Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Recipes to pull together a delicious afternoon tea

Want to prepare the quintessential afternoon tea at home? Try these recipes from Aunt Kate for making victoria sponge, cookies and doughnuts.

Creating the perfect afternoon tea at home is an important skill to have, especially if you’re craving your favourite sweet treats.

Aunt Kate was the “original domestic goddess” who contributed recipes and household tips to the People’s Journal and the People’s Friend from the 1880s to the 1960s.

During that time she wrote several recipe books, one of which was her 1910 Cookery Book, in which she dedicates a handful of recipes to creating the perfect afternoon tea.

In the book, Aunt Kate says: “Goodwives who live in remote districts, miles away, perhaps, from a baker’s or confectioner’s, will find the following recipes simple and useful.

“The little cakes, if kept in an airtight tin, will retain their flavour for days, and housewives who know what it is to have hungry pedestrians ‘drop in’ unheralded about tea time know how tranquilising is the reflection that there is enough and to spare in the cupboard.”

For more inspiration and to see more recipes in this series, take a look here.

Afternoon tea cake

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 28g butter
• 2 eggs
• Milk

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together, sift in the flour and two eggs, then add a little milk if it’s too thick.
2. Butter two flat tins, and divide the mixture. Bake in a smart oven (180C for 20 mins).
3. When done, turn out to cool. Spread well over with apple or orange jam (or other jam), sprinkle with desiccated coconut, and press together. Then slice.

Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 oz (approx 55g) butter
• 1 gill (approx 142ml) milk
• Grated nutmeg
• ½ lb (approx 450g) flour

Method

1. Cream the sugar and egg together.
2. Work the butter until soft and beat along with the sugar and egg.
3. Add the milk, a little grated nutmeg and enough of the flour to make a stiff paste.
4. Roll it to 1/8-inch thick, cut into rounds, lay on a floured tin and bake in a moderately hot (approx 190C) oven for 10-12 minutes.

Doughnuts

Ingredients

• ½ lb (approx 450g) flour
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Butter
• 1 egg
• Buttermilk
• Boiling fat (such as sunflower oil)

Method

1. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together with the tips of the fingers. Add the sugar and continue rubbing between fingers, adding a good-sized piece of butter.
2. Make a hole in the centre of the mixture and drop in the egg. Add as much buttermilk as will make a stiff dough.
3. Drop a teaspoonful of the mixture into boiling fat and allow it to remain for five minutes until it is a nice brown colour.
4. Drain on some kitchen paper and dust with sifted icing sugar.

More in this series…

Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Two more scone recipes from the 1930s

Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Learn how to make simple pastry with these recipes from the 1930s