It was my birthday at the end of July and as I am growing up a bit now I'm not really into clubs so much anymore. Usually a birthday consists of going out somewhere, but all I wanted to do was stay in, eat cake and hang out with my friends! So I decided on an Afternoon Tea Party & Cocktails. We all got dressed up, I made a table full of goodies, and we spent the day eating cake and drinking tea, then as the evening came, we hit the cocktails, played games and had a brilliant time!
An afternoon tea essential is scones and I made mine using a slightly modified version of an ao.com recipe. I used dried fruit instead of orange zest and cranberry, and also made them large sized!
I also made my own raspberry jam, which you can read how to make here. And of course they were not complete without clotted cream!
A classic Victoria Sponge Cake was the centerpiece of the table. I made a basic sponge mix and sandwiched the two halves with jam and fresh cream in the middle.
For the second cake I wanted something a bit different so I made this Spiced Carrot Loaf Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting! Damn this was good! The recipe is from BBC Good Food, except I omitted the walnuts and sultanas.
I made some pretty lemon cupcakes and sat them on one of my birthday gifts, a beautiful cupcake stand from Laura Ashley.
For savoury lovers and also to provide a break from all the sweet goodness, I made three types of finger sandwiches - salmon and cream cheese, cucumber and cream cheese, and ham. They were very popular and I ended up having to make more half way through the day! I also provided some crisps for nibbling on.
I bought a good selection of tea and also hired some gorgeous vintage cups and saucers from Tamaryn's Treasures. They were so beautiful! I loved the one with the gold pattern inside the cup. They really added that extra special vintage element to the day.
Later on we moved onto cocktails. This is a Cosmopolitan, a delicious mix of vodka, triple sec, lime juice and cranberry juice. Throughout the night I also made lime daquiris, pina coladas and long island ice teas. These are all classic cocktails and the recipes are readily available online.
We played some awesome games. First we played Cranium which is a fairly well known family game, well to everyone except me! I had never heard of it but apparently a lot of people play it at Christmas. Later on we played the hilarious Cards Against Humanity - which I highly recommend.
I looked into hiring people to come and do hair and make up for us, but I found it to bes a bit over priced. If it was a bigger event like a hen party I would definitely have hired a professional, but I was lucky enough to have a very talented friend who did everyone's hair. And I thought we all looked fab! I had such a fun time and I highly recommend this kind of get together if you can't be bothered with the hassle of going out (and you love cake!). Staying in is much more fun! I made everything myself for the party, but you could get your friends to bring a bake each to lessen the workload. If you do want to make everything yourself, the freezer is your friend!
