How to Throw an Awesome Tea Party

After five years of pirate parties I was ready for a girl party. This year I decided to throw my darling three year old a tea party. Forget the fact that we were leaving for a 24 hour drive the next day, a party with seven little girls was just what I wanted. I spent weeks trying to find hats and gloves for the little girls that weren't going to break the bank. I found these little white gloves on ebay for a little less then a dollar a pair. The hats were harder. I'd looked everywhere and finally resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to shell out three bucks a hat plus shipping, the shipping of course was the worst part. I was kicking myself. At Easter I'd seen hats and gloves at the dollar store. Why hadn't I realized I'd want to throw a party months later...why hadn't I bought them then just knowing I was going to want them later :) Well I decided to check the store one time before I ordered them online. Eureka! On the top shelf I saw them. They had about twenty hats left over from Easter! I got the hats for a dollar a piece! When the girls showed up we gave them the option to put on a dress up dress. Then each girl came to her hat and gloves. We had candy necklaces I'd gotten from Walmart to put together. To help with little fingers we used pipe cleaners, easier for little fingers to string.

For lunch we had cucumber sandwiches. I grated the cucumber with my cheese grater so the slices were nice and thin and used a dash of salt and pepper. To stay authentic I sliced the crust off and cut the sandwiches into fours. I did peanut butter and jelly for the kids but the moms and even some of the kids stuck to cucumbers. They were DELICIOUS! I bought Pepridge Farm Cookies and left them on their paper holders on the plates. The girls loved them. Loved being able to choose any cookie they wanted. To make the table setting special we used glass plates a novelty for a three year old. The best part was the tea. Hubby picked lemonade because he thought it was least likely to stain. The girls loved pouring their own tea. The cups were so small they got lots of practice.

The crowning glory was the "cake". I decided I wanted to do petit fours. I looked online and found out the best type of cake to use was a sponge cake. Sponge cake gets it's lift from beaten eggs. Everything I read said this would be difficult. In comes my Bosch...have I mentioned before that I love it! Whipping eggs with 700+ watts, no problem! My cake didn't even think about falling. After you make your sponge cake you cut the cake into squares. Each square is cut in half and the halves are brushed with a water/sugar syrup. You then put a layer of pudding or cream in the middle. I did a pasty pudding, it was the first time I'd ever made one from scratch. Each cake is then covered with a light layer of buttercream frosting, so the fondant will stick. That is right, I made fondant! Once again I'm totally thankful for the Bosch. I put the ingredients in, started the mixer, no fuss, a few minutes later perfect fondant. I rolled the fondant out on the table and cut it into squares. Each piece of cake got it's own fondant, turning it into a perfect white pillow. The flowers were made with colored tootsie rolls. Each tootsie roll was split into four or five pieces. We softened them up with our fingers and then Dr. J helped me roll them into flowers. Then we rolled out green tootsie rolls, cut leaves, and pressed patterns in with tooth pics. The result was a delicious looking decoration. I put each cake on an extra large cupcake holder. I put three candles on top, and all together they made the perfect little tea party cake. It was a lot of work but it was totally worth it!