Ideas for high tea please?

[Rindercella]

I will be doing a high tea for 12-15 people next week and was just after some ideas.

I was thinking of some mini pastries/cakes from Ocado for the sweet stuff and then the following sandwiches:

Salmon & cucumber
Egg & cress
Cheese & tomato
Ham

I will cut the sandwiches small so they look pretty.

But it all seems pretty dull. Does anyone have any more interesting suggestions please?

That's afternoon tea, yes? How about some scones/jam/cream? Some cheese puff sticks with dips?

If high tea it's a wee bit more substantial - scampi in a basket, cheese on toast.

The best tea I ever went to had loads and loads of really hot buttered toast, as well as scones and a victoria sponge.

The sandwiches were exactly as you outlined above and they were great - I think the salmon was gravadlax with a nice dressing, and the ham had really nice spicy mustard and a little bit of lettuce for crunch. Egg and cress had some celery, also for crunch.

If you wanted to go really fancy, you could also have warm mini blini, each one with a dollop of creme fraiche and some lumpfish or salmon caviar on top.

Must have scones, with Rodda's clotted cream.

Sorry, afternoon tea

Scones!!! Yes, great idea, thank you for that.

And blinis with cream cheese & salmon caviar sound good too.

Thank you

Mini Quiches ? Make em like you'd make jam tarts ... Ooooh Jam tarts ?
Try mushroom or asparagus tips if you're feeling flush ! I love tuna quiche ....

Toasted fingers with pate and quince jam
toasted fingers with creme st augur and smoked salmon
smoked mackerel pate on crisp breads- fillets of mackerel, cream cheese, pepper and a squirt of lemon juice

Not strictly afternoon tea, but very delicious
cocktail sticks with-
cherry plum tomato, blob of mozzarella and a basil leaf
cube of pear, coriander leaf, blob of stilton
cube of beetroot, cube of feta, rocket leaf.

Thank you everyone - lots of lovely ideas, and far more exciting than my egg sarnies!

Scones, cupcakes, elderflower cordial.

Savoury cheese scones -Delia has a recipie- with butter/cream cheese and cucumber.

Something maripanny like Battenberg or bakewell tart

Definately something chocolate.Chocolate brownies are yummy, try with pockets of white chocolate a la Nigella

I would do some things that keep well so when you put the food out in stages you can gauge how much everyone eats and keep some back for yourself

Roast beef and horseradish sandwiches

We had afternoon tea in a lovely hotel last month, they cut the sandwiches into fingers, but they were triple decker, absolutely beautiful!

Brushetta with nice things

Meringues
Scones
Chocolate brownies (Anthony worrall thompson recipe is delish)
Nigellas malteaser tray bake
Something lemony (marslady lemon drizzle)

Tbh I wouldn't worry to much about loads and loads of food, by the time you have had 3 or 4 sandwiches, a cream scone and a couple of cakes then you are full, it's deceptively filling.

Have you got cake stands? You can get these these in morrisons and sainsburys

Glass of fizz? Pink? With a strawberry in?

Sounds lovely. I love afternoon tea.

Thank you everyone. Really, thank you very much. I think there's about 20 people now, so all of the ideas you posted will probably make an appearance in some form or another. Geordie, thank you so much for the link to the cake stands - I managed to pick one up in Sainsbury's today.

On Monday my DH's ashes are being interred. Followed by afternoon tea. I love the distraction of 'doing' the tea to take me away from what is actually happening.

I'm sure it will be lovely, your husband will be so proud. X

I organised a 'high tea' this week following a funeral for about a dozen people. The scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream were the most popular. I also put out some home made apricot jam. Rock cakes went down well. I decorated the sandwich plate with lettuce leaves & cucumber around the edge and quite a few people enjoyed eating this too. Endless cups of tea & I really regretted not being able to find my teapot!! A small flower arrangement on the table made it all look very attractive & I used one of the cardboard cake stands too which was very effective. I really enjoyed putting it all together and there was a lovely chatty atmosphere that lifted us all a bit from the sadness of the day.