Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Holly Teacup, Chocolate Earl Grey Pound Cake, Museum And Arts Tea

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea, the first in the month of December, with Advent, the first week in Advent.

I hope you have had a lovely weekend. We just got home from a local community theater production of Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story, about a boy wanting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas at the Port Angeles Community Players theater. Great fun!  Bazaars and a tea yesterday, but more about that later.

It's the holiday season, so here is a holly design cup and saucer I found at an estate sale a week ago. I am a sucker for Christmas china, I just love it! This is by Norcrest, Japan from the 1960s, and I actually found 3. Cool! I love the holly design. So the holly-day season has started here! For more info on the teacup(s) on Antiques And Teacups, click on the photos.

Yesterday I went to 2 Christmas bazaars and a fund raising tea with some girlfriends, which was fun.  The fund raising Christmas Tea was at the historic registered Dungeness Schoolhouse which dates to 1893, and recently has received an exterior restoration. The tea was a fund raiser for the Sequim Museum And Arts Center which also helps the Schoolhouse quite a bit, a reciprocal arrangement.

These are official photos from the restoration. It was pouring yesterday! I started taking photos, and my battery went dead, so I only have a few....rats!!!

The first are members of the Dungeness Schoolhouse board dressed in period costume pouring tea from lovely silver tea services and pouring into lovely teacups that have been gifted to the schoolhouse over the years. There were tables of goodies to help one's self, and tables of baked goods offered for sale as a fundraiser. The tea is donation only, and they raise several thousands for the schoolhouse and Museum and Art Center each year.

The last photo is myself, flanked by 2 of my friends, photographed by the fourth of our group.

While at the tea, we had a slice of a marvelous Chocolate Earl Grey pound cake:

The woman who made it was there, and told me where she found the recipe. It was outstanding! The recipe was from a Coastal Living magazine, which is a favorite of mine. So I found the recipe, and here it is:

Chocolate-Earl Grey Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 4 Earl Grey tea bags 
• 1/3 cup boiling water 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 cup butter, softened 
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs 
• 1/3 cup milk 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar
• Earl Grey Dark Chocolate Sauce  (recipe follows cake)
• Garnish: Bing cherries

• Preparation

  1. Place tea bags in a glass measuring cup; pour boiling water over tea bags. Let steep 8 minutes. Remove and discard tea bags; cool tea completely.
  2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa, and set aside.
  3. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating 5 to 7 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears. Set aside.
  4. Stir together milk and tea. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix at low speed after each addition, just until blended. Stir in vanilla.
  5. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-cup Bundt pan. Bake at 300° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan, and cool cake completely on a wire rack. Dust cake with powdered sugar, and serve with Earl Grey Dark Chocolate Sauce. Garnish, if desired.

  6. Earl Grey Dark Chocolate Sauce

     Ingredients

     • 3/4 cup whipping cream
     • 3 Earl Grey tea bags 
     • 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
     • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

     • Preparation

       1. Cook whipping cream in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat just until hot (not boiling), stirring often. Remove from heat. Add tea bags, cover, and steep 5 minutes. Remove and discard tea bags. Add chocolate and corn syrup, stirring until chocolate melts.
       Coastal Living
       NOVEMBER 2004

       
       

       
       

       So there we are for today....here is the linky and the list of some of the other blogs I will be joining. Have a cup of tea and enjoy visiting with the wonderful ladies!

       
       

       Common Ground ~ http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com

       Monday Marketplace

       Terri~  http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.com/ 
       Teacup Tuesday

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

       Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

       Teatime Tuesday

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

       Martha~  http://www.marthasfavorites.com/ 

       Tea On Tuesday
       Miss Kathy ~http://thewritersreverie.blogspot.com/

       Tuesday Tea       

       Michelle ~ http://www.finchrest.com/

       Tea On Tuesday

       Betty ~ http://teacoziecottage.blogspot.ca/

       Tea Tuesday

       Phyllis ~ http://www.relevanttealeaf.blogspot.com/

       Tea On Tuesday

       Shawn ~ http://poetryinapotoftea.blogspot.com/

       Poetry In A Pot Of Tea

       Bernideen’s ~ http://bernideensteatimeblog.blogspot.com/

       Friends Sharing Tea Wednesday

        Ivy And Elephants ~http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

       What’s It Wednesday                                           

       Sandi  ~  http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com

       Home On Wednesday

        A Tea Lover     ~http://the-teaist.blogspot.com/

       Tea Talk Wednesday