Wedding Cake

Shaunna busted her ass baking a bomb wedding cake for some friends of ours. No, we did not eat this cake with tea. I don't care. It totally qualifies as a "treat" and deserves a mention on this blog!

I helped a little by mixing and rolling out fondant. I also made a David Bowie decoration for the top, though it was removed before the final rendition of the cake.

The cake had two tiers - the top tier was blue and gold to represent alliance in the video game World of Warcraft, and the bottom tier was red and black to represent horde.







The flower decorations on the cake are the same we used for the bouquet (which I put together, for the most part)!



Congratulations to the newlyweds Noxy and Glar!

Vintage Castleton, revisited

So my friend Tyler, with the tea he was going to share with Shaunna and I, finally arrived, so I got to break in my new tea set!

We served it with sugar and milk. Unfortunately, there were a few issues with the tea tasting. First, the cups I have in my set are incredibly small, so a cube of sugar and a splash of milk goes a very long way. Second, this tea seems to have an extremely short "prime time" (I don't know if this is an appropriate term) in that it took forever to become more than just slightly flavored water, but it took only a matter of minutes before it was extremely bitter.

So in the start, I began pouring the tea after about 5 or 6 minutes and it still tasted of sugary milk water more so than tea. By the end, no amount of sugar or milk could rescue the bitter chalkiness of over-steeped tea. The flavor, for the short amount of time that it was perfect, was tasty! But unless I use a removable infuser for this blend in the future, I probably won't be trying it again.

Tyler's tea experience wasn't exactly a good first impression. I really want to take him out and force him to try various teas before he decides tea isn't his thing, though!

On the bright side, we also got to try and read our tea leaves in the bottoms of our cups since we didn't have an infuser. The tea menu from the Chado Tea Room had a tea leaf reading part on the back cover. Unfortunately for me, there was no listing for "seahorse".

Chado Tea Room

Because one tea service in 48 hours clearly isn't enough, Shaunna and I hit up another tea room per the recommendation, and accompanied by, another friend of ours, Charleen. We went to Chado Tea Room in Pasadena, CA.

Being that I am trying my best to review tea rooms, by default I had to get the tea service! This included a pot of tea, four tea sandwiches, a scone (with jam and clotted cream), and desserts.



My sandwiches consisted of:

• punjab (a sort of tea-infused egg sandwich, which was quite delicious)
• smoked salmon (simple and tasty)
• souchong chicken sandwich (chicken with jam spread - it tasted like Thanksgiving! ... but again, I'm not a huge savour + sweet fan so this sandwich wasn't exactly for me)
• mediterranean (goat cheese, greens, and nomaliciousness!)

My friends got the tomato soup. I knew I was already going to be exploding from the amount of food and tea served, so I didn't bother with soup or any sort of appetizer. However, by their silence and glazed over eyes, I think the soup was pretty epic.



This is the first scone I've had in a tea room that didn't come with lemon curd. The cream was so delicious with the jam - the fruit was a great touch! The scone was moist, dense, and really good.

The desserts were good - a cookie sandwich of a hazelnut/chocolate spread and a chocolate cake filled with a sort of custard - but I was much too full by this point to even pretend I could eat them.

We enjoyed our waiter. He was nice and helpful when Charleen wasn't sure exactly what sort of tea she wanted. He was also patient with us as we exchanged some sandwiches with others, ordered appetizers and the like. And yes, I know it's his job to do all this - but to do so graciously and in a friendly manner is just all the better!

I was mildly concerned this tea room would be too contemporary or asian for my tastes. I definitely prefer more classic teas, and tea rooms. However, the quaintness mixed with the restaurant-style seating mixed with the tea bar and massive (almost overwhelming) selection of teas actually came together for a really great atmosphere. I would definitely come back here again.

PS. Thank you Charleen for picking up this tea tab! Next one is on me.

Two A Tea

Shaunna and I went for tea today at Two A Tea in Glendora, CA. We both ordered the "Grand Duchess Tea" which included a pot of tea, a scone, soup or salad, and five tea sandwiches. I definitely left feeling extremely full and satisfied.

The scone was very moist and light. It was supposedly a mango scone, though it did not taste significantly as such (which I didn't mind - I was worried it wouldn't go well with the lemon curd, jam, or cream). My only complaint about the scone was the sugar baked on top of it. Far too sweet for my taste! The lemon curd was ridiculously sugary as well. The flavor wasn't bad, but... it was too sweet! The cream was good, and the jam was delicious.

Next came the bruschetta, which wasn't the normal sort of salad with large slices of tomato and slices of mozzarella. Instead, it was cherry tomatoes and shredded mozzarella over greens. The dressing was a balsamic vinagarette. The salad was good, but definitely overdone with the greens. But... it's a salad, so I can't really complain about that!



Lastly came out a two tiered tray with sandwiches! There were a total of ten sandwiches (five different flavors):

• turkey sandwich with some sort of fig dressing (I did not try this one)
• an egg salad sandwich (delicious!)
• a cucumber sandwich (SO good. It wasn't a cucumber salad, but rather a sort of dill or chive dressing on cucumber slices)
• roasted vegetable sandwich (tasted a lot like a red pepper hummus with veggies)
• chicken salad with fruit (as much as I hate to say it... it was terrible. All the flavors in it were good, just not together.)

And, last but certainly not least, the tea! I ordered Darjeeling (it was awesome!) and Shaunna got English Breakfast (I'm assuming it was good... she drank it without complaint.) I had my tea with two lumps and a splash of milk.

As a side note, I joined Steepster and realized they were holding a tea exchange! I joined, and got notified of my secret tea recipient. They marked that they particularly favored darjeeling and chai teas, so I got them darjeeling and chai!



Considering the darjeeling was as good as it was, I felt confident buying both the darjeeling leaves and chai leaves.