The loveFOOD guide to... teatime cakes and biscuits
Teatime is treat time. Here’s our guide to the best buns, cakes, and biccies to serve with a pot of tea.
Hot cross buns
Though associated with Easter, there’s something rather nice about enjoying a fruity, spiced bun all year round. If you're making your own, perhaps leave the cross off the top as we did in our April fool from 2012. Despite being a sweet bun they also hold their own against things like cheese. You can also make a mean bread and butter pudding with them if you’ve got loads left over or spot a bargain in the shops.
Victoria sponge cake
Surely the Cake Regina of teatime. Like the lady herself this cake has dignity. It’s also a versatile bake, happy to grace any occasion and pretty much enjoyed by everyone.
Pam Corbin’s Victoria sandwich
Bourbon biscuits
What’s your favourite biscuit? It’s a question we asked on lovefood in 2013, and it seems digestives and chocolate HobNobs are enjoyed the most by you lot. But what about trying to make your own chocolate Bourbons instead. To be honest any biscuit makes a cup of tea into a mini meal. Just make sure it's a biscuit good for dipping, as Peter Kay warns...
Scones
Another teatime treat, another question: ‘How do you pronounce scone?’ Is it scone to rhyme with John, or scone to rhyme with Joan? It's a question we tried to answer definitively in 2012. Whichever way you say it, a scone with jam and clotted cream is a real teatime treat. They're easy to make – just make sure you work quickly after adding the wet ingredients, so the baking powder in the self-raising flour can go to work. You’re after light, airy scones.
Gingerbread
Another great teatime cake, only this one has the fiery kick of ginger. Edd Kimber’s recipe below takes things to the max by adding chilli. A slice of this by the fire on a cold evening will soon warm you up.
Edd Kimber's Nanna's Gingerbread recipe
Shortbread
A classically Scottish biscuit, much loved throughout the UK. Indeed it was chosen as the biscuit to represent the UK at the ‘Cafe Europe’ event to mark Austria’s presidency of the EU in 2006. It also happens to be one of the easiest biscuits to make at home, and a good way to get kids into baking.
Rachel Allen's chocolate dipped orange shortbread biscuits recipe
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