This year I hosted my third annual Christmas tea.  This has apparently become a tradition not only important to me but also to my friends.  I was going to skip it due to the large number of other holiday parties we are hosting and attending, but one friend worked up the courage to ask me about it.  She said she and a couple other friends had already talked about the tea and were looking forward to it.  When I explained why I was leaning towards skipping it, she suggested that I make it a potluck.  That’s what I did, and it turned out great.  Below is a list of things you’ll need for your own tea party as well as a recipe for fake clotted cream.

As you can see from my pictures, I like to make it a formal tea (minus the dressing up part).  You too might take this as an opportunity to show off your silver, china, and crystal in your formal dining room or you can keep it simple with mismatched mugs and seating by the fire.  Things you’ll need:

1. A teapot or two.  I drag out my silver tea service, but you really don’t need something so formal.
2. Tea and the fixins, including honey, lemon, and sugar.  I like to use sugar cubes myself.  They’re just so cute!  I also like to offer a variety of teas just in case not everyone has the same taste.
3. Food.  I like to go all out in this category too.  I always make scones and have jam (raspberry or strawberry) and “clotted cream” to accompany them.  I’ll confess – I usually use a mix for the scones.  I did make savory scones from scratch this year though!  I’ll share that recipe at some point.  I have some savory stuff – some kind of sandwiches and quiches.  I also like to have lots of sweets – cookies, pralines, Martha Washington balls, and some sort of cake.  I even made mini cakes one year.
4. Dishes.  As I said before, you can keep this casual or bring out the china.  My ideal tea set would be to have a collection of mismatched china teacups and saucers, but I don’t really want to find the space to store such a collection right now.
5. Most importantly, you need friends and/or family to come to your party!  You can keep it small and intimate or invite everyone you know.  I’ve generally kept my invite list to a dozen or fewer.  This year I kept it even smaller, and that was a nice change of pace.

“Clotted cream is a thick yellow cream made by heating unpasteurized cow’s milk and then leaving it in shallow pans for several hours.  During this time, the cream content rises to the surface and forms ‘clots’.”  (Wiki)  We here in the U.S. can’t get the right stuff for this, so… we have to fake it.  You can find lots of recipes online.  I’m not a real cook, so I like easy.  I found this recipe for “easy clotted cream” at AllRecipes.com.  Be advised, THIS IS NOT REAL CLOTTED CREAM; IT’S NOT EVEN PARTICULARLY SIMILAR.  It’s just something nice to have with your scones since we can’t get the real deal over here, and it’s much simpler than a lot of the other mock recipes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tbs confectioners’ sugar

Directions

• Using a whisk attachment on a mixer, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
• Remove from mixer, and hand whisk in the sour cream and confectioners’ sugar until just combined.
• Store in refrigerator.