Tuesday Cuppa Tea For Wales St. David's Day, Welsh Cakes

Hello and welcome to Tuesday Cuppa Tea for Saint David's Day!

March 1st is traditionally the National holiday of Wales and I am celebrating today for Tuesday Cuppa Tea.

The national flower of Wales is the Daffodil which is often paired with the leek, the national symbol of Wales with the red dragon. St. David's Day, or Dayffd's Day is celebrated with all of these symbols. 

Tea, as usual in the sunroom...this week between snow flurries...which ia amazing for us...probably 6 inches overall...

I shared this photo from a friend on my Facebook page. It is one of our local Lavender farms a few days ago...and then we got 4 inches more!

was a good excuse to stay in and bake Welsh Cakes...more about that later...and enjoy a pot of Tete-aTete miniature Daffodils I found which I will be planting outside...

I have a HUGE German Farmer's cup and saucer from the 1890s I have temporarily placed the little pot in...even as a tea lover, ther is NO WAY I could drink that much tea in the morning and survive! But I had German neighbors as a child who had one each every morning! It has a dog on the front...

I am always a bit hard pressed to find yellow or green teacups, as those are not my usual go-to colors, but this fits the bill, and reminds me of Primroses which are just beginning to pop up around here...

The pattern is called Jacqueline and dates to the 1960s. Enoch Wedgwood is a famous collateral of the famous Wedgwood family, a cousin to the Josiah Wedgwood branch...but not the same.

For some years, they sort of capitalized on the Wedgwood name as Wedgwood & Co. Ltd. until 1965, when they were acquired by Semart with the understanding they alter the name to Enoch Wedgwood. But it returned full circle to the Wedgwood Group in 1980 and became earthenware, and subsequently disappeared, presumably into the Fiskars conglomerate along with the rest of WWRD.

The second teacup just seemed like spring to me...hand colored pansies on brown transferware with enamel accents.

The maker is Tuscan, England and dates to the 1920s. Tuscan was a trade name of Susie Cooper and Plant and survived intil the but potteries attrition in 1966. Again, all rights and records hidden somewhere at Fiskars, Denmark now since 2015.

Did you notice the stacking teapot in the back? I remembered I had that...in a peach to green luster and thought it would go well for our tea...

The stacking teapot is by Royal Winton Grimwades from the 1950s in a line called lusterware. Lots of folks haven't seen them, but they are the origin of the current popular Tea For One with the difference that they incorporate the teapot...perfect for 2...and the cream and sugar...apart it looks like this...

Royal Winton Grimwades started in 189r when Grimwades used the trade name Royal Winton named after the Winton Pottery where they made their goods. It had the same fate of many potteries being acquired many times. In 1995, new management went back to the original name and reissued some of the famous chintz patterns from the 1950s to a new audience in Victoria magazine, and are still producing, although not necessarily in the UK.

I added an art deco pair of sugar tongs so you can drop the Demarara sugar cubes into your tea...

And for a treat, Welsh Cakes...traditional for St. David's Day and quintessentially Welsh...recipe below, but first a few things about Wales and Saint David...

St. David was born in the 6th century and was a hero during wars with the Normans and was canonized and became the patron saint of the Welsh. St David's Day is celebrated with traditional clothing, parades and lots of red Welsh dragons.

A traditional food for St. David's Day, which you can make easily...or in England find at the food halls year round of Aldi, Sainsbury's or Marks & Spencer's is the Welsh Cake which I love. They are a great item with a cup of tea at teatime!

The recipe I have from family is the same basically as the one below....

Welsh Cakes

from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups all-purpose flour 4 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 6 tablespoons butter, softened 6 tablespoons lard

1 1/2 cups white sugar 2 cups raisins 4 eggs 8 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Sift flour, baking powder and salt into bowl. Put in butter and lard and mix until resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar and currants or raisins. Beat the eggs lightly and add to flour mixture with just enough milk to make a firm dough similar to shortcrust pastry.
2.	Chill dough 1 to 2 hours.
3.	Roll the dough to 1/4 inch on floured surface and cut with 3 inch rounds. Bake the cakes on a greased griddle or frying pan (I use my electric skillet with just a little non-stick spray) over low heat until golden brown. Cool and sprinkle with sugar. These also freeze well.

Thanks so much for joining me for tea!  

Have a lovely St. David's Day...I don't think our Welsh Cakes will actually last until Thursday...I may be making another batch!

I am joining...

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Share Your Cup

Here is the Tuesday Cuppa Tea linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there!  I am so looking forward to visiting you!

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Tuesday Cuppa Tea February Pot Pourri

Hello and welcome to a Tuesday Cuppa Tea of February things...

First of all... Happy President's Day!

And last week, of February 16th, 2 event....

one..

Chinese Lunar New Year...the year of the dog...

Years of the Dog include 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018, and will be again in 2030.

If you were born in one of those years, the Chinese believe you share the characteristics of the dog...

inspiring, intelligent, honest, sensitive, helpful, straightforward and friendly..

February 1th was also our 44th wedding anniversary...

My goodness, we were young!

We had a bit of an anniversary elenses tea in the sunroom...no lunch, as we were going out to dinner at our favorite restaurant at 5:30...
and a few of the books I'd been revisiting from Victoria...

And there is the photo the closeup is taken from...usually sits on the mantle...

And for an appropriate teacup for our anniversary, I chose this Royal Albert cup and saucer in the Forget-Me-Not pattern from the 1950s...

And it's blue! I had Forget-Me-Nots as part of my bouquet....

For tea type...my favorite Fortnum & Mason Queen Anne...a lovely and complex black tea, that I discovered in England years ago, stocked when we had our bricks-and-mortar antiques and tea items shop, and used to bring home several tins on our annual UK visit. I found it was also available at Williams & Sonoma, which was nice, as I was getting it shipped from F&M.

And a happy and colorful hand colored on brown transferware teacup in a pattern called Royal Tudor by Royal Standard...

This teacup is also from the 1950s...love the colors!
This is the Book Of Afternoon Tea by Marika Hanbury Tenison...

I picked up this great English National Trust cookbook at a National Trust property in Cornwall sometime in the 1980s, but I can't remember exactly which one...but probably Knole, which is depicted in the painting on the front, which belongs to Queen Elizabeth II
called Country House Tea On The Lawn although I can't find the painter's name. 

I made a recipe from the book for us to have for tea....

Old English Cider Cake
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup fine granulated sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
5 fluid ounce cider (or water)
1/3 cup raisins (not in the original, but having made this before they are needed for moisture)

Beat the eggs over warm water; cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and gradually beat in eggs. Fold in the flour that was sifted with the baking powder and nutmeg. Add the cider.

Spoon the mixture into a 9 inch loaf pan with the bottom lined with parchment paper and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
Let cool 5 minutes, then remove to rack to cool.
Serve warm or cool, keep airtight. 
The cake is best eaten within a day or 2 or frozen, as it dries out quickly
Very good toasted/broiled and buttered as well.

Thanks so much for joining me for tea! 

I am joining:

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Share Your Cup

Here is the Tuesday Cuppa Tea linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there!  I am so looking forward to visiting you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday Cuppa Tea Victorian and Victoria Valentines

Hello and welcome to my second Valentine themed Tuesday Cuppa Tea!

Just couldn't help myself! Lol!

I took advantage of a bit of sun in the sunroom where I was reading a couple of February Victoria magazines and 2 books I have of Victorian ephemera, and thought...looks like a post to me!

It seemed so serendipitous...sitting there with all the elements...

the Valentine small tea cloth I had made a couple of years ago already on my little tea table...

And having been perusing The Victorian Scrapbook by Cynthis Hart, John Grossman and Priscilla Dunhill...

a wonderful collection of Victorian era postcards, clip art or dcraps as they were then called, trade cards and all manner of wonderful Victorian images...

The chapters include

Home Sweet Home

Romantic Notions

a total of 7

As a cross stitcher, I thought this was fun... 

several pages form Victorian needlework magazines...

this page from 1887 includes a pattern for the spaniel that could be made in needlepoint, petit point of cross stitch...so cute!

And the first of my teacups...a Shelley...but you guessed, didn't you!

But today, 2 the same, but...NOT!

This is a Shelley in the Ripon shape, and in the Rose And Red Daisy pattern.

But...this is a quite rare one, because it has a matte black exterior...not glossy at all. The interiors are the palest yellow, which did not photograph well.

The cup and saucer has the number 13439, which the pattern books say was made between 1940-1966 when the pottery closed, and unfortunately not marrowed down in date. 

The /24 after the main number refers to the colorway for the pattern.  Remember, that...more later!

The other of the 2 hardback books is a smaller one, Victorian Book Of Love

Forget-Me-Nots

also by Hart, Grossman and Gill

This is also filled with Victorian scraps, postcards, images, calling cards and Valentines...

May Cupid's shafts by love imprest,

Smile sweetly soothing in thy breast

Inspiring ardent love for me

As pure and true as mine for thee...

Altogether, both books are feasts for the eyes,  especially if you love Victoriana as I do...

And on to the next teacup...or...is it the same one, you ask?????

No! Same shape, same black...only it isn't! This is a shiny black, not matte black like the rest...

Same pattern, right? Well sort of. This is also a pale yellow interior with the Rose And Red Daisy pattern, but this is called a combo because it also has the addition of the pink Beaded border, while the last teacup didn't have a border.

Shelley had a lot of leeway with patterns, I sometimes think that the artisisans making them were allowed to be a bit creative, or the designers tried different version to see which were the most popular.

I know I have seen many more shiny black versions that the matte black seen above since my first on in 1988.

The pattern number is 13439, just as the matte black version above, but notice the different secondary number.

This on reads /72 indicating although the same pattern, it is a different entry in the colors department. 

I LOVE Shelley...they kept such good records!

And the rest of my afternoon tea time reading this week...in between Olympics viewing...Victoria magazines.

Should have gotten out my Wedgwood Embossed Queens Ware teacup with the magazine below, but already had the Shelleys out so...

A friend came for tea, and brought a package of Valentine Vanilla petit fours, so am sharing the leftovers on my family Noritake Revenna china...

Help yourself! A real treat! So thanks for joining me for Tuesday Cuppa Tea!

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! 

Celebrate all the many people and things we love...

with a cuppa!

I am joining:

 Tea Cup Tuesday 
 Bernideen’s Teatime, Cottage and Garden
Home Sweet Home

Share Your Cup

Here is the Tuesday Cuppa Tea linky for your tea related posts...please remember that it is SSSLLLOOOOOOWWWW but if you are patient...it's there!  I am so looking forward to visiting you!

An InLinkz Link-up