A guide to hosting high tea (on a budget)

I’ve always loved the idea of high tea. Could there be anything as wonderful as tea, cakes and pretty plates? As a tea enthusiast and self-proclaimed sweet tooth, high tea was always something I had wanted to experience. So to celebrate my 22^nd birthday, I decided I was going to create the ultimate high tea, but on a budget.

Here is a look into how I hosted a ‘country chic’ style high tea, including tips on how to decorate, what to serve and preparation.

Tea sets:

The most important aspect of your high tea is the tea sets and having beautiful vintage tea sets will absolutely make your high tea. I gathered unique cups, saucers and plate sets from my grandma, friends, and from op-shops. As a lover of antiques and all things ornate, it was great to get a chance to use these beauties that were more than half a century old. You are bound to know people who have tea sets sitting in their cabinets, so ask your family and friends and don’t be afraid to use the special china. This is the perfect occasion to use them!

Serveware:

For serveware, you can essentially use whatever you have at home. However, the more colourful, detailed and vintage looking your serveware is, the better.

I found beauty in pulling random ornate dinner plates from our miscellaneous crockery draws and using those. The local op-shops also had classic floral dinner plates, which I added to my mismatched collection.

I found a bargain crystal-look 3-tiered cake stand from Kmart for just $20 and this became the centrepiece of my table. A tiered cake stand is an essential for any high tea.

I also purchased a retro drink dispenser from Kmart for $15 to serve the tropical fruit punch in.

Decorations:

The style of my high tea was ‘country chic’ so I searched for any decorations with lace and hessian to complement the florals.

I found the perfect plastic white lace tablecloth at The Reject Shop that only cost $3 in comparison to a $100 fabric tablecloth. I also found some other goodies at The Reject Shop including a bag of paper doilies for $3 and hessian bunting for $4.

I purchased a hessian and white lace table runner for $8, which made a  wonderful addition to the table setting. This was from Smart Dollar in Westfield Woden where I also purchased brown label cards to name each dish for only $2.

I repurposed our biscuit jars into flower displays to make a neat and quaint decoration. I filled the jars with white roses from our garden, and put sporadic coloured roses inside the jars – this could be done with whatever flowers you have at your disposal.

Food:

For high tea at home you can serve whatever finger food you would like. If you want to keep it traditional, include scones, tea cake, sandwiches and melting moments. The beauty of hosting is that you can also serve some of your favourite foods along with these traditional high tea dishes.

All of the recipes I used are linked below.

Sweet:

• Scones with jam and cream 
• Cinnamon tea cake 
• Vanilla cupcakes 
• Rainbow cupcakes 
• Salted caramel doughnuts 
• Rocky road 
• Mini raspberry melting moments 
• Pavlovas – purchased nests from Woolworths for and decorated with fresh fruit
• Soft cannoli were purchased from the Italian Continental Bakery in Mawson
• Fresh strawberries

Savoury:

• Cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches 
• Beef and chutney sandwiches 
• Spinach and cheese triangles 
• Vol au vents – vol au vent cases from Woolworths
• Stuffed sweet potatoes

Drinks

• Tea – variety of black, herbal, green and fruit tisanes.
• Rosé
• Juice
• Moscato
• Punch

Schedule:

Timing was the ultimate challenge for the high tea. Many baked treats can’t be prepared early. You need to set a schedule and make sure you plan how much time you will dedicate to each task.

This was my schedule….

Week before

1. Gather cups, saucers, plates, teapots, serveware and decorations
2. Gather ingredients for all recipes

Day before

1. Set up table and chairs
2. Put up bunting
3. Make rocky road, stuffed doughnuts, melting moments and stuffed potatoes
4. Prepare stuffing for vol au vents, and spinach and cheese triangles
5. Bake cupcakes and decorate

Morning of

1. Put out place settings
2. Decorate table
3. Make and put out flower jars
4. Prepare sandwiches
5. Make punch
6. Whip cream for pavlovas and scones
7. Decorate pavlovas
8. Fill vol au vents and spinach and cheese triangles
9. Put scones and tea cake in the oven and serve hot when guests arrive
10. Prepare tea and milk jugs
11. Put vol au vents and spinach and cheese triangles in the oven, then serve hot

Some of my friends brought plates of food to help out because this high tea was for 16 people! To pull this off successfully, I also needed the help of my amazing mum. I suggest enlisting a friend, sibling, parent or partner to help you with the cooking in the morning. The last-minute baking can get pretty hectic!

I hope this article has inspired you to put on your own high tea at home! Although it involves a lot of preparation, you will not regret it.

Happy high tea-ing!

You might also be interested in making some of our recipes if you have time. Check out our recipes for Peach Bellini Layer Cake, Red Wine and Dark Chocolate Cake, Homemade Sausage Rolls and the Summer Coconut and Mango Cake to make your high tea extra special. 

About the Author

Bronte is Eat Canberra’s self-professed ‘hungry pescetarian’. She is always looking for Canberras next best vego dish, or finding some other excuse to go out for a meal. Aside from her food obsessed life, Bronte is a marketing graduate with a love for travel and adventure.