Tea Sandwiches & Cupcakes

Our kids were recently in a small production of Alice in Wonderland.  We listened to the music endlessly for two months straight so they could learn their songs.  “Alice….in Wonderland…how do you get to Wonderland…” I might be scarred for life.  When I think of Alice in Wonderland I think of tea parties.  When I think of tea parties I think of gorgeous little sandwiches with the crusts cut off.  When I was little my mom and I would have tea parties in the living room.  We would pull out the special tea cups and tea pot and sit on the horse hair stuffed couch using the tea table in our living room.  I don’t know if we had sandwiches or not, I mostly remember the teacups and the table because it had two little extensions you could pull out from either side – just big enough to set a tea cup on.

My mother in law recently sent me this adorable little sandwich stand.  When I saw it I knew a tea party was in our future.  My eight year old daughter had a friend coming over for the day and it seemed the perfect time to get the party started.

Tea sandwiches should be special.  Using perfect pairings of flavors and keeping them very different than the ordinary lunchbox sandwiches I make nearly every day of the school year,  I decided to make three varieties.  Bacon, sage and egg followed by cucumber butter and a lovely sweet version with cream cheese, blueberry jam and tarragon.  They had a great time cutting the bread into cute shapes…kids love this!  Bread and cookie cutters are endless kitchen fun for kids.  To finish our little lunch we had the kids make cupcakes and decorate them using sprinkles and cupcake toppers.

The Sandwiches were presented on the lovely two tiered sandwich stand which was lovingly transported all the way from England.  The kids had such fun drinking tea and eating these sandwiches that we may make a regular thing of this.  Who knew tea parties could be such fun?