Tea Time Baking - Making Scones, Rose Cookies and Lemon Curd Sponge Cake

This weekend, like countless others around the world, I swooned over the pictures of the royal wedding across the seas. A lovely ceremony, a smart and beautiful bride's journey from a commoner to royal and just the picture perfectness of this modern day fairy tale - what's not there to love and rejoice! I completely resonated with a Washington Post article this weekend saying did we ever realize how much we really needed this message of love and hope particularly at this time which has the power to bring everyone together - so true.

Image Credit: Barnes & Noble
In spirit of the royal wedding, our local Sur La Table had a special going on their British Baking class making the tea time baked favorites - rose cookies, lemon curd sponge cake and savory scones.

I have always loved traditional English tea time foods and experiences and combined with my baking mania of now, this seemed like a perfect opportunity to spend an afternoon baking tea time favorites with fellow local foodies.

All three recipes were from The Cottage Kitchen cookbook

Rosedrop cookies:
Of the three, rose cookies were our family's favorite. They are light crumbly cookies with a strong English rose flavor. They are the perfect companion for an English cup of tea. They just melt in your mouth and leave you with an enticing lingering rose essence on your palette to cherish. It took us about 10 minutes to finish the 12 small cookies I brought home. 
Rosedrop Cookies
The recipe used potato starch - which I used in baking for the first time - resulted in a dough which was not sticky at all and was a pleasure to handle! I'll definitely be using more potato flour or potato starch in home baking going forward.

Prosecco Scones:
No English teatime would be complete without a savory and flaky scone! We made ours with prosecco - it turned out wonderful. An addition of thyme in the recipe gave it the what is it intrigue. Slice the scone in half, slather with some cottage cream and jam and it's the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon high tea.
Prosecco Scones
Lemon Curd Sponge Cake:
I felt this recipe was a bit too sweet for my taste. I preferred the other two - but there were many swooning over the lemon curd sponge cake. We made two sponge cakes. Made lemon curd and whipped cream to go as filling in between the two cakes. Topped with more lemon curd and sprinkled some powdered sugar and lemon zest on top for good measure! It tasted lovely.
Lemon Curd Sponge Cake
All in all, it was another enjoyable baking class I took spending a lazy afternoon with local foodies, sipping our tea and the hard-earned tea time goodies!