high tea @ columbia

our tea party was actually about 13 days ago, but i suddenly got so busy at work that i didn't need to kill time by writing in my blog (imagine that). it was unfortunately quite hot the day of our tea party, though it has nothing on today's humidity. however, it was cooler in the morning when i woke up to make muffins and two cakes: mini muffins to fulfill our "oscar wilde/english country" theme, the cardamom cake that miriam's boss made, and that she really liked, and a cake made with muscat wine.

skipping to the end of cooking, which was fairly uneventful save for a few muffins that were kind of....hard and brown... the beaumes-de-venise cake was pretty good - redolent with the wine. it also had grapes in it. it was moister than pound cake, and a bit heavy, but i liked the flavor. i think those who like wine better would like it more than we did at the tea party. the cardamom cake, though, was a hit. it's a pretty regular cake, made with buttermilk for moisture, and cardamom for flavor. the cake is brown, and looks kind of unappetizing when it comes out of the oven. however, before pouring the batter in the pans you scatter sugar and chopped pecans on the bottoms of them, so when the cakes come out of the pan they have this great candied pecan crust on them. the cake gets filled with whipped cream mixed with fresh raspberries, and then more whipped cream and berries go on top. it looked really good, and tasted darn good as well - the combination of flavors is definitely what made it so good. muffins were...well, muffins. they were plain, to be more british, and were intended to be spread with butter or jam. or, spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar, which is my strange preference for bread type things like rolls. i suppose people are so used to american-style muffins - flavored muffins - that they didn't realize that they should eat them with jam.

in addition to the baked goods, we had v's deviled eggs and mary's cucumber sandwiches, some sliced apples and honey, and calissons which carrie had brought us from france. mmm...