Ribena.

You could maybe get them all to vote on the burning issue of the day ~~~ jam then cream or cream then jam, on scones. You could announce the winner at the end for a bit of fun!

And the pronunciation of scone.

If you can get it - mini shot glasses of jelly.
Mini pork pies
Sausages rolls
Welsh cakes
Swiss roll

If you need some competitions

Guess the English garden birds?
Guess the weight of the fruit cake
Name the royal family

Crumpets

Jam jars with flowers in on the tables.

How many sweets in the jar for a game.

And of course you need a raffle with a hamper as first prize, a pretty bouquet as second and lavender bath salts as third prizes.

Guess the weight of the fruitcake and winning a raffle of bath salts is genius - channeling my inner WI

Don’t offer fruit cake as a prize in the US, it seems to be universally disliked.

Definitely sausage rolls, they are unknown in the US and also fundamentally delicious.

😱 How can they be unknown when, as you say, they are so delicious?!

You could make some pies.. plate pies! I'm in the north east so they often appear.. corned beef and potato or egg and bacon in shortcrust pastry..mmm!

Quiche too!

I'm quite up for white lightening and fish ginger sandwiches TBH!

Scones with proper butter, none of this fake crap with oil in it.
Strawberry or raspberry jam.
Clotted cream if it's available over there

Mini beans on toasts!!! Can you get Heinz beans? Perhaps little ramekins of baked beans with some toast fingers!!!

Cheese and marmite sandwiches.

Ask everyone to form an orderly queue and leave them there. First person to question or complain loses!!!!

Eccles cakes? They're small round cakes made with flaky pastry and filled with currants. Surprisingly easy to make.

Sausage rolls.

The almighty scotch egg!!!

Yorkshire pudding with mini sausages...mini toad in the hole!

Bread and butter pudding! Can be sliced when cold and eaten cold too. Or preferably hot with custard

Full English (but doesn't really work with afternoon tea)

Haggis 😋

Bubble and squeak. Easy to make tiny ones

My friend does something similar every year in her US town. She reckons the thing that has made the most money is Spotted Dick and custard. To back that up, my ex FIL used to be asked to take out packs of Spotted Dick mix whenever he had business trips to the States.

My DD is at College in the States, and she is always asked to take out Colman's English mustard, and Jaffa cakes. From the comments of her US guests who have visited, they seem to be amazed by the variety of flavours of crisp that we have - something that always surprises me. So, unusual varieties of crisp, or should I say chip, if you can source them.
I remember going to a British based thing where they issued plastic bowler hats on entrance. Don't know if that would be suitable! Tea lights in jam jars might look nice too.

Gin and tonic cake

Not a thing.

I actually have friends flying over just before so I could prob get them to bring some Jaffa cakes over (and party rings?!)

Most certainly IS a thing @Notanotherflightdelay

No need for the loser comment eh?

Depending on what you have available, it may be cheaper to print off some Cath Kidson-esqe floral patterns and cut out bunting and doilies rather than using expensive fabric.

For school fundraisers we always put a call out for China cake stands, etc as many people have them. Small stickers on the bottom with names is usually sufficient but I take photo on my phone and edit to add a name too. Takes a few minutes but it’s always needed for one or two things.

Mismatched is lovely but draw it all together with white doilies (sold in bulk for crafts) and small vases of white flowers (glasses will do, cut the stems short)

A guess-what-the-word-means British to US quiz might be fun - jam/jelly, torch/flashlight.

Lepetitpiggy
No need for the loser comment eh?

I thought the same

🤷🏻‍♀️

A guess-what-the-word-means British to US quiz might be fun - jam/jelly, torch/flashlight.

Or things that mean completely different things in US and British English - pants, fanny, rubber, suspenders, football...