Tea Party Tuesday ~ Maids of Honour Cakes

What an amazing time I had with

Queen Anne Boleyn

on Saturday for our Mad Tea Party!!!

If you want to experience that slice of whimsy again and enter the giveaway for the LOVELY tea for one

then you must click HERE!!!!

Happy Tea Party Tuesday!!!

Oh how I LOVE Tea on Tuesday with my dear friends from blogland!

Today, as promised, I am going to provide some information about Queen Anne's favorite tea time treat....the "Maids of Honour".

As told by Queen Anne herself during tea on SATURDAY

the cakes are not only decadent in taste but also tale.

These words below taken from the cafe in England called "The Original Maids of Honour Company" that actually still holds, under lock and key, the ORIGINAL recipe for these treasured cakes.....

It all started with the dainty Maid of Honour cakes after which we are named. It is believed that Henry VIII, King of England from 1509-1547, came across Anne Boleyn and her Maids of Honour (the young ladies who attended the Queen), eating the cakes from a silver dish.

Tasting one for himself, the King was so delighted by its ‘melt-in-the-mouth’ sensation that he confiscated the recipe and demanded it be kept secret in a locked iron box at Richmond Palace.

One account goes even further and states that, in order to protect the secret recipe, the unfortunate Maid who invented the cake was imprisoned within the Palace grounds and ordered to produce the delectable tarts solely for King Henry and his royal household!

We don’t know, but one thing’s for sure – the cakes which are deliciously sweet and yet slightly savoury, light and crisp yet unctuously soft in the middle, required a careful balance of the finest ingredients and the lightest hand to make – and they still do.

The continued popularity of the Maids

The years passed and the Tudor Dynasty gave way to the House of Stuart. Certainly by the early 18^th century the recipe had been disclosed to a bakery in Richmond and the tasty little cakes became one of the features of fashionable Richmond through that century and beyond.

The first Original Maids of Honour shop was on the corner of Hill Street in Richmond under the ownership of Mr John Billet and can be traced back to the early 18^th century. Here a young lad called Robert Newens served an apprenticeship and went on to open his own premises, first in King Street and later at No 3 George Street, and so the

tradition of making and selling Maids of Honour in Richmond continued.

A secret passed on

Robert Newens’ family helped build the business and in 1887, his son Alfred Nashbar Newens opened a brand new establishment on the Kew Road – exactly where we are today. Of course, the father passed the now secret family recipe on to his son and the Maids of Honour were served warm and delicious to the people of Kew –

with a whole range of other baked goods on offer as well.

Alfred Newens died in 1927 leaving his business to be carried on by his son John and daughter Kathleen. But during World War II (1939-1945), the elegant early Victorian building that housed the bakery, shop and dining room suffered severe bomb damage and the future looked bleak.

Beyond the Blitz…

A surveyor’s report from 1947 describes the site of the bakery as “little more than a pile of rubble, the baker’s oven a charred and blackened hulk at its centre”.

But the Dunkirk spirit was alive and well (a phrase used to describe the tendency of the British to pull together and overcome times of adversity) and the Original Maids of Honour had its own “miracle of deliverance” when John Newens’ son Peter left the army and with his family, set work to get the business back on its feet.

The bake house was rebuilt with new gas ovens installed, and the shop front was remodelled. Though the fashionable 1940s building lacked some of the lofty elegance of its Victorian predecessor, the new premises had a welcoming and homely appeal with its distinctive Mock Tudor mix of painted pebbledash, red clay roof tiles, heavy timbering and casement windows – and few would disagree, is a far more fitting home for a cake and an odyssey of Tudor origin!

…and into the Future

Visitors today to the Original Maids of Honour are greeted by this very same shop front, and since the 1940s the business has gone from strength to strength. And though its no longer run by the Newens family, little else has changed. The Maids of Honour are still served warm from our ovens every day and the bakery provides a mouth-watering experience for any visitor in its huge variety of high quality homemade iced and

plain cakes, meat pies, cream teas and traditional English luncheons.

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC DON'T YOU THINK!!!

Knowing it true that I could not rely upon the Newens Family to hand over this treasure, I went upon a fabulous internet journey to find a

suitable recipe for the Queen.

Actually I happened upon SEVERAL versions....

which is why I ended up making two types of "Maids".

The first recipe I tried was this lovely bite.....

It was incredibly easy and may I say TASTY...seriously they were DEVOURED so fast that I had to make a second batch for Queen Anne!

Maids of Honour ~ Version 1

1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. raspberry jam
1/2 c. chopped nuts (I use pecans)

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat until light. Add sifted flour, salt and baking powder.

Form small balls between hands and put into small cupcake pans. Make a deep hole in center by pushing up around edges.

Mix jam and nuts together; fill tarts. Cover with small piece of dough.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 9-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Top with dusting of confectioner's sugar and/or whipped cream when serving. Yields 15-18

Having found a second MUCH different version of the Maids, I realized that I must make both, so off I went again to the kitchen which produced these lovely cakes....

And everything is better with a little powdered sugar....

Maids of Honour ~~ Version 2 ~

Refrigerated Pie Crust
Raspberry Jam
Chopped Nuts of your choice
Yellow Cake Mix

Roll out pie crust and cut using scalloped cutter to fit into tart or regular cupcake pan. Make sure to grease pan for easy removal. Line pan with cut pie crust.

Mix up cake mix according to box instructions.

In separate bowl, mix together raspberry jam and nuts

Place about 1/2 T of jam/nuts mixture into bottom of crust lined cavities

Pour cake mix over raspberry mixture careful not to fill to high (do not fill above level of pie crust)

Bake at 375 for 12-18 minutes...baking times vary. You are looking for cake to spring back and lightly golden.

All recipes used here at Sweetology can be found

on my fabulous RECIPES page by clicking HERE....

For a direct link to the printable recipe for BOTH these

delights go ahead and traipse over HERE.

Don't you just LOVE this black rose teacup?

So fitting for Queen Anne, in my humble opinion.

I happened on this treasure recently..having visited the antique shop in my town countless times, I often believe that I know where each and every tea cup is perched in this lovely shop...but recently

this one surprised me as new.