When I was asked by the lovely people at Portmeirion UK to style up an afternoon tea featuring their beautiful Botanic Garden range  I was delighted as everyone knows how much I love my florals!  The iconic Botanic Garden designs are instantly recognisable with their green borders and vibrant botanical details. The range features a variety of floral illustrations adapted from Thomas Green’s Universal or-Botanical, Medical and Agricultural Dictionary (1817)  and the botanical detail in each piece is wonderful! Featuring Forget-me-nots, Sweet William, Poppies, Hydrangeas and so much more, each piece is a complete delight.

Setting a beautiful table is a particular passion of mine and guests love to sit down and enjoy a visual feast even before a bite has been taken!  I believe that afternoon tea is one of the most delightful treats around and every detail has to be perfect to get the full benefit of the experience.  Afternoon tea is generally a leisurely affair with teapots being refilled whilst everyone enjoys the dainty desserts and catching up with friends.

On this occasion I used the Portmeirion Botanic Garden Teapot with the Botanic Garden Teacup & Saucer New Motifs Set of 6 along with a selection of plates and gorgeous accessories including the beautiful Botanic Garden Pastry Fork & Teaspoon Set of 12 and the stunning Pimpernel Botanic Gardens Napkins.

I used three of the 8 inch Botanic Garden plates in my cake stand with scones, cupcakes and little desserts and it all looked super pretty. When making the cakes and desserts I wanted to continue the botanical summer garden feel so used little sugar flowers to decorate the macarons and cupcakes and made mini pavlovas with fresh fruit and the prettiest of all were the little shot glass lemon cheesecakes with edible flowers which tied in perfectly with the Botanic Garden theme.

The beautiful Botanic Garden range evokes lots of happy memories for me of summer holidays as a child visiting lovely gardens and parks and admiring all the beautiful plants and flowers. The illustrations on this range are timeless and so vibrant and immediately transport you to sunny days and summer gardens. This along with yummy little desserts makes it the perfect afternoon tea experience and I will be having lots more little tea parties featuring this beautiful china.

The little shot glass lemon cheesecake desserts with edible flowers are the perfect easy summery dessert and can be made individually like this or as a full size cheesecake and the recipe is as follows-

Cheesecake Base

Combine 125g melted butter with 250g of crushed biscuits (I use Lotus biscuits or ginger nuts as these go well with the lemon)

Either divide up into little shot glasses or press into a round tin

Lemon Topping-

250ml whipping cream

350g condensed milk

Juice of 2 large lemons

Whip cream with electric mixer until fairly stiff then add condensed milk and incorporate into cream using a hand whisk. Quickly add the lemon juice and mixture will thicken as you mix it through.

Pour mixture over base (if putting into shot glasses I use a piping bag without nozzle as this is a lot easier than trying to spoon it in)

Decorate with edible flowers or some fresh fruit for a pretty look.

Happy baking!

To view the full Botanic Garden range click here

Louise xxx

 

*This is a collaborative post and all items featured were gifted to me by  Portmeirion UK for the purpose of this blog post. All opinions are my own.