Saturday, April 9, 2011

Weekend Cooking: REVIEW: Alice's Tea Cup: Delectable Recipes for Scones, Cakes, Sandwiches, and More from New York's Most Whimsical Tea Spot, by Haley Fox

Alice's Tea Cup: Delectable Recipes for Scones, Cakes, Sandwiches, and More from New York's Most Whimsical Tea Spot, by Haley Fox. Published 2010 by William Morrow Cookbooks.

I'm starting to develop a mini-collection of cookbooks from my favorite New York City restaurants, and the latest addition is the wonderful Alice's Tea Cup from the equally wonderful eponymous restaurant and tea shop.

Alice's Tea Cup is a small chain of eateries in NYC; I've visited two, several times, and it's just one of my favorite places. Ultra-girly with an Alice in Wonderland theme, big girls (and boys) can enjoy wonderful sandwiches, soups, salads and incredible baked goods, along with teas from their phone-book-sized tea menu. The cookbook includes a variety of their most notable offerings, including Lapsong Souchang Chicken, various salads and of course their incredible, unforgettable scones.
 I made the Mixed Berry Scones, which uses their basic scone recipe but handfuls of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. They were delicious! I would make them again in a heartbeat and look forward to trying more recipes!

The recipe was easy to follow and sensible, and of course the resulting scones were fantastic. The recipe did not give the yield but I made about 13 scones from one batch. They took longer to cook than the book said they would (17 minutes versus 12) but I think the reason is that I baked all the scones on one sheet rather than breaking them up into two batches. A friend was on her way over and I didn't have time to bake the batches separately! But they came out perfect and since there is no egg in the recipe, it was just a matter of cooking them long enough for the ingredients to settle together.

I highly recommend the book if you like to make sweet treats. I haven't tried any of the savory recipes (yet) but I can't imagine they're anything but wonderful. It's a great way to get a little taste of New York in your own kitchen.

Weekend Cooking is hosted at Beth Fish Reads.

13 comments:

rhapsodyinbooks said...

These look wonderful! I make scones on most weekends, and am always looking for variations. I love restaurants like this too, although there are none where I happen to live at the moment!

bermudaonion said...

Your scones are beautiful! I love Alice's Tea Cup as well.

Beth F said...

Your scones looks so good -- and all that fruit makes them scream of summer. Yummmm. I like that idea of collecting cookbooks from a certain city or area.

I have never been to an Alice's Tea Cup, but I may fix that next time in the city.

caite said...

SCONES!!
it must be scone day...or great minds think alike, as you will see if you wander over to my post.

CLM said...

It's a great place to take bookish friends. The Betsy-Tacy NY group has met there on occasion.

I must get this cookbook!

TheBookGirl said...

This looks like my kind of cookbook -- one that is as fun to read as it is to cook from.

Delicious looking scones :)

JoAnn said...

I love scones, and hope to visit Alice's Tea Cup next time I'm in NYC. Great post!

Meg @ write meg! said...

Definitely adding this to my itinerary when I'm in New York next month, too! Yay! Sounds like such fun, and I love scones.

Julie Goucher said...

The scones look great!

Marie said...

I love scones. These look delicious!

Chinoiseries said...

You know, I was just thinking of getting a new cookbook on baking, and here you have written your review :) Adding this to my to-get list now! Your scones look delicious!

Jesse said...

Yum! I love scones! I'll have to add this book to my amazon cart!

Heather said...

What a terrrific name for a cafe. Those scones look scrumptious.