How I Pulled Off Mother's Day In Quarantine

I knew I wanted to do something special for my mom but I didn't want to just make a cake like I usually do. I thought to myself, what else do moms like? Flowers? Chocolate? And I thought...omg HIGH TEA! My mom and I haven't been to a lot high teas in our lives but I know we always have a good time when we do go. We both just love sampling different foods and getting a variety of stuff in small amounts, both savoury and sweet.

So for this Mother's Day, I designed a menu, prepared for about 5 days, and successfully executed it on Sunday afternoon. Ngl, this was extremely hard, with my mom being home. I had to really manage my time and sort out a schedule to make sure I would get everything done, and without my mom figuring out what the heck I was doing lol. I'm pretty sure she knew SOMETHING was up but not exactly what I had planned..

First things first, menu. To me, high tea revolves around a lot of small finger foods. So to start off, scones. It's an absolute classic you cannot forget, and to compliment it, a simple whipped butter and strawberry compote. That is the perfect combo suitable to all.

For the savoury section, I wanted something easy to compile that wouldn't take too much time, because I wanted to focus more on the sweets. So to fill up this section, I decided on egg salad finger sandwiches, burger sliders and quiche Lorraine.

Now onto the sweets, yay! Definitely thought to myself, I have to include chocolate and fruits in some way. My mom LOVES chocolate and also some kind of tanginess to cut the sweetness. Blueberry muffins, classic. Cream puffs and eclairs, classic, AND also easy to make. Layered chocolate cake in a cup, decadent (hence the name), and simple. And lastly, chocolate bonbons. Oooff I was really debating about putting this on the menu, simply because chocolate is not my forte. In fact, I HATE dealing with chocolate. All this stuff about tempering stresses me out. But I needed the challenge and it was a chance to put my new coloured cocoa butter to use! Again, mom loves fruity and chocolate paired together, so I designed a strawberry yuzu bonbon.

Day #1-Wednesday

I started off easy and did a little preparation. I decided to make the vanilla(yuzu cream puffs and raspberry eclairs) and chocolate(chocolate decadence) whipped ganache first. Next I did a yuzu cremeux for the filling of the cream puffs. And saving the best for last, the filling for the chocolate bonbons. I did a simple strawberry ganache and paired it with a yuzu caramel. And yes I did mess up the caramel once before I was happy with it. The first time I made the caramel, I made it too dark and it was a bit bitter, to which we threw out. Tried again, and it was actually really delicious! Sweet but with a subtle tanginess.

TL;DR It was a smooth first day of production.

Day #2-Thursday

THE most challenging prep day I kid you not...mainly because I decided to try tempering chocolate and start on the chocolate bonbons. I first cleaned my bonbon mould and started tempering my cocoa butter. It was such a hassle tempering a small amount of colour, and it really did take a long time. I wasn't 100% happy with the design I did but hey, more room for improvement. I covered the moulds in milk chocolate and let it set before filling it with my ganache and caramel. During the waiting game, I made some raspberry jam and chocolate sponge (chocolate decadence), raspberry cremeux (raspberry eclairs), and the blueberry muffin mix.

TL;DR Almost flipped tables trying to temper cocoa butter but overall, a nice productive day.

Day #3-Friday

A little bit of a lighter day...I made the scone dough ahead of time (big mistake), which I messed up one batch and had to throw out, puff dough and egg filling for the quiches, strawberry compote (scones), craquelin topping for the cream puffs and finally, capped my bonbons to finish them.

TL;DR Kept the production short and things went smoothly.

Day #4-Saturday

So this day I focused on doing the choux pastry for the cream puffs and eclairs and also the brioche buns for the burger sliders. The day didn't go as smoothly as I wanted it to...The first batch of choux I had made was ruined because I added the eggs too quickly but I still went ahead and baked them. They actually looked fine in the oven BUT I was dumb and impatient and decided to open the oven too soon to flip the tray and they deflated!!! I was furious...oh my lord but I said forget it, we're going to make this again. So I tossed out that batch and started again. That was only the first half of the production day...next came the brioche buns. I thought I had scaled each piece to be small enough to become sliders but guess I was wrong...55g of dough for each burger bun is basically the size of a regular hamburger. Learn from my mistakes kids. Anyways, I ended the day with something I couldn't possibly mess up, egg salad.

TL;DR Horrendous day...ended up messing up on both the choux pastry and the brioche buns. Moved on.

Day #5-Sunday (PRESENTATION DAY)

Woww this day came quick and boy, was I nervous because I didn't know if I could pull this off. I woke up early to finish prepping, and to do some finalization while my mom was still sleeping. So I took advantage by baking some scones, quiches, muffins, filling cream puffs and eclairs. Luckily, I was able to get my dad on board as well. I told him to go grocery shopping with my mom right before lunch came around, so I could actually plate the stuff I had prepared. Bless the lords for perfect timing, or maybe it was my excellent time management skills ;) because I pulled it off! Right before they had gotten home, I had just finished cooking the patties for the burgers and that was the last thing that needed to be on the display!

Words cannot describe how happy my mom was. She loved every bit of it...took a billion pictures and surely enough, enjoyed eating it.

TL;DR Pat on the back for my perfect timing and time management because I pulled it off and my mom loved it!

And this is the final lovely high tea spread...

I love you mom and you deserve the world.

Better start planning for next Mother's Day to top this one...

#baking #hightea #mothersday #special