Madi often sends me links to gorgeous (and amazingly inexpensive) chateaus for sale in France. Seriously, you can buy a 10 bedroom, 30 acre Maison Ancienne in Southern France for about the cost of a two bedroom condo in Salt Lake City. So we like to dream.
In our family text, we share ideas of pastries and French cuisine we want to recreate and then we get together and cook! Madi is especially skilled at creating perfect pastries. So it only made sense to throw a decadent Parisian tea party for darling Madi’s birthday.
I think everyone feels like Madi is one of their best friends. She exudes extraordinary kindness, she always up for fun, and she’s open and honest and compassionate when dealing with serious problems. We’re grateful for her every single day ❤️
*also, we will definitely be hosting a tea party again. Scroll down if you want to know what worked and what did not 🤪
Decor:
Mix and match teapots and teacups from my cupboards
Ladurée plates, floral garland, napkins and cups from Meri Meri I love everything from this company and would love to add the macaron cart centerpiece and these gorgeous birthday candles next time
and of course, two shiny balloons
Menu:
So, we made too much food and some things were honestly too much work. We want to hold tea parties more often, so I’m recommending the best items for the least amount of work.
The good stuff!:
Trader Joes’s frozen mini croissants (these are freezer to oven, but let them proof for 2-3 hours and they become full size and extremely delicious). I filled them with Trader Joe’s chicken salad
Scones w/ clotted cream and jam, AND scones filled with pulled pork. Sammie made the scones and the clotted cream. I cooked up pulled pork and mixed in Trader Joe’s Carolina Sauce. Yes, these are completely American, but it worked really well to have sweet and savory scones. Also, scones are so easy to make, so don’t let them scare you off.
Sliced cucumbers
Tiny carrots
Cream puffs from Costco! I sifted powdered sugar over some and dipped others into a chocolate ganache. So easy and delicious.
One centerpiece pie or cake. I made mile high raspberry pie for Madi’s birthday and added whip cream and strawberries to make it fancy. It was so delicious with the extra cream and berries, I plan on adding them from now on.
Two kinds of tea (I love this German fruit tea, but there are so many good teas), brown lump sugar
Madi and Zoey made incredible tarts and macarons.
What we didn’t need:
Trader Joe’s frozen macarons, cookies, chocolates, quiche– these are all great, but it was overkill
Could be fun: Viennese Whirls, mini tarts, pain au chocolat, hot chocolate, sweet or savory treats with puff pastry
Happy Birthday darling Madi! We love you so!
Anne Marie
SO heavenly! I love all the delight and care put into the planning and preparing. True magic here!
Your darling Madi is amazing!!
And thank you for all the tips! I didn’t know the secret of making full size croissants from the frozen mini ones. We often get those from Trader Joe’s, and that will be super helpful
I love how you gather people together and create such delightful celebrations!!xoxox