The Fourth One, the Cheshire Cat
some weeks ago, as we are wont to do my friend N and i began an idle discussion on cheese. cheese, people. glorious rotted bovine lactate*, ripened cow manna, fabulous fermented milk. a cheese-tasting party was clearly in order. it’s such a zippy phrase, too. just say “cheese party” in a girly squeal with extra exclamation marks. “CHEESE PARTY!!!” somehow or other, it became compulsory for everyone to wear hats. and somewhere along the way, it morphed into an Alice-in-Wonderland Mad Tea Party, and of course we had to have little cakes and cookies on Saturday in that case.
clockwise from left: Sesame Coins, Linzer Cookies and Tea Roses, cheese platter
no Alice tea party would be complete without “Eat Me” labels (fixed by the Fourth One, or 3.14) or the various suits of the cards, the latter to be found in the cut-out centres of Linzer cookies which showcased the jewel-coloured strawberry and blackcurrant jam beautifully. being a bit of a pack rat, i’d picked these diamond/club/spade cutters up while holidaying in Paris last year and hadn’t used them till last week – these, a heart and a Playboy-bunny shaped cutter (the only rabbit i had) fit the theme perfectly. and since this started life as a cheese party, N brought smoked, Brie and blue cheese.
the Tea Roses were adapted from Marcy Goldman’s recipe for Chai Spice Cake. instead of chai, i used Earl Grey, and added more cinnamon than the original called for as i didn’t have any mace on hand. moistened not with milk but with more of the same tea, it bakes beautifully in Bundt moulds (although they are a real bugger to clean). it’s rather obvious (i’m a real idiot in the kitchen) but do not try to unmould them straight out of the oven – they just crumble to bits. as usual – and you know my stance on this – i halved the sugar and liked it just as it was, but if you have a sweet tooth by all means keep the sugar. this is one recipe you have to try at least once. it’s sweetly spicy, not too rich and great for nibbling on. it’s even better when warm.
Alice Medrich’s Gingersnaps featured, as did her adapted Walnut-Penuche Shortbread (pictured above). i’ve decided the gingersnaps just need more ginger. there were also Deconstructed Lemon Tartlettes (not pictured), with leftover Linzer cookies as the base, a dollop of Pierre’s lemon cream and a swirl of toasted meringue to cap it all. i wouldn’t recommend sticking this under the broiler, as the lemon cream melts and overflows without a shell to hold it in – a blowtorch, if you have one, is useful.
centre: hummus; clockwise from left corner: roasted cherry tomatoes, garlic and carrots, tuna and olives, jab-chae, tuna and apples
my mother makes fabulous tuna, and whipped up two types just for the tea party (thanks Mum! and for just about everything else): one with olives, and one with chopped green apples. the latter may sound unorthodox, but trust me – it is so good. you don’t even notice the apple, which gives a lovely sweet-tart crunchiness to the whole mixture. i slow-roasted some vegetables with olive oil, salt and rosemary, and E – our birthday girl – brought some delicious jab-chae courtesy of her mother.
a little trompe l’oeil ala Thomas Keller was also in order with these “ice cream cornets“, filled with tuna and topped with a roasted cherry tomato. it must be parental-health-freak influence, but i shuddered while making these – a veritable sea of butter leaked out as each batch baked, and M. Keller seemed to have forgotten the “drain on paper towels” step in his book (which, incidentally, is wonderful). or am i the only one who balks at this much butter? this surfeit of butter was momentarily forgiven after trying one – salty, crunchy, buttery, utterly delicious.
more trompe l’oeil in the form of what i like to call – whimsically or just plain silly, you choose – Magic Mushrooms, knobbly every-shape meringue mushrooms. these airy, crispy-gooey sugar-puffs couldn’t be easier – it’s simply your basic meringue cookie batter piped into caps and stems, dusted with cocoa powder and glued together with melted chocolate.
Gateau l’Opera, or Opera Cake, from Dorie Greenspan’s Paris Sweets. a heart-attack-waiting-to-happen confection of eggy coffee-soaked almond joconde sponge, coffee buttercream and ganache, draped with a silky chocolate glaze of chocolate and clarified butter. not having appropriately shaped pans, my cake layers turned out inelegantly thick, and baking times had to be adjusted accordingly. finer almond flour also needed – a definite repeat recipe when the time is right.
no American patriots we on the fourth of July, but our cause for celebration our unbirthdays and E’s birthday. she photographs extremely well.
for the occasion, my very adorable friends came tripped out in appropriately kooky-cute alice-gear…
“oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!”
“Alice ventured to taste it, and finding it very nice, (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast) she very soon finished it off.”
Left to right: S, the original dormouse; Pie, Cheshire Cat-turned-dormouse; B, temporary dormouse
N as blue-dress-Alice; NB as Red Queen
while some were just kooky altogether – NB was quite a drag as the Red Queen. putting a wig on him was the best move we made all evening. so what else do teens do at these tea parties? why, watch Alice in Wonderland, play Rock Band, and goof off very loudly, of course. i was in no state to be photographed, preferring to instead remain behind the camera and take photos of everyone else instead – i’m still not at all familiar with this camera, having only owned it for a week.
i don’t think i’ve ever baked this much in my entire life, not to the point where i had to plan out a week-long baking schedule, and especially not past the witching hour and beyond. exhausting? yes. exhilirating? yes. worth it? completely.
*Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time
