Review: Tea and cake

Published Jul 29, 2015

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with Lisa Faulkner (Simon & Schuster UK, R460)

I can think of no better title for this book than Tea & Cake with Lisa Faulkner, and the thought of tea never leaves your mind when paging through the book.

British Actress turned cookery expert, Faulkner, (who won Celebrity Masterchef 2010) mentions tea and tea breaks repeatedly and understandably so, after all this is what this book is about.

To accompany the tea there are recipes for a variety of scrumptious sweet goodies from cakes, shortbread, biscuits, energy bars, Florentines, sponge fingers, shortbread and Christmas biscuits for tree decorations to savouries such as cheese scones, sausage rolls, mini Cornish pasties, pancetta and ricotta tarts, chicken tartlets and traditional English tea sandwiches.

For those who prefer puddings there is traditional trifle, and bread and butter pudding. Birthdays are also catered for with several children’s cakes to inspire you.

A chapter on all things chocolate satisfies the chocoholics and includes a recipe for chocolate spread (for those who can’t eat nuts, which the shop-bought jars contain).

There are also short chapters on making jam and lemon curd as well as champagne jellies, cucumber and mint flavoured water and even a tea cocktail (yes, it contains alcohol).

Weights in the recipes are given in metric as well as Imperial and the ingredients used are readily available in South Africa.

The book is a good all-rounder for someone who enjoys baking.

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