Tuesday Cuppa Tea, Easter Tea, A Winner!

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea for the week before Easter...Holy Week as it is known to many. Sometimes Jewish Passover overlaps Easter, but not this year...Easter is early.  

It seems we just finished Saint Patrick's Day, so I have a very simple Easter afternoon tea in the sunroom...just changed the tablecloth and decor today....

I kind of centered it around a new Shelley teacup and some giant yellow Easter egg cookies I found at our organic bakery yesterday....

I know that I have shared several elements before...like my green cross which is always out in the sunroom, reminding me of John 3:16 

For God do loved the world

that He gave His only Son

that whoever believes in Him

shall not perish but have

everlasting life

And I always have out my cute little lamb to remind me about new life and to tie into the Lamb Of God and also an element on the Passover plate which I will share about next month during passover.  The eggs speak to me of God the Three In One, and also new birth as well...and is an international symbol...I love this antique Russian Orthodox Easter postcard...it says "Christ is Risen!"

To get back to my tea, I have another vintage tea cloth or embroidered tablecloth...linene with pastel embroidered flowers and an art deco basket design...

And how about these egg sugar cookies! How fun is that! I have Hot Cross Buns coming from the bakery on Tuesday, but today...just  Easter Egg cookies...

I put them on a Shelley Dainty yellow Rosebud plate from the shop...I don't have much in yellow...this colorway is seldom seen really...mostly the red/pink Rosebud pattern.

I had some difficulty finding yellow, but did have this Royal Albert Tea rose cream and sugar set, 

and a pair of 1940s Georgian style English EPNS sugar tongs...

And here is the Shelley teacup, in the footed Oleander pattern with wonderful sunny yellow exterior, pale yellow interior and the Dresden pattern, in pattern number 13438/516. The 516 after the / indicates the color.

The pale yellow doesn't show up well. The teacup was made from 1940 until the pottery closed in 1966.

I always love the pretty molded shape of the Oleander, and the burnished gold  trim is just beautiful!

And to serve the tea...a green jasperware teapot...but not by Wedgwood!

Jasperware has become synonymous with Wedgwood, but several other companies made it as well...Adaams and Dudson did, and this is a Dudson, England teapot from the 1940s. The pattern is the same as Wedgwood's Sacrifice Figure pattern, but then, the English potteries of Staffordshire had  copying each other...and the entire industry came out of a desire to copy the wares coming into England from Japan and China in the 1700s...hence the name "china" for fine dishes!

I'll be saving the other teacup for later...there's a history attached I don't have time for here, so....

I found this great recipe for a bunny shaped cake in Good Housekeeping magazine and thought I'd add it here...as it's Easter bunny time fast approaching.

I thought it was so cute!!

Pineapple-Coconut Bunny Cake

Serves: 16

Yields: 16 servings

Prep Time: 35 min

Prep Time: 25 min

Ingredients

2 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoon(s) bakingpowder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup well-stirred cream of coconut (from 15-ounce can)

1 can (8 ounces) crushed pineapple in juice

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup/ 1 stick butter or margarine, softened

3 large eggs

Silky Coconut Butter Frosting

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup well-stirred cream of coconut

2 tablespoons well-stirred cream of coconut

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup/2 sticks unsalted butter (no substitutions), softened

Decorations

1 bag(s) (7 ounces, or 2 2/3 cups) sweetened flaked coconut

2  pink Jordan almonds

1  blue jelly bean

1  red heart-shaped tart candy

2-inch lengths black licorice lace

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 13- by 9-inch metal baking pan.

Prepare Pineapple-Coconut Cake: On waxed paper, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In 2-cup liquid measuring cup, combine cream of coconut, pineapple with its juice, and vanilla. 

In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat sugar and butter just until blended. Increase speed to medium-high and beat 3 minutes or until creamy, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. 

Beat in flour mixture alternately with pineapple mixture just until blended, beginning and ending with flour mixture and occasionally scraping bowl.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Loosen cake from pan; invert onto rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, prepare Silky Coconut Butter Frosting: In 2-quart saucepan, combine sugar and flour. Gradually stir in cream of coconut until smooth. Cook over medium-high heat until mixture thickens and boils, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in vanilla. Cool completely.

In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat butter until creamy. Gradually beat in cream-of-coconut mixture. Makes about 3 cups.

When cake is cool, transfer to large flat platter. Using pattern and knife, cut out bunny's body and ears from cake. Place some cake trimmings on tail and ears to add height. With metal spatula, spread frosting over side and top of cake. Gently press coconut into frosting on cake. Decorate bunny with Jordan almonds for ear, jelly bean for eye, heart-shaped candy for mouth, and licorice for whiskers.

*Reserve cream of coconut remaining in can (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) to use in frosting recipe.

And we have a winner!!!! Congratulations to Linda of Linda's Life Journal

who was picked by Random.org as the winner of my giveaway for the Jan Karon book A Common Life. Please email me your snail mail address and I'll get it off to you ASAP!

Okey dokey, that's it for today. May this be a blessed week for you with lots of tea and goodies! I am joining: 

No Place Like Home

 Tea Cup Tuesday 

 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden

Here is the linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there! And I love to read your comments, and can find you to visit! Thanks so much for joining me for tea!

An InLinkz Link-up