70 Recipes For A Tea Party

Here in the U.S. we typically recognize three main meals a day (plus assorted snacks), but trend spotters and social media mavens are predicting that we may soon take a tip from our friends across the pond and adopt a fourth meal: afternoon tea. Whether out of a fondness for British costume dramas ("Bridgerton"-themed teas are now a thing) or an appreciation for the health benefits of a post-meridian cuppa, you now have the perfect excuse to throw a tea party and we're here to help out with recipe suggestions.

Afternoon tea is based around the genial beverage from which it takes its name (hot, never iced!), with the one de rigueur food item being scones. Finger sandwiches are also strongly suggested, as are bite-sized pastries, cookies (or "biscuits," to give them the proper British terminology), and even candies to fill in the gaps, while a tart or cake may top off the meal. There is, however, an entirely different meal called high tea which, contrary to what many believe, is not an even fancier version of afternoon tea. In fact, quite the opposite is true as high tea is basically Brit-speak for "supper" and as such consists of hearty mains and sides washed down by several mugs of tea (plus maybe a pint of ale). While "high tea parties" have yet to catch on, we've included a short selection of appropriate recipes in case you'd like to kick off that trend.

If your primary exposure to scones has been at Starbucks or other coffee shops of that ilk, you may think of them as being huge, triangular, and drizzled with frosting. British scones, however, tend to be smaller, rounder, and less embellished. They are nevertheless an indispensable addition to an afternoon cup of tea. While these scones may look a bit plain to take pride of place at a tea party, it's simply not the done thing to buck tradition, old bean – nor will you wish to do so once you taste how delicious they can be with butter, cream, and/or jam.

Recipe: British Scones

While scones, as we mentioned above, are generally served with clotted cream and jam, some prefer to eat them with nothing more than butter. For a party, though, you may want to upgrade the butter to a flavored version. This honey-lavender combination couldn't be much easier to make and it has a sweet, delicate flavor that can turn a simple scone, biscuit, or bread roll into a delightfully indulgent experience.

Recipe: Honey Lavender Butter

Shortbread cookies, in a similar fashion to scones, appear to be rather plain-Jane, but they're nevertheless traditionally British and will thus lend an air of authenticity to your afternoon tea. While it's not quite the thing to dip a wedge of shortbread into your tea in polite company, it's considered perfectly polite to alternate a nibble of cookie with a sip of tea to get the full enjoyment out of these rich, buttery cookies.

Recipe: Shortbread Cookies

While Turkish delight may not be a British candy, anyone who's read the C.S. Lewis children's classic "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" may recall that it's been popular in the U.K. (as well as in Narnia) for many a year. Plus, as candies go, it's one of the prettiest and makes a lovely way to fill in the gaps on your tea tray. For Turkish delight that's even fancier and more flavorful, try rolling it in dried rose petals or finely-chopped pistachios in place of the powdered sugar.

Recipe: Turkish Delight

On fancy occasions such as birthdays or holidays, tea parties may include a champagne toast. If you don't want to get your guests started on the day-drinking, though, you can honor the tradition by baking sparkling wine into this pretty pink cake that was popular around the time when Beatlemania was born. If you'd rather have an entirely booze-free option, the cake is just as pink, pretty, and delicious if it's made with strawberry soda in place of champagne.

Recipe: Classic Pink Champagne Cake

If you really want to wow your tea party guests with the amount of time and effort you put into your preparations, try making your own cream puffs. It's not actually all that difficult. More time-consuming than troublesome, we'd say, but you may want to practice a time or two before you plan on serving them to company. Once you do master the art of cream puff making, though, the real fun comes in customizing the filling. The one given here is a plain whipped cream, but you can dress the cream up with flavor extracts, food coloring, and mix-ins like crushed peppermint candies or swap it out for custard or ice cream.

Recipe: Cream Puffs

While some afternoon teas don't extend much further than scones and maybe a pastry or two, the real slap-up ones also add a selection of finger sandwiches. What makes a sandwich finger-worthy? Not only do they need to be sliced up small, but the fillings must also be on the dainty side. Egg salad ("egg mayonnaise" is the British term for it) is a sandwich filling that has been known to grace even the royal tea table, so with this simple recipe, plus some thin-sliced bread, you can construct finger sandwiches worthy of a queen.

Recipe: Egg Salad

Which came first, the chicken salad or the egg salad? It doesn't matter, as both of them make great sandwich fillings. Chicken salad, at its most basic, consists of chicken and mayonnaise with maybe some chopped vegetables (celery and green onions are used here). If you're using it for finger sandwiches, though, you'll need to chop the chicken and vegetables extra-fine. That way, instead of hearty chunks that tumble out of the bread, you'll have a smoother spread that can be used to create more refined nibbles.

Recipe: Basic Chicken Salad

While the type of afternoon tea we've been describing here is "veddy, veddy British," there's plenty of room for food from other cultures on the tea table. Pimento cheese, a southern specialty from the good old U.S. of A., can make for a perfect finger sandwich filling as it is smooth-spreading, colorful, and veddy, veddy tasty. Use this cheese spread on its own or combine it with thin-sliced roast beef for a sandwich that is slightly more robust, yet still dainty.

Recipe: Southern Pimento Cheese

This pineapple-coconut cake is another maybe not-so-British dessert, but as we've already established, there's no universal law of afternoon tea that says all foods must originate in the British Isles. No one will mind the non-U.K. origins of this tropical-inspired layer cake once they see how beautiful it looks on a cake stand. In contrast to its pristine coconut-frosted exterior, though, this cake hides a hidden surprise inside: a layer of pineapple preserves that takes its flavor over the top.

Recipe: Best Pineapple Coconut Cake Recipe

Bar cookies may not seem fancy enough for a tea party, but these raspberry ones are an exception in that the bright red jelly makes for an attractive contrast with the streusel topping. If you slice them into dainty fingers rather than hearty squares, they wouldn't look out of place alongside more elaborate confections. Unlike many other teatime recipes, though, this raspberry dessert stays true to its basic bar cookie roots by being quick and easy to put together

Recipe: Raspberry Bars

Tea and crumpets! If you are inviting the Geico Gecko over to dine, you know these are a must. But what, exactly, are crumpets? They're something that has yet to catch on in the U.S., at least not to the extent that scones have done. Crumpets are kind of like thinner, chewier English muffins, although they are also a bit like fat, yeasty pancakes. Hard to describe, yes, but not terribly difficult to make, and they taste great with butter and/or jelly.

While this recipe does call for crumpet rings, if you don't want to invest in such a specific piece of kitchen equipment, there are workarounds. Round cookie cutters will do the trick, but you can even use aluminum cans as long as they're the kind where both the top and bottom can be removed with a can opener.

Recipe: Crumpets

Welsh cakes, like crumpets, are another British pastry that has yet to be adopted by Starbucks' bakers and thus remains relatively unknown in the U.S. (It probably doesn't help that the Welsh diaspora is not a particularly large one as compared to some other immigrant populations.) Welsh cakes, however, are a dish that deserves a little love – the cakes are kind of like a pancake-cookie-scone mashup, only with a unique flavor all their own from the currants and mixed spice. If you're not familiar with the latter ingredient, it's made from cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, coriander, ginger, and allspice. While mixed spice is not readily available in the U.S., you can always use pumpkin pie spice in place of this complex British blend.

Recipe: Traditional Welsh Cakes

One of the prettiest British cakes is the checkerboard-patterned Battenberg, a cake that may (or may not) have been named for Queen Victoria's grandson-in-law. While the cake looks very complicated to make, it's actually quite doable for a fairly experienced home cook, as long as you have a steady hand and the ability to cut even-sized slices. What really ties the cake together is the sweet layer of marzipan that takes the place of frosting and wraps it all up in a lovely, flavorful package.

Recipe: Chocolate Battenberg Cake

If you really want to flex those DIY skills, you can even make your own marzipan to top a Battenberg or other cake. Marzipan, unlike a fancy cake, is actually quite easy to make. In fact, you'll only need three ingredients: almond meal (which is more coarsely ground than almond flour), powdered sugar, and an egg white. Not only can this homemade marzipan be rolled flat to cover a cake, but you can color it and form it into fruits or other clever candy shapes to adorn your tea table.

Recipe: Easy Marzipan

Kringla cookies may be associated with the winter holidays in Scandinavia (could this have anything to do with the fact that their name resembles that of a certain Kris Kringle?), but there's nothing about their delicate nutmeg-spiced flavor, golden-brown color, or infinity-twist shape that really screams "Christmas" to anyone who's not of Nordic descent. Even though these cookies are traditionally served with coffee, they're equally well suited to tea and make for a perfect teatime treat at any time of the year.

Recipe: Kringla

Mille feuilles are a type of pastry that may not be easy to pronounce, much less spell correctly (thank goodness for Google's autocorrect!), but they sure are easy on the eyes and even easier to eat. As the name implies, mille feuilles are French. Those words translate to mean "thousand sheets," which is a reference to the numerous layers of flaky pastry that alternate with a creamy filling. While mille feuilles might seem as if they'd be incredibly time-consuming and difficult to make, this is not the case if you start with frozen puff pastry. You'll still need a steady hand in order to get the frosting to come out picture-perfect, but if you manage this feat, you'll have a very impressive tea-table treat.

Recipe: Shortcut Mille Feuilles

A somewhat simpler French dessert to serve at your soiree is the classic tarte Tatin, which is the continental answer to apple pie. It's actually easier to make than apple pie, too, as there's no need to roll out a pie crust. Frozen puff pastry to the rescue again! If you can cut it into a circle shape, you're golden, and the tarts will be, too, when they come out of the oven all fresh, warm, and delicious.

Recipe: Apple Tarte Tatin

Vanilla cupcakes may seem kind of plain for a party, but we prefer to think of them as a classic. What's more, if you make your cupcakes from scratch, they will taste like an entirely different dessert from the basic box mix kind, and the homemade buttercream frosting (recipe also included) is a huge upgrade over store-bought. For a tea party, we'd suggest baking these in mini cupcake pans, then giving them a light sprinkling of colored sugar or even decorating them with edible flower petals.

Recipe: Classic Vanilla Cupcakes

For an autumn-themed tea, we suggest serving spicy teas like ginger or Constant Comment along with slightly heartier sandwiches and apple pastries. As for the scones, pumpkin-flavored ones would be perfect. These scones are American-style, meaning they are almost cake-like: large, sweet, and drizzled with a powdered sugar glaze. With all of the sugar and the frosting in this recipe, there's no need to serve these scones with cream, jelly, or any other add-ons as they make for a standalone dessert just as they are.

Recipe: Pumpkin Scones

Halva, like Turkish delight, is a candy with origins in the Middle East. It's quite easy to make at home, though and doesn't require any hard-to-source ingredients. In fact, the main thing you'll need to make it is tahini – that's right, the same stuff that goes into hummus! (Halva is entirely chickpea-free, though, so the flavor is not at all similar.) While the recipe calls for stirring the pistachios into the halvah, you may wish to have some additional chopped nuts on hand to sprinkle over the top of your candy.

Recipe: Crunchy Halva

If you're a fan of the Apple TV+ comedy series "Ted Lasso," you've no doubt noticed the title character's penchant for baking and gifting his favorite shortbread cookies. While Lasso didn't share his recipe with us (being a fictional character pretty much precludes him from being able to do so), we feel that these vanilla-flavored shortbread fingers make for a reasonable facsimile of the cookies that are so often shown on the show.

Recipe: Copycat Ted Lasso's Shortbread Biscuits

While amaretto is seen as a postprandial drink, it is also used to flavor baked goods that can be enjoyed at teatime or at any other time of the day. Here we're pairing the almond-flavored liqueur with fresh blueberries in a yellow cake that gets topped off with a cream cheese frosting. While this cake may not appear as elegant as some of the fancier ones on this list, it would be lovely for a less-formal summertime tea that takes place when blueberries are in season.

Recipe: Blueberry Amaretto Cake

Baking with liqueurs is fairly common, but baking with wine is somewhat less so. That just means that these red wine cupcakes are sure to elicit comments once your tea party guests have guessed the mystery ingredient. While the wine may not be immediately noticeable in the chocolate cupcake batter where its presence is more subtle, it lends not only flavor but color to the cream cheese frosting and makes a real impact here.

Recipe: Red Wine Cupcakes

If you're served up a fairly substantial tea but you still want a dessert to cap off the occasion, this airy lemon chiffon cake might be the perfect pick. It's light enough so that even after tucking into scones and finger sandwiches, your guests will still be able to manage the teensiest sliver ... or maybe a not-so-teensy one, once they taste how good it is! While the cake is drizzled with a sweet and tangy lemon glaze, you could always pretty it up even more with a topping of fresh raspberries or blueberries.

Recipe: Airy Lemon Chiffon Cake

How can you put on a sophisticated teatime spread without blowing your entire food budget for the week? The best way to do so is to focus on dishes where the simplest and cheapest of ingredients can be turned into something that transcends their humble origins. Such is the case with finger sandwiches made from egg salad, and this particular recipe is well suited for party fare as the standard boiled egg-mayonnaise mixture gets a flavorful, yet inexpensive, makeover with the aid of chopped red onions, mustard, and curry powder.

Recipe: Classic Egg Salad

Chicken salad is a great way to stretch a little bit of meat to feed a number of guests, especially if you bulk up the chopped meat/mayo mix with the addition of some fruits and/or vegetables. This recipe makes use of apples, celery, and almonds, all of which provide plenty of flavor and texture, but in order to make this salad finger sandwich suitable, we suggest you chop these ingredients as finely as you can get them by hand. You could also use a food processor, but if you do, go easy on the blending since you don't want to lose all of the crunchiness.

Recipe: Classic Chicken Salad

Deviled ham may not have the greatest reputation as it's often associated with a rather dubious canned food product that can be found on supermarket shelves right next to the equally suspect Vienna sausages. This recipe, however, includes no such mystery meat but instead provides a great way to repurpose leftover ham into a tasty sandwich spread. Finely-chopped ham, celery, onions, and maybe some pickles mixed with mayonnaise makes for a finger sandwich filling that can be both elegant and economical.

Recipe: Quick Deviled Ham Salad

If you want a real show-stopper to top off your teatime, you couldn't do much better than this pink-and-white-frosted chocolate peppermint cake. While peppermint is a flavor that's typically associated with the winter holidays, there's no rule prohibiting you from serving it at any other time of year. In fact, you might want to brew up a pot of peppermint tea to accompany this very special dessert course.

Recipe: White Chocolate Peppermint Cake

Madeleines, as any devotee of French literature will know, are the cookies that kicked off Marcel Proust's multi-volume fictional memoir "À la Recherche du Temps Perdu" or, in translation, "Remembrance of Things Past." While these lemon-flavored cookies aren't guaranteed to trigger the great American novel, nor even a trip in the Wayback Machine, you'll certainly agree with Proust's narrator that they make the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea on a nostalgic afternoon.

Recipe: Classic Lemon Madeleines

What makes a tart a tart, as opposed to a pie? While there are numerous exceptions to the rule, for the most part, pies are considered to have both a bottom and a top crust (or top something, whether it be lattice, streusel, or meringue) whereas tarts are top crust-free. Their single crust not only makes them all the easier to bake, but in the case of this French apple tart, the open top allows you to show off your apple-arranging skills. 

Recipe: Classic French Apple Tart

'While many two-ingredient recipes tend to be, well, not the kind of fare you'd want to serve at even a semi-formal occasion, we can think of one pretty fancy dessert that's made with nothing more than egg whites and sugar. Did you guess it? Ha, no need to guess, since the title gave it away – yes, we're talking about meringues. While meringue may be familiar to many as a pie topping, it can also stand on its own as a cookie that is easy to make and pretty to look at. And it tastes like a crunchy little cloud.

Recipe: French Meringue Cookies

Many scone recipes result in a product that, while it may be delicious, is rather plain in appearance. These almond-topped scones, however, are just as attractive as they are delicious. They're small and round and lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar. While these almond crumb scones do take a little time and effort, not to mention a biscuit or cookie cutter or very small cake ring to give them their shape, the end product will be fancy enough to match the other pastries on your tea table.

Recipe: Best Almond-Crumb Scones

Petit fours are among the cutest of desserts as they resemble miniature layer cakes. To look at them, you might think they'd be next to impossible for any but the most experienced and best-equipped bakers to attempt. Well, traditional-style ones are certainly no easy undertaking, but our simple shortcut involves using thin-sliced store-bought pound cake layered with jelly. Rather than a picture-perfect frosting job, we're also going with a more casual drizzle of powdered sugar glaze, then topping the teeny cakes with fresh berries. No, these dainty morsels are not identical to store-bought petits fours, but they're still very pretty.

Recipe: Easy Petit Fours

Shortbread at its simplest really involves just three ingredients: butter, sugar, and flour. While plain shortbread is delicious all on its own, it also takes well to different flavorings. Here we're adding some lemon zest and juice to give the shortbread a tangy twist, and think these cookies would be the perfect accompaniment to a cup of lemon tea. Note: the cookie dough itself isn't really all that sugary, but if you'd like a sweeter cookie you can sprinkle the shortbread with granulated or powdered sugar once it comes out of the oven.

Recipe: Easy Lemon Shortbread Cookies

A spring or summer tea calls for fruit flavors, and one of the most tea-friendly of these is lemon. Even if you prefer a splash of milk to a slice of lemon in your tea itself, you'll surely enjoy a slice of zesty lemon pound cake to accompany it. The cake itself is flavored with lemon zest and fresh-squeezed juice, while additional lemon juice is used to make the sugary glaze. For an additional hit of flavor as well as lemony-yellow color, you can also sprinkle lemon zest over the top.

Recipe: Zesty Iced Lemon Pound Cake Recipe

Egg salad on its own can be rather plain and even, dare we say, a trifle boring (especially if it's a week after Easter and you've been subsisting on a steady diet of the stuff). If you're not a fan of egg salad in its original form, you may appreciate a more flavorful version, Here we're adding bacon bits because those make everything better, plus we're also kicking the flavor up a notch with the addition of some mildly spicy sriracha sauce and perhaps a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Recipe: Spicy Egg Salad

Waldorf salad is an American classic that dates back to the Gilded Age and originally consisted of nothing more than mayonnaise, celery, and apples. Here we're turning it into a chicken salad with the addition of, well, chicken. We've also tossed in some chopped nuts and grapes because, why not? While the recipe as written makes for a super-chunky salad served up in hearty sandwiches, for a more tea party-worthy version we suggest dicing the ingredients very finely and spreading light layers of chicken salad between thin-cut bread. As a final touch, slice the sandwiches into two-bite "fingers."

Recipe: Waldorf Chicken Salad Recipe With A Sweet Twist

What is a kouign-amann, and, perhaps even more importantly, how on earth do you pronounce it? To address the latter matter first, Food Network tells us that "queen ah-mahn" is a reasonable approximation of the original Breton. As to what this pastry is, the site says it's kind of like a thicker, sweeter croissant. While kouign-amanns are not all that easy to make, yeast dough being what it is, our recipe does its best to break the process down into doable steps. What you'll be making here is basically the kouign-amann version of pain au chocolat – as with the latter pastry, the dough itself is not flavored, but each piece has melted chocolate filling inside.

Recipe: Chocolate Kouign-Amann

Macarons are a treat that's not nearly as easy to whip up as, say, a batch of brownies, but if you break the process down into baby steps, it's doable for a relatively experienced home cook. First, you make the filling (we're using a white chocolate one here), then you make the batter and pipe it onto the cookie sheet in the form of hearts or any other simple shape. Bake the cookies, pair them up as best you can to get two matching halves, then sandwich them together with the filling. You'll need to start these macarons well in advance of your tea party, however, as they require at least 24 hours of refrigeration before they're ready to serve.

Recipe: Heart-Shaped Macarons

While macaron precedes macaroon in the dictionary, we don't really know which was invented first as Food Network reveals that these two very different cookies most likely evolved from a common ancestor. These chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons may lack the trendiness of their French cousins and are also less colorful, although they take equally well to food coloring if you'd like to add a few drops. They are also every bit as flavorful as macarons, or you might even like them better if you're a fan of both coconut and chocolate. Best of all, our macaroons are much easier to bake than any macaron recipe you're likely to find.

Recipe: Homemade Coconut Macaroons

Of all the fruit-flavored cakes – and there really aren't all that many fruit-flavored cakes now that we come to think of it – lemon reigns supreme. There's just something about that sunny yellow color and bright, tangy flavor that makes us think of summer even in the middle of winter. While this lemon bundt cake is made from scratch, it's actually not difficult at all, and as long as you can get it out of the pan intact, you won't even have to bother with frosting it. A light dusting of powdered sugar or a drizzle of glaze will make the cake perfectly party-ready.

Recipe: Lemon Cake

While this scone recipe may have "French" in its name, the scones themselves are made in the American style, meaning they wouldn't look amiss in Starbucks' bakery case: they're wedge-shaped, large, and coated with a sugary glaze. The flavor, however, is a combination Starbucks doesn't seem to have caught onto yet, more's the pity, as lemon and ginger make a wonderful pairing. In fact, we'd be inclined to serve these scones alongside a cup of lemon/ginger tea to double the pleasure.

Recipe: French Ginger And Lemon Scones

Honey cake is a classic Russian recipe that, according to some accounts, was originally served to tsars and tsarinas (some sources may cast doubt on this origin story). Looking at this cake with its multiple layers and fine crumb coating, you might think you'd need all the resources of the Romanov's palace kitchens to create such a thing. Surprisingly enough, it's actually fairly doable for the home cook as long as you have the patience to follow all of the steps involved. Patience, in this case, will be its own reward, as the finished cake will make for a very impressive ending to any tea party.

Recipe: Easy Russian Honey Cake

If you're familiar with the type of kolaches served up by Texas convenience stores, you might be thinking that they could hardly be considered dainty tea party fare, and you are quite right as those filled buns would be more suited to a hearty high tea. These kolache cookies, however, are an entirely different thing. They are light, flaky, and not overly sweet, and you can customize them with your choice of jelly topping: raspberry, cherry, orange marmalade, lemon curd, or whatever flavor will best suit the tea you're pouring.

Recipe: Easy Kolache Cookies

While chocolate ganache truffles sound like something super-fancy, the truth is, they really couldn't be much simpler. In fact, this recipe has just three ingredients: chocolate chips and whipping cream to make the truffles, plus cocoa powder to sprinkle over them once they're done. All you do is heat up the cream, mix it with the chocolate chips until they melt, then chill the mixture. Once the ganache has thickened up, form it into little balls, dust these with cocoa, and you're done. In fact, if the tea party you're planning is an all-ages event, you can even skip the last two steps. Just tell the kids the chocolate ganache is edible play-doh and have them shape their own truffles. Sure, it'll be messy, but they'll have a great time doing it!

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Ganache Truffles

Most egg salads are made with mayonnaise, which is itself, in turn, made from eggs. So basically, what you're doing is adding egg to egg – a bit redundant, no? Well, mayonnaise does have other ingredients, including oil and vinegar. In this mayonnaise-free recipe, we're retaining the oil and vinegar (feel free to sub white wine or tarragon for the cider vinegar called for here) and mixing the chopped eggs with vinaigrette. While the egg salad is less creamy than the standard kind, it's still very tasty and works just as well as a tea sandwich filling.

Recipe: Egg Salad Without Mayo

If you're planning a spring teatime, or perhaps one in honor of St. Patrick's Day, how about making finger sandwiches with a green filling? No food coloring is needed for this verdant chicken salad as the color and creamy texture both come courtesy of mashed avocados, plus there's a little extra green from cilantro. To make this salad more finger sandwich-appropriate, though, you'll need to mince the chicken, avocados, and onions more finely than is called for in the recipe.

Recipe: Creamy Avocado Chicken Salad

These lemon tarts are miniature, top crust-free pies whose small size makes them perfect for tea parties as you can simply arrange them on a platter for guests to serve themselves, which is far more elegant (and a lot less messy) than slicing wedges out of a pie. While you might think these tarts would be fussy to bake, this recipe makes things easy by starting off with store-bought crust. The lemon filling, too, is really quite simple, as it's made with nothing more than lemon juice, sugar, butter, and eggs.

Recipe: Lemon Tarts

This chocolate orange tart calls for only five ingredients: cookie or graham cracker crumbs plus butter for the crust; chocolate, cream, and orange extract for the filling. It takes maybe 20 minutes to put together and is something even a rookie cook can nail on the first try. While the tart is full-sized, its lack of a top crust plus its firm chocolate filling means that you should be able to slice it into dainty wedges without it falling to pieces as a pie might do.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Chocolate Orange Tart

When macarons with a single "o" became popular, some may have been secretly disappointed by the cookie as they were left wondering, "Where's the coconut?" For that, you need an extra "o" – macaroons are the coconutty ones. While macaroons may be a bit old-fashioned and not nearly as trendy as macarons, they are also much easier to make, plus the combo of sweet coconut dipped in dark chocolate tastes even better in cookie form than it does in a Mounds bar.

Recipe: Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons

Macarons, unlike macaroons, are a very delicate type of cookie, and one whose batter really doesn't stand for much tinkering with. For that reason, these cookies are not pumpkin macarons per se as they do not contain any actual pumpkin. They do, however, take their flavoring from pumpkin pie spice and their hue from orange food coloring (a drop of red + a drop of yellow, for those of us who only have the primary colors), so they're permitted to take their place among the pantheon of official autumnal desserts.

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Macarons

Starbucks scones, as we may have mentioned a time or two, are not the typical British type that has long been a staple of afternoon tea. Still, the coffee mega-chain's sizeable sugar-frosted scones are popular for good reason as they are pretty darn tasty. This recipe makes a decent duplicate of the pumpkin ones Starbucks stocks their bakery case with every fall and well into the winter. If you want something that will better complement your teatime spread of dainty pastries and finger sandwiches, though, you may wish to shape the dough into bite-sized scones.

Recipe: Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Scones

Butter tarts are a British specialty, and Canada is still part of the Commonwealth, so by extension, they're a perfect fit for a British afternoon tea. Even apart from their U.K. association, however, butter tarts would be a great addition to any teatime spread. They are cupcake-sized tarts with a shortbread cookie-type crust, and the filling is – well, think pecan pie without the pecans. Unless, of course, you want to add pecans or other chopped nuts, but there's really no need to do so as these tarts are delicious without any embellishment.

Recipe: Butter Tarts Recipe

While cassata cake is Italian, not British, it is really quite stunning with its pristine white icing and its topping of brightly-hued candied fruits. The cake tastes even better than it looks, though, with its sweet cannoli-type filling layered with sponge cake, wrapped in marzipan, and embellished with chocolate chips and chopped pistachios. All we can say is molto delizioso, an opinion with which your teatime guests will surely concur.

Recipe: Traditional Cassata Cake

While finger sandwiches are a teatime tradition, it should be fairly safe to branch out to something along the lines of crostini, which are essentially open-faced miniature sandwiches. These cranberry brie bites pair creamy, tangy cheese with sweet-tart sugared berries atop baguette slices, then finishes things off with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkling of chopped mint. This makes for a very festive-looking crostini that would be a fine addition to any fall or winter tea table.

Recipe: Sparkling Cranberry Brie Bites

Strawberries are a fruit that has long been associated with afternoon tea, to the extent that there's even a specific name for the event: if you serve fresh strawberries along with your scones and clotted cream, you are hosting a strawberry tea. If you want to dress up your strawberries a bit, though, you can always hollow them out and fill them with a sweet spread like Nutella. If you'd really like to take things over the top as we do in this recipe, you can then dip the filled berries in melted chocolate and chopped nuts.

Recipe: Nutella Stuffed Strawberries

Pizza may not seem like something you'd serve at a fancy tea party, but this particular pizza, which is adapted from a Wolfgang Puck creation, is no slab of greasy, cheesy pepperoni. Instead, the crust is topped with a far less messy – not to mention more upscale – combo of sour cream, smoked salmon, and chives. (Also scallions, as these are actually two different vegetables, but the differences are slight so you can opt for one or the other if you wish.) Slice the pizza into dainty little squares or triangles and it will make for a suitable teatime snack.

Recipe: Wolfgang Puck's Smoked Salmon Pizza With A Twist

Coronation chicken couldn't be more appropriate for a tea party, particularly if your guests are fans of the British royal family. The dish, as its name hints, was created for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth (the current one, not the one with the frilly collars). It consists of a creamy chicken salad perked up by the addition of curry powder and dried fruits, both additions reminiscent of the more far-flung outposts of the British empire at the time the U.K.'s long-reigning monarch took the throne. As with all of the other chicken (and egg) salad recipes here, we'll note once again that the more finely you chop the ingredients, the better suited the salad will be for filling finger sandwiches.

Recipe: Quick And Easy Coronation Chicken Sandwich

These tiny tarts are so pretty, but they really could not be any easier to make. The recipe starts with pre-baked phyllo shells, then fills them with pudding made from a mix. While vanilla or lemon pudding is specified, you could opt for pistachio or even chocolate if you prefer. As a final touch, top off each mini morsel with a few small berries or other chopped fruits and you'll have a treat that will grace the finest of tea tables.

Recipe: Mini Fruit Tart Recipe

If you really want to throw a "high tea" party, there is nothing wrong with that idea. But to do it up right, you'll need a main course that is hearty, yet goes well with a pot of tea. Fish and chips is always appropriate, but we Yanks can't just run down to the corner "chippy" like they do in the U.K. If you don't live right next door to a Long John Silver's (or even if you do, but their fare isn't quite your cup of tea), you can instead fry up some thick-cut potatoes and beer-battered cod for an all-American take on this British classic.

Recipe: Fish And Chips

Beans on toast, which might be considered high tea's answer to finger sandwiches, is a dish as beloved in the U.K. as is macaroni and cheese in the U.S. For some reason it never really caught on this side of the pond, but if you want to see what you're missing, all you'll need is a can of baked beans, some cheese, a little butter, and a few slabs of thick, hearty bread. Toast and butter the bread, top the toast with beans and cheese, then cook it until the cheese melts. Easy, cheesy, goes well with tea-sy.

Recipe: Cheesy Beans On Toast

No high tea would be complete without pudding, but it doesn't have to be pudding in the American sense of being a soft, cooked custard. "Pudding" is a generic British term for dessert, so cake = pudding, pie = pudding, and ice cream – yes, that can be pudding, too. This particular version, however, is a British take on bread pudding, a dessert that thrifty cooks with stale bread to use up have been making for generations in the U.S. as well as the U.K.

Recipe: Easy Bread And Butter Pudding

Before you attempt to make a steak and kidney pie to serve at high tea, you may want to make sure that your guests are down for this quintessentially British experience. Organ meats in general have a niche appeal here in the U.S., while kidneys are a bodily part that many are especially reluctant to eat. When tucked into a pie crust with chunks of beef, though, kidneys are less earthy-tasting than when eaten alone, and steak and kidney pie is a dish that has stood the test of time in its native land.

Recipe: Traditional Steak And Kidney Pie

Toad in the hole is something that only sounds gross, but we assure you there are no toads or amphibians or any sort in this recipe. Instead, this traditional British dish is made of bangers (which are a type of sausage) baked in an eggy batter. Toad in the hole isn't something that can really be prepared in advance, though, so make sure to pop it in the oven right before your high tea party is set to commence.

Recipe: Traditional Toad In The Hole Recipe

Eton mess is another British dish whose unappealing name belies how good it is. The first part of the name comes from the prestigious boarding school, but if this dessert is the kind of thing they're serving there, well, maybe Eton is worth the $55,000+ per year it costs to go there. For those of us without that kind of cash, though (not to mention being way past our school years), this dessert is something that can easily be made at home. All you'll need to do is break up a couple of meringues (store-bought ones are fine if you can find these), then stir them together with whipped cream, strawberry sauce, and strawberries. Within just a few minutes you'll have one tasty "mess" to serve with your high tea.

Recipe: Easy Eton Mess

"Butty" might sound like a rude word, but in British slang, it's actually just a nickname for a sandwich that derives from the butter used to slather the bread. Bacon butties are a popular breakfast sandwich, but they're also something that would not come amiss at high tea. Although a true bacon butty would be made with British-style bacon, a product that somewhat resembles Canadian bacon, you can make the sandwich with American bacon as well. Interestingly enough, the traditional condiment used with bacon butties is ketchup! Good to know that Americans aren't the only ones ketchupping all the things.

Recipe: Easy Bacon Butty Recipe

Scotch eggs, a favorite British pub snack, are typically made from boiled eggs that have been encased in sausage meat, dipped in bread crumbs, and deep fried. In this three-ingredient recipe, however, the breadcrumbs and sausage are replaced with falafel and the eggs are baked instead of fried. While these atypical Scotch eggs may not be traditional, they are undoubtedly lower in fat and are also suitable for serving to any vegetarian (although not vegan) guests you've invited to take high tea with you.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Scotch Eggs

If you go for a pub lunch in Great Britain, you'll likely see such dishes as shepherd's pie and fish and chips on the menu, but there's also a good chance that chicken tikka masala will be on there as well. Although its flavors are Indian-inspired, the dish itself may have been created in Scotland and, according to Britannica, has been adopted (informally, at least) as the U.K.'s national dish. While our recipe requires multiple steps and a laundry list of ingredients, tikka masala is actually not too difficult to cook and will make for a deliciously authentic British dish for your high tea.

Recipe: Simple Chicken Tikka Masala

Trifle is often served for the holidays in the U.K., and yet it's a bit too messy to be served at an elegant afternoon soiree. For a high tea, however, it makes a perfect pudding course and there's no need to save it for special occasions. In fact, the best thing about trifles is that they're a great way to repurpose leftover cake or "mistake cake" that doesn't come out of the pan in one piece. Tear the cake into chunks, then top it with Jell-O, pudding, and fruit. While this recipe calls for cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, sliced bananas, or any other soft, not-too-acidic fruits will also work. Cover the trifle with whipped cream and maybe some shaved chocolate and you'll have a dessert that will send everyone home full and happy.

Recipe: Holiday Trifle