Traveling Teacups: Honey Madeleines

The flavor of honey really comes through in these madeleines. These are very simple to make but a madeleine mold is required to get the traditional shell shape.


¼ cup butter
2 eggs
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon honey
½ cup flour
½ teasp baking powder
Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter madeleine molds. In a small saucepan, melt ¼ cup butter. Cool. In a bowl, beat eggs and sugar until pale and thick. Stir in melted butter and honey. Sift flour and baking powder onto egg mixture, then fold in. Spoon mixture into prepared molds. Bake 10 minutes, until light golden-brown. Leave in molds 2 minutes, then turn out and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Dust lightly with powdered sugar. Makes 12.

Traveling Teacups: Chocolate Fudge

You'll need a pan with high sides to make this fudge because it really bubbles up. You'll also need a candy thermometer. This recipe is a bit more bother than 5-minute fudge made with marshmallow cream but I promise that the extra effort is worth it. The only real difficulty with this fudge is waiting the six hours until it hardens!

3 cups sugar
1 cup half-and-half
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
¼ cup light corn syrup
3 tablespoons butter plus additional for greasing the pan
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Line a 10” square pan with wax paper and let the edges overhang by a couple inches. This is for easy removal. Butter the paper and set aside.

Combine the sugar, half-and-half, chocolate, corn syrup, butter and salt in a deep, heavy saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar and chocolate are completely dissolved and the mixture comes to a boil.

Clip a candy thermometer to the inside of the pan. Raise the heat to medium and cook without stirring until the mixture reaches 236º (just short of the soft boil stage). Remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to cool undisturbed until the thermometer reads 110º.

Add the vanilla and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture loses its gloss and thickens to the consistency of cake icing. Using a buttered spatula, spread the mixture into the prepared pan and let it rest at room temperature for at least 6 hours.

When the fudge is firm, grab the edges of the wax paper and pull the candy out of the pan. Using a sharp knife, cut the fudge into bite size pieces.

Traveling Teacups: Zucchini Bread and Honey Butter

This recipe makes two loaves. Freeze one for another time.

3 cups flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup oil
2 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour two 8”x4” pans. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Combine the oil and sugar in a large bowl and beat until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the zucchini and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir just enough to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans.

Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for about 10 minutes. Invert and cool before serving.


Honey Butter

¾ cup butter, softened
½ cup honey

Use a food processor or electric mixer to combine the butter and honey. Refrigerate until firm.

The Traveling Teacups Menu

The Traveling Teacups menu is a simple one. It has lots of tasty treats. They are easy to carry and no hassle to arrange. Remember to always keep the cold food like the sandwich fillings cold.

I don’t include soup or a salad for this tea as it requires extra dishes and carrying containers and these are messy foods to eat for older folks. I like my scones warm from the oven so I take tea bread instead.

Traveling Teacups Menu

Zucchini Bread with Honey Butter
Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches on White and Brown
Ham Salad Tea Sandwiches on Brown and White
Homemade Pickles
Thumbprint Cookies
Fresh Fruit
Chocolate Fudge
Madeleines
Guangdong Black (Guang Dong He) from Silk Road Teas

Things to Carry in Your Tea Basket

Teapot and thermos of prepared tea
Plates, teacups, saucers, spoons, knives for spreading the honey butter
Pretty napkins
Sugar and a couple artificial sweetener packs
Lemon slices (older ladies like this)
Tea towels for protecting the cups and saucers and teapot
The tea food packed in disposable containers so you can leave any leftovers behind
Freezer packs
A flower and vase for the tea table
Prepared reading material, you might not use this but it is good to have just in case

Things to Carry in Your Head

Older ladies often ask me to say a blessing before eating so be prepared.
Have a couple leading questions ready. All people love to tell their stories so give your guest that opportunity.
Keep in mind the reason for this tea. Even if annoying things happened to you that morning, put on your happy face and don't mention one word of complaint.
Don't get so caught up in laying out the tea food that you ignore your guest, even for a moment.
Allow yourself to feel joyful.

A Traveling Teacups Tea

One of the nicest ways to share tea is with an elderly lady or a shut-in, someone who is recovering from an illness or maybe just doesn’t get around as she used to. You bring the tea to your guest’s home and spend time pampering her there.

This is a light, simple tea. The biggest chore is making certain you have everything packed with you. You’ll need not only the tea bread or muffins, a couple tea sandwiches, some sweets and the tea to serve but also the cups, teapot, napkins and plates. While your guest probably has the hardware in her own kitchen, you can’t expect her to provide this.

The food should be rather light, simple to eat and not require a knife and fork. Highly seasoned food, food containing large pieces of nuts or fruit and food that is sticky should be avoided. Older folks who aren’t well often have trouble with their digestion and their teeth so make it easy for them.

I carry my food to the tea in a market basket and take the tea, already prepared, in a thermos bottle. I use throw-away containers for the food and surround them with a couple ice packs. Everything is cut into serving size pieces when packed. I wrap my teacups and plates in pretty tea towels to protect them.

Plan on keeping the visit short if your guest is recovering from an illness or surgery. Even the best intentioned, most welcome visitors can be tiring. If your guest is feeling pretty well but is a shut-in, plan your exit strategy in advance. I don’t mean that to sound harsh but sometimes it is difficult to get away as your guest will want to talk and talk and not let you out the door. Assure your guest that you’ll be back another time but that you have to get to an appointment. You don’t need to reveal that your appointment is dinner with your family.

Sometimes the elderly friend has a husband or other person residing in the home. You’ll naturally want to include this person. The only exception might be paid help but even then, you should bring enough for her too. A nurse or housekeeper won’t necessarily join the party but she will appreciate having a special treat for her lunch break.

A special case for traveling teacups is taking tea to a person in a nursing home. The staff is usually very accommodating and genuinely happy their resident is having a special day but clear it with them first. You wouldn’t want to arrive only to find your guest is out for a doctor’s appointment. You’ll also want to find out if the tea can be served in the guest’s room or if you’ll need to set up in an activity room or even the cafeteria during off hours.

If your guest is in a private room, just close the door and no one will even know what you’re doing. If your guest has roommates, you’ll probably want to bring enough for them. If you are serving tea in a public room, look out. Chances are you’ll have curious folks coming into the room to investigate. They are lonely too and it is nice to be able to offer a little muffin or cookie.

You really don’t need any decorations for this tea since you won’t know exactly what kind of serving surface you’ll have. A single rose in a little vase would be the only thing I’d bring. Pretty paper napkins make clean up easier as you won’t have to carry them back home with you. Do use pretty china; it makes the tea especially festive. Plate the food for your guest so you won’t need any serving pieces.

If you have leftovers or extras, leave them with your guest to enjoy another time. You might bring extra fresh fruit to leave behind as it is so expensive and older folks often do without. On the other hand, don’t leave a large amount of anything. Being frugal, your guest might feel obligated to eat the leftovers even after they have gone past their prime.

For some guests, conversation is all the activity they want but you might want to offer to read. The Bible, old fashioned poetry and short stories from magazines like Guideposts or Readers’ Digest are always favorites. If your guest has a piano in her home, you could offer to play for her. Old hymns, songs from her childhood or school days work well.

Some older ladies love being around children, perfectly behaved children. If your guest asks to see your kid and you know she can sit calmly without demanding your attention, go ahead and bring her along. Often children make older folks nervous though. Don’t ask to bring your kid or even hint. Do this only if your guest asks.

Traveling Teacups is a very rewarding way to share tea. Your tea guest will be so delighted and you’ll feel happy that you were able to do this for her. I especially love the stories about my town that my older ladies can tell, as well as, stories about how they raised their families in long ago days. I promise that you’ll get more from this experience than you’ll give.

Tomorrow: Traveling Teacups Menu

Tea Etiquette

A lot of people today seem to be making a living from selling tea etiquette. There are entire books devoted to this subject and long chapters in most every other tea book. Tea etiquette lecturers proclaim that they are experts, trained by some prestigious-sounding institute. And page after web page tells us how to behave at teas. To all this I say, "Nonsense!"

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate good manners and a broad working knowledge of etiquette. But make it practical, make it relate to real situations, don’t try to make rules for the sake of making rules. I like the etiquette of "don’t gross out your dining companions." You know, don’t chew with your mouth open, don’t put your used napkin on the table, don’t mess your food around on your plate. And I appreciate the etiquette of formal situations; this keeps everyone on the same page. At a funeral when everyone is distressed, no one needs to think of what to do, the rules of etiquette take over.

Do we really need a rule of etiquette that tells us not to touch the side of the teacup with the spoon? Common sense and even absent-minded observation tells us that the teacup is delicate and clanking against it with a spoon might damage it. And why must it be prescribed which way the teapot sits on the table? The hostess should be able to reach the handle easily, nothing more.

And then there is always the pinkie question. So many teacups have either tiny handles or no handles at all. A tea drinker might find it more comfortable to extend her pinkie--that shouldn’t elicit snickers from her companions. Who cares!

The owner of a Brighton tea shop called the Tea Cosy was recently made fun of by a London newspaper writer for having a list of rules on how to behave in his tearoom. There, being critical of the royal family will get you kicked out as quickly as slurping your tea. A tearoom close to me in the US used to state in their ads and web page that "Tea is a dress up occasion. Hats and gloves are not mandatory but they are appreciated." Then a long list of banned clothing followed. In both cases, the owner is trying to foist his fantasy onto his customers. It is up to the customers whether to buy into this silliness or drink tea somewhere else.

My rules of tea etiquette are the same as my rules for any time one eats in public: don’t make a mess and don’t annoy your dining companions, be gracious, be kind, be upbeat.

Lemon Sorbet

This recipe requires an ice cream freezer. If you don’t have one, you can find delicious sorbet at your local grocery.

1 cup sugar
1 ¼ cups water
4 lemons
1 egg white

Boil together the sugar and water, until the sugar has dissolved. Add strips of the peel of two lemons into the sugar syrup. Add the juice from all four lemons to the syrup. Strain out the peel and add the mixture to the ice cream freezer. Churn until thick. Add the egg white and continue to churn for 10-15 minutes until firm enough to scoop. Pack into plastic containers and freeze until it hardens or until you’re ready to serve it.