Royal Kew Gardens Teacup, Visit To Kew, Leftover Candy Cake

Time For Tuesday Teacups And Things, Teacup Tuesday and the other wonderful tea realted blog parties I have listed at the bottom of the post.

I am posting a Queen Anne, England cup and saucer made in the 1950s with a design of the Royal Kew Gardens, or Royal Botanical Gardens located not far from London, England and close to Richmond. The teacup has the royal coat of arms incorporated into the border design and pillars, trees and flowers. I love landscape design cups and saucers. They are s lovely way to see England whether true or imagined.


Kew Gardens were established in 1759 and are world renowned for the diversity and rarity of some of their botanical collections of plants, trees and planting or landscape design and beauty.

A few years ago we visited Kew with my husband's niece and family on a late June day that had started fine but degraded. We had visited some of the glass houses, taken some of the walks when we decided to eat the packed lunch we had brought in flont of the glass water lily house. As we unpacked the cheese, cucumber and onion cob sandwiches (with Branston pickle for every but me!) to eat sitting on the benches outside the water lily house, we saw a huge black cloud quickly approaching.  It quickly began to rain and as we scrambled to gather things up and rush inside for shelter, it began hailing and thunder grumbled. We were soaked in 5 minutes and spent the next 30 minutes inside walking and eating while we gently steamed and tried to hear each other over the pounding of the rain and hail on the glass roof above.

By the time the shower had moved away a fog had moved in so we didn't get too many good photos. But we have often laughed about our Kew adventure. The weather in England can change very fast. By the time we had walked through the fog to the railway station to catch our train back to London the sun was out again. We stopped for a great Indian dinner, laughed a lot and they left us at our hotel, with great memories and still slightly damp!


For more on the Kew Garden teacup and Antiques And Teacups, click on the photos.


For more info on Kew:
Royal Botanical Gardens At Kew


As Halloween has just passed, I thought I'd share a great recipe I found on MyRecipes.com with an ingredient of a lovely looking cake being leftover mini candy bars.

Candy Cake

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups finely chopped chocolate candies such as Snickers, Almond Joy or Reese's peanut butter cups
• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Icing:
• 4 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

• Preparation

  • 1. Make cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 10-cup nonstick Bundt pan. Sift 3 cups flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl, toss candies with remaining 1/2 cup flour.
  • 2. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light, 3 minutes. Add yolks one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Beat in 1/3 of flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of milk. Repeat, ending with flour mixture. Do not overmix.
  • 3. In a clean, dry bowl using dry beaters, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Stir candies and 1/3 of egg whites into batter. Fold in remaining whites. Spoon batter into Bundt pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then unmold cake.
  • 4. Make icing: Place chocolate in a bowl. Warm cream in a pan over medium heat until just boiling. Pour over chocolate, let stand for 1 minute, then whisk until smooth. Let cool slightly. Pour icing over cake, allowing excess to drip over sides.
  I am joining the following as well as others...visit and enjoy all the tea realted blog parties:
  
  
  Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 
  Teacup Tuesday 
  Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
  Teacup Tuesday

  Wanda Lee~  http://silkenpurse.blogspot.com/ 
  Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
  Pam~  http://breathoffreshair-paperbutterfly.blogspot.com/ 
  Teapot and Tea Things Tuesday 
  Wanda Lee~  http://theplumedpen.blogspot.com/ 
  Tea For Two and Wednesday Tea For Me and Thee

  Trisha~  http://sweetology101.blogspot.com/ 
  Tea Party Tuesday

  Lady Katherine~  http://ladykatherineteaparlor.blogspot.com/ 
  Teatime Tuesday

  Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

  Teatime Tuesday

  Ruth  ~ http://timewasantiquesfamily.blogspot.com

  Tuesday Cuppa Tea

  Kathy~  http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/
  Victoria - A Return to Loveliness