Hello friends, if you’ve been here with me for a while, you might be familiar with my yearly tradition of creating themed outdoor tea parties.
This year, I felt inspired by nature, fantasy, and the magic of the forest, and I wanted to bring that to life with a whimsical, woodland-themed tea party fit for a fairy.
Mix and match recipes, buy store-bought food, or set up indoors if that’s easier for you. Just get creative, make it your own, and have fun.
Almost all of the recipes I’m sharing today can be prepared in advance, which I love because it means less cooking on the day of the party.
In this post, I’ll share recipes, decor tips, and ideas for creating your own magical tea party. These are just suggestions and inspiration for you, so feel free to customize your party however you like.
Strawberry and Chamomile Pink Lemonade with Flower Ice Cubes
Flower ice cubes are super easy to make. Fill a couple of ice cube trays with filtered water and add some edible flowers. I’m using fresh chamomile and pansies from the farmers market, but you can use whatever edible flowers or petals you like – roses, nasturtium, and violets are a few of my favorites. Freeze these for a few hours until solid.
In the meantime, make a chamomile simple syrup by dissolving one cup of sugar in 2 cups of boiling water. Steep six chamomile tea bags in the mixture for about 15 minutes. You can also use about a 1/4 cup of loose chamomile tea instead of the tea bags.
While the mixture is steeping, chop up two cups of fresh strawberries and add these to a blender with a little splash of water to puree.
Juice lemons until you have about 1 1/2 cups of fresh lemon juice. Strain the chamomile simple syrup, strawberry puree, and fresh lemon juice together into a pitcher and mix well to create a concentrate for the lemonade.
Store this in the fridge overnight and then mix it together with 2 1/2 cups of filtered water before serving.
Forest Fairy Tea Blend
To create a custom tea blend that fits the magical woodland theme of our tea party, I made this Forest Fairy Tea Blend.
It’s a colorful combination of fragrant rose and hibiscus, soothing calendula, and vibrant color-changing butterfly pea flowers.
Add about 2 tablespoons each of dried rose, butterfly pea flowers, calendula, and hibiscus to a small jar. Seal the jar and give it a shake to mix everything together.
Herbed Goat Cheese Log with Edible Flowers
Start by pressing a few edible pansies. Place the flowers on a sheet of wax paper, top them with another sheet of wax paper, and weigh them down with a stack of heavy books for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, finely mince about 1/2 cup of fresh herbs for the cheese log. You can use any combination of herbs you like, but I’m using a mixture of chives, dill, thyme, and parsley.
After the flowers are pressed, arrange them face down on the wax paper and sprinkle herbs around them in an even layer. Arrange the herbs and flowers into a solid square shape large enough for the entire cheese log.
Place the cheese onto the bottom edge and use the wax paper to roll and press it into the herbs. Press firmly enough that the herbs stick to the log without breaking it.
Wrap the log tightly in plastic wrap, twist the ends to secure it, and refrigerate it overnight.
Beet-Pickled Deviled Eggs
Begin by hard boiling six eggs, letting them cool in an ice bath, and then peel each egg. Next, make the brine for the eggs.
In a medium bowl, add a 16 oz jar of pickled beets (including both the beets and the liquid), 1 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 tbsp of salt, mixing everything. Add the peeled hard-boiled eggs and mix them to submerge them in the liquid. Refrigerate overnight.
The next day, slice the eggs in half and make the filling for the deviled eggs. Scoop the yolks into a small bowl and mash them with a fork.
Add about 3 tbsp of mayonnaise, 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard, 1 tsp of champagne vinegar or apple cider vinegar, 1/4 tsp of smoked paprika, and salt and pepper to taste.
Mix everything and then scoop the filling into the eggs. Garnish with a little sprig of dill and sprinkle with minced chives.
Rainbow Lettuce Cups
Arrange the leaves from two heads of baby lettuce on your serving platter. Add a scoop of beet hummus to each lettuce cup.
I used store-bought beet hummus, but you can make it homemade if you have time. Next, add carrot ribbons that you’ve rolled into curls, cucumber ribbons, thinly sliced bell pepper, and thinly sliced rainbow radishes.
To complete these Rainbow Lettuce Cups, sprinkle some finely sliced scallions over the top for garnish and an extra pop of flavor.
Mini Cakes
Whenever I host a tea party, I like to have a couple of dessert options. These mini cakes are a fun, whimsical alternative to cupcakes.
Bake a box mix cake according to the package directions in a 9×13 inch baking tray, let it cool completely, and then use a 2-inch round cookie cutter to cut the sheet cake into circles.
Try to keep the circles tight and close together to use as much of the cake as possible, and you should end up with about 14 mini circles.
To assemble the cakes, spread a layer of buttercream on top of a mini cake, add some fresh berries, place another cake on top, and then decorate the top with more buttercream, berries, a few sprigs of thyme, and edible flowers.
Decorate each mini cake a little bit differently for a fun and whimsical look.
Moss Cake
You can make a moss cake with any green cake of your choice. I made a matcha cake, but pistachio cake, spinach cake, or even vanilla cake made with natural green food dye are all great options. Bake the cake according to the recipe instructions.
Set aside some of the cake to use for your moss layer. To do this, you can either bake about a fifth of the batter in a separate pan or bake the cakes as you normally would and cut off the domes on top.
Once the cakes have cooled, assemble them with frosting. Use buttercream or whatever frosting you like, and frost the outside of your cake. Don’t worry too much about how the frosting layer looks because it will be covered with the moss layer.
Finely crumble the extra cake you set aside earlier and sprinkle it all over the cake to make the moss layer. Use your hands to gently pat the crumbles onto the sides of the cake until it’s completely covered. Add some thyme sprigs, fresh berries, and edible flowers to the top for a colorful but still natural appearance.
Setting Up the Tea Party
When hosting an outdoor tea party, I like to set up the table in the shade instead of the sun to help keep the food and drinks fresh for longer.
To create a whimsical, forest-themed tablescape, layer a lace table runner over a green tablecloth and set up some flowers in vases of different sizes. Use some artificial ferns and dried moss to decorate the table.
Now it’s time to bring out the food and get ready to start our tea party. I love using natural wood stands and platters because they have such an organic, foresty look. Place the deviled eggs over a layer of lettuce leaves on the bottom tier of a tower.
Arrange the mini cakes on the top tiers along with some fresh berries. Set out the cheese log by gently removing the plastic wrap and placing it on a small serving platter along with some assorted crackers.
Serving the Tea and Lemonade
To make the tea, add about 1/4 cup of the Forest Fairy Tea Blend to a glass teapot and steep it in boiling water for about 10 minutes.
On its own, this tea blend is a vibrant dark blue color, but if you stir in a little bit of lemon juice, the color will magically transform into a beautiful dark pink from the butterfly pea flowers.
For the lemonade, add the flower ice cubes to a pitcher along with the strawberry lemon concentrate you made yesterday and about 2 1/2 cups of filtered water.
Enjoying the Party
Everything looks so magical, and I really love the fun, enchanted forest theme of the food and decor. It was so easy to set everything up today, especially because I was able to prepare so much of the food in advance. Now it’s time for the best part: starting our tea party and enjoying the food.
Thank you all so much for being here and for reading. I hope this post inspires you to create a magical forest-themed tea party of your own. If you do end up making one, please tag me. I would love to see what you create. Thanks again, friends, and enjoy your tea party!