Let’s celebrate Dream Tea Week with free recipes and a giveaway!!

I don’t know about you, but I am a total sucker for biscuits; they are my Achilles heel!! I find it impossible to stick to just ONE and usually end up pinching a minimum of three from the biscuit barrel. I’m a dunker, too, depending on the biscuit and the beverage. I’m not quite as gross as my boys, who like to dunk their biscuits in their squash. Ewwww yuck!!

Dream Tea Week

National Children’s Charity Dreams Come True has launched it’s national fundraising campaign – Dream Tea 2015. The Dream Tea encourages people across the UK to take time out with their friends and enjoy a cup of tea together with a slice of cake or biscuit whilst raising money to provide the power of dream fulfilment to unwell children.

Dreams Come True conducted a fun survey to find out what tea-time treats remind people most of their childhood, and I wasn’t surprised by their findings;

• With 43 per cent of the vote, Wagon Wheels proved the most popular teatime treat, making people nostalgic for their childhoods.
• A notable female bias pushes Pink Wafer Fingers to second place with 35 per cent.

Pink Wafer Fingers came in second place with nearly 35 per cent of the vote, but interestingly, this tea-time treat proved much more reminiscent of childhood for females – around 43.5 per cent, compared to males with 26 per cent. Gender comparison also revealed a further divergence between the sexes on Iced Gems – 41.5 per cent females to 22.5 per cent males. And 29.5 per cent of females had fond memories of Fondant Fancies versus 15 per cent of males.

In close third place, Jammy Dodgers pulled in 33 per cent of the UK vote and were notably more popular than Wagon Wheels in Scotland – 47 per cent, compared to Wagon Wheels at 44.5 per cent. And in Wales, 42 per cent voted for Jammy Dodgers compared to 38 per cent for Wagon Wheels. Although I don’t know about you, I think they are a heck of a lot smaller than they used to be. I can’t believe it’s just the fact that I have grown.

My tea-time favourites have got to be Custard Creams and Bourbon’s or the SAS of biscuits ‘Hob Nobs’ (Peter Kay sketch anyone?).

You can read the full report here.

Lovely Lavender Biscuits

MAKES ABOUT 18

• 1 heaped tbsp lavender flowers (no stalks)
• 175 g self-raising flour, sifted
• 50 g caster sugar pinch of salt
• 25 g semolina
• 130 g unsalted butter, straight from the fridge
• caster sugar, for sprinkling

YOU WILL ALSO NEED

5 cm heart-shaped or round cutter

METHOD

• Put the lavender and flour into a food processor and chop finely.
• Add the sugar, salt and semolina and whizz to combine. Finely chop or coarsely grate the butter into the mixture and whizz again until a dough forms. Squash into a flat disc, wrap tightly in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Mark 4 and line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
• Place the chilled dough between two sheets of fresh cling film and roll out to a thickness of 3–4mm. Using a 5 cm cutter, stamp out hearts or circles. Place on the prepared trays, spacing them at least 3 cm apart, and sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake for 15–20 minutes, or less if the biscuits are very small. Sprinkle generously with caster sugar straight after taking them out of the oven, and leave to cool.

This recipe is exclusive to Dream Tea.

Pizza Cake

SERVES 4 (MORE IF IT’S FOR CHILDREN)

MAKING TIME

15 minutes

BAKING TIME

30–35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 3 large eggs
• 110 ml olive oil
• 75 ml semi-skimmed milk
• 40 g full-fat cream cheese
• 200 g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 85 g Cheddar, coarsely grated
• 3 tbsp sun-dried tomato paste
• 125 g mozzarella, roughly torn
• handful of olives (optional)
• ham (optional – you could use other toppings here as well)
• 2–3 tomatoes, sliced
• a few fresh basil leaves or
• 1 tsp dried basil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Miranda’s variation

Try topping with ricotta, wild mushrooms and a sprinkling of thyme leaves instead.

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4) and line a shallow 20 x 30-cm tray bake tin with non-stick baking paper.
• Whisk the eggs in an electric mixer at high speed for 2 minutes, then whisk in the oil, milk and cream cheese.
• Use a metal spoon to fold in the flour, baking powder and grated cheese, reserving a little of the cheese for the topping.
• Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin. Spread the sun-dried tomato paste over the top then top with the mozzarella and the olives, if using, and scatter over any additional toppings and the sliced tomatoes.
• Sprinkle over the fresh or dried basil and season with salt and pepper. Bake on the top shelf of the preheated oven for 30–35 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbling, and a skewer inserted into the cake base comes out clean.