Here in the UK, we are all looking forward to the Queen’s platinum jubilee to be held from Thursday 2nd – Sunday 5th June.

 

On 6th February this year Her Majesty The Queen became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth. In honour of this, we have an extra bank holiday this weekend and everyone in the UK will be celebrating in one way or another.

 

Me being me, I decided to have my platinum jubilee celebration one weekend early to avoid the rush 😛

No seriously, I made an afternoon tea and started the celebrations early with a British themed (I hope) afternoon tea party. Next weekend, I hope to be out and about making the most of the long weekend!

 

I prepared two types of finger sandwiches: Cucumber cream cheese sandwiches and roasted red pepper hummus sandwiches.

I also made eggless scones for the first time, they were not bad but not perfect. Still I devoured them.

Finally, I made chocolate cupcakes with a thin vanilla butter cream frosting and fruits.

 

My recipes are below! I’ve excluded the scones recipe as they weren’t perfect. Once I perfect them, I shall add this recipe.

 

 

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Vegetarian Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches

 

Cucumber Cream Cheese Sandwich

 

In a typical British afternoon tea, we have finger sandwiches which are meant to be light.

One of the most classic vegetarian afternoon tea sandwich is the cucumber and cream cheese sandwich with only two ingredients. Yep, you guessed it: cream cheese and cucumber.

I bought a soft white loaf to prepare these sandwiches.

I also bought the cream cheese from the supermarket. You can buy plain cream cheese and add your own ingredients such as garlic and herbs such as dill. You can also add very finely chopped onions or spring onions. Add seasoning such as black pepper and salt.

The cream cheese I bought was already of a garlic and herb flavour and so I could apply this directly to the sandwiches.

 

Steps:

 

I made square sandwiches rather than rectangular sandwiches, using three bread slices and two cucumber layers. You can make a simple finger sandwich with just two bread slices and one layer of cucumber if you wish.

 

1. Cut the crusts off the bread slices. Finger sandwiches must be crust-less!
2. Cut your bread slice into two to make two rectangles.
3. Cut your cucumber into round slices – not too thin, not too thick.
4. On one side of the half slice, spread your cream cheese. Then place two cucumber slices across the rectangular slice.
5. Sprinkle salt and pepper.
6. Spread cream cheese on both sides of the middle bread slice.
7. Place on top the cucumber.
8. Place another two cucumbers on the second bread slice.
9. Sprinkle salt and pepper.
10. Spread cream cheese on one side of the final bread slice and place on top of the cucumber.
11. Finally cut down the middle to form squares. Garnish with a cucumber slice.

 

 

 

 

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Finger Sandwiches

 

The problem I’ve always had with British afternoon teas in hotels is that the only vegetarian sandwich they served for years on end was the cucumber cream cheese sandwich. Even then, they would add mayonnaise to it and I don’t really eat eggs that way. (I only eat them in desserts and chocolates but not in anything else – I’m very peculiar).

Now with the whole vegan trend that’s come along, many more hotels are offering afternoon teas with various vegan options.

One that I came across at the Hilton Park Lane last year offered red pepper hummus. So I thought, hey, I could replicate that!

 

I made the red pepper hummus at home as follows:

 

1. Soak a handful of dry chick peas overnight.
2. Next day, drain them and pressure cook them for 5 whistles. (You could boil them, this will take longer maybe upto an hour for the chick peas to become soft). Alternatively, if you use tinned chickpeas, you can blend them straight away.
3. I used half a red pepper. I grilled it in my oven for about 7 minutes until the skin had charred.
4. I didn’t have tahini, so I simply used a handful of white sesame seeds. I roasted them.
5. I blended 1 tsp of cumin seeds to create a cumin powder and put it aside.
6. I blended my roasted sesame seeds first.
7. I then added lemon juice to this, 1 garlic clove, olive oil and salt and blended again.
8. I added my boiled chick peas, roasted red pepper, cumin powder, paprika powder and blended everything until it was creamy.
9. I needed to add a bit of water while blending as I didn’t have tahini that would give it that creamy texture.
10. My roasted red pepper hummus was ready. I know I didn’t follow all the steps for a perfect hummus but this tasted great and did the job. Sometimes, when you don’t have ingredients on hand, you can always substitute – this is something I learnt from my mum. Her substitutions are mindblowing!

 

As with the cucumber cream cheese sandwiches, I used three slices of bread and made two layers of roasted red pepper hummus. I did not add any other ingredients, but you could add vegetables such as grated carrots or sliced red pepper as well.

 

Steps:

 

1. Cut the crusts off the bread slices. Finger sandwiches must be crust-less!
2. Cut your bread slice into two to make two rectangles.
3. On one side of the half slice, spread your roasted red pepper hummus.
4. Place your second bread slice on top of this filling.
5. Spread another layer of roasted red pepper hummus on the second slice.
6. Place your final bread slice on top of this.
7. Finally cut down the middle to form squares. Garnish with a red pepper slice.

 

Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting and Blueberries, strawberries and pomegranate arils

 

 

 

In order to get the colours of the British flag, I felt these cupcakes were perfect.

The vanilla butter cream frosting would give that white backdrop and the blueberries were perfect for the blue and the strawberries and pomegranate arils for the red. I used a very thin layer of butter cream frosting because my family doesn’t like sweet stuff. You can definitely make the layer much thicker for a proper white backdrop.

My chocolate cupcakes were eggless. Here’s the recipe!

 

This made 6 cupcakes.

You can make these chocolate cupcakes vegan by switching the dairy milk with almond milk and switching the butter with 1/3 cup of sunflower oil.

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

Dry ingredients

3/4 cup plain flour

1/3 tsp baking powder

1/3 tsp soda bicarbonate

1/4 tsp salt

1 heaped tbsp raw cacao

1/2 cup brown sugar

 

Wet ingredients

1/2 cup milk plus another 2 tbsp milk

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar / white vinegar

3 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

METHOD:

 

Add the apple cider vinegar to the milk and leave aside for 5 – 10 minutes.

Mix all the dry ingredients. Make a well in the centre.

Melt the butter. Add the milk/apple cider vinegar mix to this. Add the vanilla extract. Mix.

Add the butter and milk mixture to the dry ingredients.

Stir slowly. Do not over mix.

 

Preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

 

Place your cupcake wrappers in your muffin tray.

Fill them about 1/2 to 3/4 full.

 

Place in oven and bake the cupcakes for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake comes out clean without anything sticking to it. The time it takes for the cupcakes to be ready can vary depending on your oven. So check after about 20 minutes. My oven took 25 minutes.

Remove the cupcakes and place them on a wire rack to cool. You must wait for the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting otherwise they’ll melt the butter cream frosting.

 

For the frosting, I used butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk.

I simply mix the butter and icing sugar together adding as much as I need and a bit of milk (maybe half tsp) to get the consistency I need. I also add about 1-2 drops of vanilla extract.

Once the cupcakes had cooled, I added the frosting and garnished with blueberries, strawberries and pomegranate.

 

 

 

 

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Vegan Vegetarian Afternoon Tea – Finger Sandwiches, Chocolate Cupcakes & Scones Recipe

 

My family and I thoroughly enjoyed this early vegan / vegetarian Queen’s platinum jubilee version of afternoon tea. Ofcourse, we devoured them with tea on the side.

This afternoon tea recipe has both vegan and vegetarian options which would cater for all.

The cupcakes were really soft and tasted delicious with the fresh fruits.

I do hope you have a wonderful celebration of the queen’s platinum jubilee too and I would love to hear about what you make! 🙂