BLOGintro_TeaParty4 — Sugar rush: the hardtofind. team takes part in Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea

High tea: raise your cup

Today officially marks Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea, a fantastic chance to enjoy some delicious treats while helping people whose lives are affected by cancer. This year, hardtofind. decided to host a morning tea in our new office to raise money for the Cancer Council. We baked olive oil cake, lamingtons, chocolate & pecan cake, snickerdoodle biscuits, cinnamon scrolls, Nanaimo slice and brutti ma buoni meringue biscuits (click here for the recipe), then invited our new neighbours around to join in our sugar rush.

BLOGintro_TeaParty — Our new neighbours drop in to say hello and partake in some cake.

If you’ve missed out today, don’t worry, you can hold a morning tea any time in May or June and still be a cancer-fighting hero! For more information and to register, head to: www.biggestmorningtea.com.au.

Need some inspiration? We have all your tea party needs right here…

High tea essentials

Helbak milk jug, $55
Handmade ceramic milk and sugar set, $64
‘Keep calm and carry on’ teapot, $56.95
Menu Norm thermo jug with 2 matching mugs, $115
Donkey Products ‘tea party’ novelty tea bags (set of 5) , $24.95
Anne Black porcelain ‘sugar’ spoon, $22
Dylan Kendall ‘efeet’ creamer, $29.95
Jansen+Co ‘MyMug’, $23.95
Jansen+Co large blue cake stand, $96.95
Pantone teapot, $99.95
Iconic oversized teacup and saucer with Tim Tam holder , $40

BLOGintro_TeaParty3 — Lamingtons and olive oil & lemon cake

BLOGintro_TeaParty2 — Brutti ma buoni, blueberry scones and Nanaimo slice. So much YUM!

Bonus recipe: brutti ma buoni

Makes 25-30

Brutti ma buoni (which translates as ugly but good) are a meringue-style Italian biscuit. This method of cooking is borrowed from British chef Orlando Murrin’s ‘forgotten cookies’, where you get the oven as hot as you can, pop in the bikkies, then switch the oven off and ‘forget’ about them. The result is a biscuit that is delicate on the outside, chewy on the inside and incredibly moreish! Start this recipe a day ahead.

Ingredients:
2 eggwhites
1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g good-quality dark chocolate (we use Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate), finely chopped
75g roasted almonds or hazelnuts, finely chopped

Method:

Preheat the oven to 250°C (or to as hot as it will go) and line 2 baking trays with foil.
Using electric beaters, whisk the eggwhites in a clean, dry bowl until frothy. Gradually add all the sugar, whisking constantly, and continue to whisk for 2-3 minutes until firm peaks form. Whisk in the vanilla extract.
Gently fold in the chocolate and nuts with a large metal spoon until just combined, being careful not to overmix.
Dollop heaped teaspoons of the mixture on to the baking trays, spacing them 5cm apart. It’s important that the dollops are not too big, otherwise the biscuits won’t cook through.
Place the trays in the oven, then immediately switch the oven off. Leave the biscuits to cook in the cooling oven overnight – don’t be tempted to open the door until the oven is completely cool.
The next morning, take your biscuits out of the oven and gently peel off the foil. Your brutti ma buoni will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days (if you can resist gobbling them all up before then).

Variation:
Once you have the basic meringue technique down, you can pretty much add whatever you like to these ‘ugly’ little beauties. For Christmas, try replacing the chocolate and almonds with dried cranberries and pistachios, then swapping the vanilla for rose extract. Just make sure that you keep the ingredient weights the same, and the rest is up to you!