A Literary Tea Party

A Literary-Inspired Cookbook for Voracious Readers at Teatime

Alison Walsh

Book Blurb:

Tea and books: the perfect pairing. There's nothing quite like sitting down to a good book on a lovely afternoon with a steaming cup of tea beside you, as you fall down the rabbit hole into the imaginative worlds of Alice in Wonderland, The Hobbit, and Sherlock Holmes . . . 

Fire up your literary fancies and nibble your way through delicate sweets and savories with A Literary Tea Party, which brings food from classic books to life with a teatime twist. Featuring fifty-five perfectly portioned recipes for an afternoon getaway, including custom homemade tea blends and beverages, you will have everything you need to plan an elaborate tea party. Cook up and enjoy:

Turkish Delight while sipping on the White Witch’s Hot Chocolate from The Chronicles of Narnia

Drink Me Tea with the Queen of Hearts’s Painted Rose Cupcakes from Alice in Wonderland

Eeyore’s “Hipy Bthuthday” Cake with Hundred Acre Hot Chocolate from Winnie the Pooh

Hannah’s Sweet Potato Bacon Pastries and Jo’s Gingerbread from Little Women

Tom Sawyer’s Whitewashed Jelly Doughnuts from Tom Sawyer

And more!

Accompanied with photographs and book quotes, these recipes, inspired by the great works of literature, will complement any good book for teatime reading and eating.

The premise behind this book is simple: selected passages from different literary works were pair with dishes and tea blends inspired by the quote. As someone who's brewing a fresh pot of English Breakfast while everyone is having their morning coffee, who enjoys reading, and who likes to bake, I found this book delightful. The book has four main sections - Savories, Bread & Muffins, Sweets, and Homemade Tea Blends.  I found the Tea Blend most interesting as I don't remember any other cookbooks listing recipes for creating your own tea blends.

I haven't tried any of the recipes (yet), but they look reasonable (no weird ingredients or using 4 cups of sugar for a dozen 3" cookies).  And the resulting treats look enticing.  I especially like the Queen of Hearts' painted rose cupcakes where a drop of red food gel is used to create delicately swirled frosting.  The Savory Apple Rose Tartlets are another favorite.

There are a few formatting issues which maybe due to the fact I was viewing a pre-release ebook.  For example, after each recipe, there's a tea pairing surrounded by a box.  In the tea blend section, there's a food pairing, but just as plain text - no surround.  The surrounding box is also displayed inconsistantly; for one, the tea pairing is after the ingredient list, but before the written instructions, and on the next, it is displayed after the accompaning photo, before the recipe title.

I know these are minor quibbles; my real grip is that Ms. Walsh didn't select a quote from one of my favorite books and develop a recipe for "some decorated killer chocolate things with the density of plutonium."

Recommended.

**I received a complementary pre-release copy of this book through Net Galley and voluntarily chose to review.