Sicilian Afternoon Tea for The Queens Platinum Jubilee

A Sicilian Lifestyle Blog

The Queens Platinum Jubilee – Afternoon Tea Inspiration 

A few Sicilian twists on some classic recipes for sweet and savoury afternoon tea pastries & sandwiches to celebrate our Queens Platinum Jubilee!

Emilia’s passion for pastry started at 5 years old when she began experimenting with our Neapolitan and Sicilian grandparents baking traditional pastry dishes. Driven by this passion, Emilia spent years in the Pastry Kitchen of The Dorchester Hotel in London, Milan & Paris, where she would prepare 1000’s of delicate pastries for many people from all over the world to enjoy and to experience a part of British heritage and tradition – the Afternoon Tea.

Here are some of her go to recipe ideas for Afternoon Tea with a Sicilian Twist.

A British Scone with Fresh Ricotta & Pistachio 

The Queen of Baking “Mary Berry” has one of our go to recipes for a classic Scone. We use this recipe to create our Sicilian take on the clotted cream and strawberry jam version.  Instead of clotted cream we use 250g fresh ricotta cheese which we have made slightly sweet with 100g of icing sugar and the grated zest of one lemon for a little zing!  We then layer over a good dollop of our silky sweet pistachio cream nut spread and scatter over fresh strawberries.

A Sicilian Twist on the British Victoria Sponge Cake 

To put on a great afternoon tea spread, from experience its not just the recipe and the ingredients you use but also how you present your cakes and pastries which give them that  wow factor! So making sure you choose the right baking mould is essential! We use this beautiful rose mould where are 3 signature cake mixes work a treat and the centre perfectly en-captures our trio of nut creams.

Choose from our Signature Cakes of : Sicilian Pistachio, Sicilian Almond or Sicilian Hazelnut

Not Just any Finger Sandwich 

Lets update the classic finger sandwich by taking our Pesto Trapanese layering it over a slice of crusty bread or if you prefer sliced white for this Afternoon Tea Occasion, then layer with freshly sliced tomatoes and your favourite hard cheese, squeeze together and you are on to a true winner!

Swap Your Tea for a Delicate Coffee 

In Sicily we drink coffee more so than tea, its a ritual for us and we treat it the same as tea. One coffee blend might be more floral and an other more sweet and chocolatey, so have a browse through our selection of artisan Sicilian coffee produced in the Capital Palermo to find and select your favourite blend.

Also why not add a teaspoon of our sweet hazelnut spread to your coffee to make this extra luxury!

Remember though, the most important part of this ritual is that you use the classic Italian Moka Pot  

Swap Your Bubbles for Natural Wine 

We know that Afternoon Tea without Bubbles isn’t really Afternoon Tea, but, why not try something a little different and swap your Prosseco for a Natural Orange wine produced by one of the most well known leaders of the Sicilian natural wine movement Azienda Agricola COS!