Easter Afternoon Tea

Easter Afternoon Tea is a great way to bring together family and friends to celebrate the first long weekend of Spring. It’s a relatively easy way to entertain a crowd, and you can make it as formal or relaxed as you like.

Whether you serve treats traditionally on tiered trays with finger sandwiches on the bottom, scones in the middle and cakes and pastries on the top, or offer a buffet style Easter afternoon tea, there are few people who will not enjoy this delicious celebration.

Elements of Easter Afternoon Tea

Traditionally afternoon tea features sandwiches, sweet or savoury scones and a few cakes and sweet treats. Now while I love tradition, I see no need to be prescriptive, so please take the suggestions below as a guide only. The idea is to have fun at your Easter afternoon tea, not to be stressing about whether you are doing it “right”.

Tea Sandwiches

There are endless possibilities for tea sandwich fillings for Easter afternoon tea. Definitely cut the crust off your bread. (Here are some ideas for using up leftover crusts of bread.)

While thick chunks of sourdough spread lavishly with butter have their place, it is definitely not here. Thinly sliced white bread, a light granary or brown bread work best.

You will almost always find cucumber or smoked salmon sandwiches at afternoon tea, but for Easter afternoon tea, I urge you to consider Egg Salad Sandwiches. They are deliciously light and flavourful, and a wonderful way to use up hard boiled eggs if you have extra in the fridge. Another delicious sandwich filling for spring tea sandwiches is Coronation Chicken Salad. Be sure to cut the pieces of chicken quite small when you are making the salad to help the tea sandwiches remain delicate and easy to eat.

Scones for Easter Afternoon Tea

When it comes to scones for your Easter afternoon tea, I often veer towards a savoury option because there are so many sweet things around at this time of year. My Cheese Scones are the perfect solution, a savoury treat that is delicious spread with lashings of soft butter.

If you prefer a more traditional plain or fruit scone, my Grandma’s Orange Raisin Scones work beautifully here too. These are delicious spread with clotted cream and jam.

Cakes and Pastries

It is traditional to serve a Simnel Cake both at Easter in England, and if you like fruitcake you will love this idea. If not, there are plenty of other choices, from Raspberry Bakewell Tart Squares (or this Lemon Blueberry version) to Snow Bars and delicate Sugar Cookies or Orange Pecan Cookies.

The Easter afternoon tea cakes and pastries above feature Simnel Cake (far right), Banana Rum Raisin Cake (on the cake plate in the background), my late Mom’s Lemon and Poppyseed Pound Cake (recipe coming soon). On the bottom tier of the tiered tea tray you can see the Cheese Scones I mentioned earlier.

How to Present Easter Afternoon Tea

You can serve a formal style afternoon tea with individual or shared tiered trays of sandwiches, scones, cakes and pastries, or offer a buffet style afternoon tea so everyone can help themselves. Either way, pretty napkins, lovely tea cups and saucers (mismatched china looks fabulous here) and enough tea pots for plenty of tea make for a stylish yet relaxed table setting.

Whatever you choose to serve and however you choose to serve for your Easter afternoon tea, I hope that your Easter is full of many blessings and lots of fun and treats.