You’ve heard of cottage teapots? They usually feature a cosily thatched cottage, complete with a cottage flower garden. Fitz and Floyd upped the elegance a notch with the Chateau Teaset from the mid-1980s. Which I received as a gift when it first came out. Gulp. Time does fly!
I don’t recall if there were any other pieces to the set besides the creamer and sugar. The set has survived several moves, multiple kids, pets and now, grandkids.
The pinky-apricot shades reminded me of rhubarb, an old-fashioned ingredient most often found in pies and cobblers, due to its tendency to disintegrate into a delicious, but messy state. I recalled seeing an elegant cake on the SprinkleBakes site—a Rhubarb Ribbon Pineapple Mousse Cake. Isn’t it pretty? Heather Baird’s recipes are not only delicious, but her photography is outstanding. I love the ombre effect produced by continuing to peel down through the rhubarb stalk’s layers of colour.
I’m not a huge fan of pineapple and engaged in some further recipe digging to come up with a Rhubarb Ribbon Cake from America’s Test Kitchen. I modified the recipe to make this Rhubarb Tartan Cake, so named for the checkered pattern on the top.
In some lights, it’s more striped than checkered. But whichever way you slice it, it’s delicious!
The little green cabbage plates echoed the leaf handle on the Fitz & Floyd teapot.
They came as part of the English Garden set from Certified International, show in this post:
We’ve had a wonderful crop of David Austin’s Generous Gardener climbing roses this year. I picked the last of the white peonies, added the peachy pink roses and some stems of Lady’s Mantle for a casually elegant addition to our tea on the porch.
Two of the cake layers are baked within pans whose bottoms are lined with thinly sliced rhubarb tossed in sugar. The top layer is made lining the bottom of the pan with two crisscrossed layers of peeled rhubarb strips, trimmed to fit. More rhubarb and sugar is cooked down before being zapped with an immersion blender, cooled and then added to the frosting.
I’ve put the recipe in a separate post, Rhubarb Tartan Cake.
In other news, Entertablement—Much Depends on Dinner is now available in Kindle form. It’s a fixed-format digital replica of the printed copy. Though I love a hard copy, I find there are several advantages to the digital version: price point, portability, and for those of us with challenged eyesight, the ability to zoom in on the pictures or the typeface. You don’t have to own a Kindle to use the digital version—the Kindle App is free to download on tablets, phones and computers.
The hardback version is at the printer as we speak and will be available in mid-July. through Amazon and our soon-to-be-launched Entertablement Books site.
Whew! It sure feels good to finish up that project!
This looks like a wonderful tea party and that cake looks awesome and only you would have the patience to make it as it looks like a lot of work and patience. Hope to see you soon.
It wasn’t too bad, Maura! Some take a lot more fiddling around. 🙂
See you guys soon!
Dear Helen, Green, pink, and white–so summery and light. Fitz and Floyd had so many sweet figurative things, including these tea pots. I had to giggle when I saw your flowers…the other morning I clipped zillions of Sweet Honey roses (a Kordes-bred rose, as Austin roses don’t do well here; too wet) and the last of the white peonies. Thought of going to the neighbour’s for lady’s mantle but it was too early (5 a.m.). Still, it looks so like yours it’s funny.
I love the tartan cake top, although rhubarb is finished here, so maybe next year. Isn’t the test kitchen the best? Leaving next week for France, where we will actually eat food I haven’t cooked, in a real live restaurant setting! First time in almost a year and a half. So looking forward to it. Congrats on the book…will pursue it soon.
Great minds think (and garden) alike, Beatrice. Lady’s Mantle is a wonderful filler plant; the chartreuse colour sets off most flowers beautifully.
Have a marvellous time in France. Restaurants are open everywhere in the US and it’s been a pleasure getting back to eating something other than my own cooking. Enjoy!
Amazing cake! Perfection on your green glass cake stand!! Green is my favorite color too.
Green goes with most other colors, does it it? So flexible.
Hello!
I absolutely love your table, the cake, and the flowers! I have the teapot, I bought it new when it came out. Thing is I didn’t buy the sugar or creamer set and am now searching for them.
Any chance you have duplicates?
Many thanks,
Elizabeth
Thanks so much, Elizabeth!
Unfortunately I do not have duplicates. But you might try registering a search with both Replacements and eBay. I find both of those sources to be very helpful.
Thanks for stopping by the blog!
Best,
Helen