Coronation Year Afternoon Tea

Here’s a suggested menu for your Coronation Year Tea Party or book club gathering — but I do hope you’ll include your own particular favourites!

Although the late afternoon is traditional for teatime, you could easily serve this to your book club gathering in the evening. Simply add a green salad to accompany the savoury tart or galette and you have a supper that will satisfy all your guests.

Cucumber, smoked salmon, and egg salad sandwiches
Quiche lorraine or wild mushroom and stilton galette
Sugar-crusted scones with clotted cream, preserves, and fresh berries
The Blue Lion Gingerbread Loaf
Scottish shortbread, lemon squares, and cheesecake brownies
Sparkling wine / Mimosas / Fresh-squeezed orange juice
Orange pekoe, Earl Grey, and peppermint tea

And here are a few suggestions for easy and inexpensive ways to decorate your table and home for your Coronation Year gathering.

  • this is the time to dust off your good china and silver and use it!
  • it’s easy to track down copyright-free images (for example, old maps of London or England, vintage travel posters, stylized Union Jacks or the English flag), print them on cardstock, and cut into triangles or postcard-size flags which can be strung on ribbon and used as bunting.
  • the online marketplace Etsy has many vendors offering downloadable party décor. I’ve purchased design packs for parties that include bunting, cupcake wrappers, cake toppers, invitations and more.
  • make English country garden-style posies by cutting short the stems of grocery-store flowers and arranging them in a cream jug, pretty drinking glass, or empty jam jar decorated with ribbon. You can find detailed instructions here.
  • make your own fascinators with scraps of ribbon, pre-made bows, feathers, sequins, beads, or anything else that catches your eye. Arrange your confection on a small circle of coordinating felt, hot-glue everything in place, then attach to a hair clip or hair band.
  • ask your friends to bring along royals-related memorabilia for a show-and-tell.
  • cue up my Coronation Year Spotify playlist or watch the film of the 1953 Coronation.