The September-October 2020 issue of TEA TIME MAGAZINE inspired me to create my own Autumn Tea on my front porch. The ivory pumpkin shaped teapot from Grace’s Teaware and pictured on their front cover, is one that I have too, along with the matching cups and saucers.
I had great delight in creating this autumn tea vignette and hope you will enjoy seeing the results. This post is a tad longer than usual but I wanted to include all the lovely parts of the ensemble. And yes, David and I did sit down to the table and enjoyed this special afternoon treat together. 🙂
The porch table is set for two starting with a vintage linen tablecloth cross-stitched in fall colors of rust orange and burnished brown. The creamware pumpkin cups and saucers, soft faux-suede maple leaf place mats, textured orange pumpkin ceramic plates, and embroidered vintage cloth napkins with pumpkin napkin rings (a recent find at Hobby Lobby) complete the place settings.
The bouquet of flowers on the table include the last of my Limelight Hydrangeas and Dahlias, with some Zebra grass tassels tucked in for added texture. The mini yellow-orange Boo Pumpkins were harvested from the four seed plants I grew over my compost area during the summer. There were a lot of flowers of potential pumpkins but only six little pumpkins showed up (I gave one to my neighbor). I am glad to have at least these to show off after waiting all summer for them!
I baked an Orange Marmalade Walnut Tea Bread (recipe at end of this post) in my Nordic Ware pumpkin loaf pan (I wrote about this pan in an earlier post) and served it on an ivory china plate decorated with a rustic orange ribbon woven in between the openings of the plate’s outer edge.
The hot tea was brewed from Kroger’s Private Collection “Orange Spice Black Tea”, a lovely compliment to the tea bread.
The weather was still warm enough to sit and enjoy this lovely outdoor tea on the front porch. Thank You TEA TIME MAGAZINE for the inspiration!
Recipe for the Orange Marmalade Walnut Tea Bread (printed source unknown)
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1-1/4 cups sweet orange marmalade
1 large egg
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Prepare baking pan(s) with baking spray. (I use Professional Bak-klene All-Purpose No-Stick Bakery Spray available at Amazon.)
Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) in a large bowl and mix thoroughly together with a whisk.
Combine wet ingredients (marmalade, egg, orange juice, oil) in another bowl and mix together until well blended. Add chopped walnuts and stir together.
Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir only until mixture is moistened.
Batter yields slightly more than four cups. Distribute evenly into four 5-3/4″ x 3″ loaf pans and bake for approximately 25-30 minutes. If using a 9″ x 5 loaf pan (like the Nordic Ware pumpkin pan), bake approximately 45-50 minutes. Use a toothpick to test for doneness. Cool on wire rack for at least 15 minutes; remove from pan(s) to finish cooling.
Serve sliced with butter or cream cheese spread.