Valentine’s Day Afternoon Tea

My daughters love afternoon herbal tea parties.

I’ve thrown a few large-scale ones: a baby shower

and a bridal shower and my girls have loved them.

I asked my daughters if they wanted to do a Galentine’s Tea Party for Valentine’s Day and they said, “Yes!”.

My husband was in the room when I asked our girls and he said, “Make enough food for me—that tea party food is GOOD”. So, I asked him if he wanted to take part and he said he would.

I decided we’d do a family Afternoon Herbal Tea Party for Valentine’s Day.

We had it after school the day before Valentine’s Day and while my 11-year-old son needed some coaxing to attend, in the end, we all enjoyed it.

As we were eating, I asked everyone to go around and tell each family member why they loved them.

It was the perfect conversation that was both sweet and funny.

I have a lot of witty family members so there were a lot of laughs.

Overall, our Family Valentine’s Day Herbal Tea Party will be a memory I hope I never forget.

How to make this Valentine’s Day Afternoon Tea

While it does take a bit of prep work for an elaborate tea party like this, I find that making a few items in advance like the cucumber sandwich spread, the egg salad sandwich mix, and the homemade desserts helps cut prep time immensely on the day of the tea party.

Also, purchasing items like preserves, pre-made desserts, and anything else you can buy makes it much easier and quicker to assemble.

1- Make these cucumber sandwiches. To modify the sandwiches for Valentine’s Day, use a medium-sized cookie cutter and cut out the heart. Assemble the sandwiches after the heart has been cut out of the bread.

2- Make the egg salad sandwich recipe (recipe coming soon). To modify the sandwiches for Valentine’s Day, use a small heart-shaped cookie cutter and cut out three hearts in each slice of bread. Assemble the sandwiches after the hearts have been cut out of the bread.

Note for both sandwiches- cutting out the bread into heart-shapes before adding the spread is less messy and saves on the waste of the filing ingredients PLUS, you can use the leftover bread for other things like bread crumbs and/or I plan to make fried eggs inside the heart-shaped slices for breakfast the next day so it doesn’t go to waste.

3- Make this scone recipe.

To modify the scones for Valentine’s Day, using a medium-sized cookie cutter, cut out the scones in heart shape. Follow the rest of the recipe to the letter and the scones will turn out great despite the change in size/shape.

Note- You will likely yield fewer scones than the original recipe states by making them into hearts. They may also need a few more minutes of baking time. Remove them once they are golden brown around the edges.

4- Pour strawberry preserves or jam into a serving bowl with a serving spoon.

5- Make this Americanized Clotted Cream recipe (recipe coming soon)- Pour in a serving bowl with a serving spoon.

6- For the desserts- make and/or purchase desserts. I always do both; I bake and I purchase desserts to fill the top of the 3-tiered stand for tea parties.