April 2021 - Spring Tea Menu in Pinks & Greens

Spring Tea Menu in Pinks & Greens

“There aren’t enough colors of green to paint a Kansas landscape in the springtime,” so my painter grandfather Pat Murdock used to say. That holds up pretty well for a California springtime, too.
Here on the central coast, the golden hills of winter turn vivid, velvety green, set off by the darker evergreens of the redwoods. With apple blossoms, wild mustard, lupine, and California poppies, blazes of color are scattered everywhere againt all that green: Spring has come!

Green is my favorite color, closely followed by pale pink. And they look so good together, throw in lavendar and butter yellow and you have classic Easter colors.

In thinking about an Easter tea menu, I decided that spring pinks and greens would be the theme in tablesetting and food. Rose and I both have treasured pink depression glass pieces, inherited from the family. They mix beautifully with green depression glass and vintage floral china. My super thrifter girlfriends know I love these spring hues so I have been gifted with lovely linens and serving pieces that all coordinate. I had a fun afternoon digging through the big storage area where our pretties are kept. What beautiful things were waiting for me.

I usually like to come up with new recipes each year but upon review of our Easter/Spring menu, I think it is just about perfect! To that menu, I added some old favorites whose recipes are available for free, here: Classic Cucumber Sandwiches and Ham Salad. I also purchased a few things that added a bit of chocolate and even more pink: decorated chocolate eggs from See’s Candies and Trader Joe’s Pinks & Whites Shortbread Cookies.

​Here is the Spring Tea Menu for 2021, please enjoy all the pink and green!
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Menu
 
Pink Champage and English Breakfast Tea
Deviled Eggs with Asparagus Tips
Open-faced Spring Radish Ssandwiches
Ham Salad Sandwiches
Cucumber Sandwiches
Miniature Hot Cross Buns
Golden Eggs
Thumbelina Panna Cottas
Green & Pink Iced Cakes*
Pinks & Whites Shortbread Cookies
See’s Assorted Chocolate Eggs
 
 

• *A note on the pink and green iced cakes: I suppose they are round petite fours, meaning little cakes with poured frosting, but petite fours and I have a rocky history at best, so let’s just call them iced cakes, shall we? I have a wonderful mini cheesecake pan (with removeable bottoms) from Chicago Metallic that ensures the little cakes turn out perfectly round with no sticking. Almost any cake batter works well, just be sure to generously grease and flour the pan or better still spray with non-stick baking spray with flour such as Pam brand.