Christmas Tea 2011

Can you feel that? Don't you see it, floating through the air? It's magic, my friends--the magic that accompanies the Christmas Tea Party. Santa's magic. 

My friend and I, dressed in our delightful frocks and fancy lace, baked all day--a simply splendid day of treats. We made four cakes--two 8-inch cakes, and two 4-inch ones.

Funfetti is amazing :)

And so was the frosting! Although...when you think about how much butter was in there...

Not so amazing anymore. Let's just not think about it, okay?

And, upon rising after a long night of watching movies, we jumped right to baking. For just the two of us (plus my brothers) we made ruffle cake, (yumm!) butterscotch cake pops (also lovely), and gingerbread tea loaves. (You remember the ones I told you about when I had tea with the Duchess? It's the same kind. :)

With a ruffly tablecloth covered in an assortment of handmade paper snowflakes covering our table, we began to prepare. It took us most of the day to cook (we are not very fast, but we had a great time along the way) and enjoyed a light and fluffy day of peach tea, snowflakes, Christmas decorations, and super sweet treats by the fire. What more could one ask for?

As the day began to wane, we set out candy cane candles and red and gold candles with jingle bells surrounding them, adding to the festive atmosphere...

Our ruffle cakes were delicious and the butterscotch cake pops were a sweet hit. Just staring down upon this delightful scene (I'm sorry if my overuse of the word 'delightful' is annoying you, but I just can't help it! DELIGHTFUL!) made us sing with joy. And the entire day, we saturated ourselves with Christmas music, soaking up as much as we could.

Oh it was lovely, oh it was quaint! In our decidedly 19th century frocks, we sipped our tea daintily as we bit into the little cake pops, chewing carefully...(one of those pops was actually quite big...a Big Boy, one might call him, hmm?)

And, among all of the frills and the ruffle cakes and the lacy snowflakes, I spied the golden Santa key I had received a few days earlier seated upon the table and I said to my companion, "We simply must discover what this unlocks."

She nodded with decided determination and off we went--searching for something that the key would unlock. But there was nothing. No hidden doors, no amazing passages. Simply us.

And that's when it hit me--that key didn't unlock anything I could see. It was the key to my heart--the key that opened the vault to my dreams and desires, my passions and friends. I was suddenly grateful to Mrs. Clause for teaching me this. I know you were hoping for an exciting secret passage that led to a Tiny Tea Room, and I'm sorry to disappoint your expectations. But this self-realization is much better, I have to say.

And I now keep some keys close to my heart :)

And besides, our Tiny Tea Room was right before us! The Christmas Tea was well underway by then...

Fairies secretly dancing and frolicking through the Christmas tree amid the soft flame of the lively candle.

People enjoying peach tea and ruffle cake...

And guess what else? Huh huh huh? Well...I have to say I think it was fate. There was a little French lady who came to our door this morning and she was selling homemade ornaments! They were so beautiful! We picked out the little guy below, and I love him so much! My mom told her that I was taking French this year, and so we had a very minimal conversation that consisted of "oui", "merci", "de rien" and "au revoir. We also bought a little gingerbread guy, but I forgot to photograph him.

It was the best weekend of my life. And I am so glad I was able to share it with my wonderful cake-baking partner :)

Thank you one and all for joining us in our Christmas tea party! You can view the other parties by clicking on the name of the blog on my sidebar under "Christmas Tea Participants". 

Merci everyone! I hope you had as much fun as we did!

Until next time,

xoxoxo

Jessica