Afternoon Tea - all homemade

[spring12365]

Hi everyone
I would love your recommendations for recipes for a homemade afternoon tea. So far I have settled on the scones, but need ideas for cakes and biscuits. Not Victoria sandwich as I feel that is too similar to scones with the cream and jam. I will be doing a lemon cake and shortbread, but apart from that - please send your ideas (with tried and tested favourite recipes, ideally!).
Thank you!

an afternoon tea needs dainty sandwiches really, with the crusts cut off

Sandwiches, scones, the lemon cake and then a Dundee or other fruit cake ( delia had a good recipe ) and perhaps a pastry - I’d prefer a savoury one like a cheese slice / straws ( roll cheese and perhaps Parma ham into puff pastry and cut into triangles and top with grated Parmesan? ) but sone might prefer a danish which I have never made

The important thing with the cakes is variety. They shouldn't all be sponges. As you are already settled on a lemon sponge, I would combine that with a chocolate ganache tart (picture a jam tart but with wafer thin pastry and the filling is double cream blended with melted dark chocolate, with a shot of a liqueur), and a pistachio macaron (or meringue if macarons too fiddly for the time available). The finger sandwhiches need just as much thought as the cakes - find a really good artisan baker, do not use supermarket bread. Cut the bread very thin and have at least 4 interesting and sophisticated savoury fillings - one of which must include cucumber for Tradition!

I was at a home made afternoon tea last week. We had chocolate brownies, lemon drizzle and apricot flapjacks for the cake course.
This was proceeded with fresh fruit tarts.
We also had cheese straws, tiny tarts with chick peas and a mint drizzle plus sausage rolls.
The hostess loaded me with cake to take home because no one could manage any cake!

Salmon mousse sandwiches: blend creme fraiche with smoked salmon bits, pepper to taste. Garnish with pea shoots if feeling fancy.
Cheesecake bites for something sweet with different texture.
Hot fudgy chocolate crickle cookies (bbc good food receipe). Prep I'm advance but bake just before serving. You could have the oven tray with scooped dough chilling in the fridge, ready to go in the oven.

Afternoon tea always seems to have too many sweet offerings. Although cakes are lovely most of us can't just eat sugary stuff so a decent choice if savoury food seems important too. Sandwiches maybe with a protein filling.?

I love an afternoon tea! My local tearoom does a selection of four types, traditional, Ploughman’s, slimmers and autumn. The autumn one is lovely - it has mugs of homemade soup and cheese scones. The ploughman’s is also really nice, butchers ham, lots of nice cheese and pork pie, pickle etc.

I love savoury so I always appreciate a nice variety of finger sandwiches on white and brown bread. Maybe a nice homemade scotch egg? Homemade vanilla scones of course. With jam and clotted cream. As above, a variety of cakes with different textures is preferable. Scones, fruit or chocolate tarts, brownies, biscuits etc.

Homemade sausage rolls are easy enough (bbc food)
I always think it’s nice to have a selection of small cakes so I’d make a brownie in a rectangle tin and slice into small squares, maybe a carrot cake in tray bake style, iced on the top (primrose bakery recipe).

I wouldn’t bother with biscuits, never had them on an afternoon tea!

Smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches and egg mayo sandwiches are essential IMO (I know egg mayo isn't very sophisticated but it's so good!) Maybe a good quality ham and mustard or roast beef and horseradish as well. Fancy sausage rolls are a nice extra.

For the cakes, I'd go for something chocolatey, preferably a really dark, squidgy brownie; a lovely damp lemon drizzle and a meringue or macaron for variety, as well as the scones (decent jam and MUST be clotted cream). The advantage with the brownies and lemon drizzle is lack of faff - you can make them as a tray bake then cut into nice small squares. Carrot cake or a fruit cake/ tea loaf are also delicious...so many options! I love afternoon tea!

For my mother’s big birthday last year, I did:
Mini passionfruit tarts https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/mini-lemon-and-passion-fruit-tarts.html
Pimm’s tarts https://groceries.morrisons.com/recipes/pimms-jam-tarts/52007?srsltid=AfmBOoohmcyMDU65ERNXo9SxM61ovc6Elf02eqrfEYAGFExNapTm1pYy
Small squares of chocolate brownies
Small versions of Mary Berry’s coffee and walnut cupcakes

For savoury we had:
Mini cheese scones
Mini salmon quiches
Cream cheese and cucumber finger sandwiches

I agree with dark chocolate brownies for your final sweet item, then you need some savouries as well as the sandwiches, mini quiches, tiny sausage rolls, cheese straws or similar. Some afternoon teas definitely err on the side of too much sweet stuff and not enough savoury.

Cucumber sandwiches with butter, no crusts. If you want to give them a bit of pep, mix blue cheese with the butter and spread that on the bread before putting thinly sliced cucumber on top.

Small meringues sandwiched together with cream and lemon posset served in shot glasses!

This is family and friends all time favourite. DH’s work, too.
https://www.womensweeklyfood.com.au/recipe/baking/armenian-nutmeg-cake-16518/

I can’t find the recipe but chop finely fresh herbs, mix into soft cream cheese with a squeeze of lemon to sharpen the taste a bit. Spread over a flat omelette, roll the omelette and then slice across to get herb scrolls. They look really good.