Tea

Among the delights - Devil's food cakes, made to a 1920s recipe that uses only the yolks...

So that I could use the whites for macarons

Cherry cupcakes, to my own recipe, which look like they escaped from the 1970s

"... that newly invented luxury for ladies, so indispensible for their happiness, and so ruinous for their health - a forenoon tea"

Chapter 11 "Tea" from The Victorian Kitchen by Jennifer Davies

Relaxed Chatty Tea

"This is mainly a fantasy as, in the real world, all the people you would like to get together for tea and cakes and plenty of undisturbed talking one afternoon are all far too busy. You are probably far too busy yourself.

Anyway, in this fantasy, all your favourite friends are gathered together, without a care in the world, all chatting away and eating delicious cakes and drinking tea. You'll have all your best crockery out and there'll be flowers on the table. No one will be on a diet or have a food allergy and no one will have to rush off. If there are any children in the party, they will be sweet and funny and behave beautifully and any babies will sleep peacefully, waking up occasionally to gurgle adorably for a few moments before snoozing off again." From - Tea with Mrs Simkins

Photo credit to Papa