Cinderella hour tea

It's almost midnight again, and here I am, still sitting on my bed, waiting for the timer to go off, so that I can remove my Shu Uemura White Recovery Ex+ facial mask (which, by the way, smells awfully alcohol-ey). It's my first time trying this particular brand out, so fingers crossed it won't cause a bad skin reaction.

At this same late hour, last night, I was enjoying what I've fittingly named 'Cinderella hour tea'. One of my sisters bought me a set of cute Robert Gordon teaspoons for Christmas and really wanted to use them, so of course I made it my business to prepare some sweet edibles to serve with the tea. It's not conventional to have tea this late at night, but when the mood strikes, I tend to go with the flow. Besides, it's a bit hard sometimes to squeeze time in for it during the day, with work and all the other daily kerfuffles. Don't make a habit of it though, because you know as well as I do that this is far from being healthy practice!



Victorian teaspoon set by Robert Gordon



 

In preparation for the tea, I made a batch of cranberry, pecan and chocolate cookies during the day, and some flaked almond-topped sponge cakelets right after dinner last night. I whipped up some chantilly cream and put some fresh blueberries and passionfruit pulp on the table so that the tea-takers could somewhat customise their own cupcake. Another benefit of keeping the ingredients separate is, of course, the ease of storing leftovers afterwards.

 



Midnight sweet cravings? Time for Cinderella hour tea!

 

 

For the tea, I brewed a pot of the 'Thé Jardin Bleu Royal' that I bought from Ladurée on my latest Sydney trip (about which I think I have yet to write). This lovely floral, fruity tea is a blend of non-smoked China and Indian black teas (loose-leaf) with cornflower and helianthus petals and the aromas of wild strawberry and rhubarb (taken from www.laduree.fr; the label at the bottom of the tea canister incorrectly lists the petals as being of the marigold flower). I decided to buy this after having it with macarons at Ladurée. To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of artificially-flavoured teas (when served hot), and the only reason I chose this particular one was because it seemed like the most natural one on the tea list, based on the given descriptions. My sister tried the 'Thé Marie-Antoinette', which is a blend of 'China teas mixed with essential oils of subtle citrus fruit, rose and jasmine flowers flavour, scattered with small pieces of dried fruits and honey'. It sounds delicious, but my sister described it as tasting like toilet cleaning products. Lovely. And she wondered why I didn't want to taste any of her tea, after thus describing it to me.

 



Almond sponge cakelet topped with whipped chantilly cream, fresh blueberries and passionfruit pulp

 

When you're next feeling peckish in the late hours of the night, why don't you, too, consider having some Cinderella hour tea?