The Journey continues … The Victorian Tea Society

Many years ago, I learned about the Heritage Museum of Orange County through a promotional brochure.  One picture on the brochure had ladies dressed in Victorian clothes having tea on the museum’s grounds. 

In the backdrop of this photo was a very large Victorian house named the Kellogg House.  Of course, I was hooked as I thought that was the perfect place to host teas.  And I was correct!  After keeping this brochure for several years, I finally took a group of friends to a Christmas Tea in the Kellogg House.  We had tea in the school room which was very fitting for us as most of us were educators.  We were served by an Englishwoman named Liz who was dressed up in Victorian finery.  This sealed the deal for me! 

Soon after, I joined the Victorian Tea Society based at the Heritage Museum of Orange County.  The organization hosts fundraising teas three times a year for the museum.  Some are in the historic Kellogg House and some are under the shade pavilion next to a citrus grove and a rose garden. 

In addition to hosting teas, the Victorian Tea Society has a monthly program which includes workshops and tea tramps.  I loved the museum for it offered school children field trips and the opportunity to learn and experience early Orange County history.  I also loved planning and working the teas at the museum.  What I soon learned was that I didn’t like dressing up like a Victorian!  I found my niche, though, in working behind the scenes at these fundraising teas.

            My tea education expanded with each tea I worked.  I soon was chairing the signature “Holly Berry Tea” and realized what a daunting job it was to plan a large tea.  Good organizational skills are a must in planning large teas as well as people skills; you have to not only keep your guests happy, you have to be able to work well with your colleague volunteers.  One of my first observations in this new venture was that not all the ladies of the Victorian Tea Society liked to cook and/or could cook well.  I assumed since the organization’s primary mission was to give teas that every member would be able to cook/bake.  Wrong!!  Some of the ladies just liked to dress up in their Victorian outfits.  Over time I have come to realize that some of our members are “tea” people and some of our members are “Victorian” people.  And some manage both roles very well.  We seem to work fine together.  The guests at our teas love the Victorian ladies serving and amusing them with Victorian facts and stories. 

 Realizing that not everyone can bake, I invited interested people to come over to my house for a morning of baking to prepare for one of our teas.  I chose 3-4 items that could be made ahead of time and frozen.  This worked out well.  I had 10 people working alongside of each other!  I have a lot of mixing and baking utensils that not everyone has plus a double oven.  I just served the ladies some coffee cake and tea/coffee and we had a wonderful time.  One of the recipes that we made was a Victoria cake which we had never made before.  We all learned how humidity and liquid play off each other and how two batches of the same recipe can act differently.  A good lesson!

Here is the recipe for the infamous Victoria Sponge Cake. Try it…it is quite tasty.

MINI VICTORIA SPONGE CAKE
Adapted from BBC Good Food

Makes about 20 – 24 mini cakes

For the cake:
200g caster sugar
200g softened butter
4 eggs
200g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp m

For the filling:
100g butter, softened
140g icing sugar, sifted
drop vanilla extract
small jar of raspberry preserves 
icing sugar, to decorate
raspberries, to decorate (optional) 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Weigh the ingredients.

Into the stand mixer, add the cake ingredients. Castor sugar, softened butter, and eggs were beaten first with the eggs added in one at a time. Next the milk, then flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Make sure not to overmix, especially after the dry ingredients are added.

Empty the cake batter into a plastic storage bag and cut off bottom corner. This will make it easier to pipe the batter into the pan. Butter the mini cheesecake pan and start filling in each of the tins with cake batter. Make sure you only fill about halfway up since you want a flat cake top. This batter makes about 2 batches.

Bake for 6 – 8 minutes in a 350°F oven. Tops should be golden brown. Cool in the pan, then pop out the cakes. After cake cools, cut each in half, horizontally.

Now for the filling. In the stand mixer, mix softened butter, icing sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth.

Take the bottom half of the cake and spread on the icing, then the raspberry preserve and top with the other half of the cake. Dust some icing sugar to decorate and serve with fresh raspberries.

More to come on the Victorian Tea Society in the weeks ahead.