Queens, Crowns, Cream and Crumpets ...

Yep, this is us; me, the queen of clutter and Stacy the queen of pink!! We have gathered our queenly talents to celebrate the creation of a future queen... (who's current domain is Cambridge, I believe, which is my own ancestral stomping ground!)  Stacy provided the royal environ, and healthy nibbles, and I spent some time dabbling in the kitchen a bit and brought the mandatory crumpets and clotted cream what else.

Here we see Stacy practicing her royal wave!

 The Royal Event took place on Friday April 29th, making it early morning in the far flung royal kingdom near the shores of the Salt Lake, which is Great. ... Meanwhile in the nether land of the southern Kingdom of Clutter, I finished up my book club about 10:00 P.M. on Thursday night, and with three hours until I needed to climb into my carriage to travel to Stacy's palace, I choose to tie on the apron and make the crumpets.  I have a great recipe, that I got out of a novel, (Where else?)  The book is called English Trifle by Josi S. Kilpack (which, I enjoyed, if you were wondering, its a who-done-it, not quite Agatha Christie, but very nice!) 








Crumpets
2 cups all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 t instant yeast
1/2 t salt
1 T sugar
2 cups of warm water.
Sift the flour twice, mix dry ingredients and add the warm water.  Whisk together until smooth, and about the consistency of pancake batter. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes, until a few bubbles form on top.  Heat frying pan to medium heat.  Spray crumpet rings and pan with Pam type product. (I used deep cookie cutters).  Place rings in pan to heat, then spoon in batter about 2/3 full.  Wait until batter rises to fill rings, and bubbles are popping on top, about 6 minutes. Turn with spatula, and flip the back of the crumpet with a tea spoon forcing it out of the ring.  Cook other side until brown about 2 minutes.  Note that cooking too fast will cause a doughy center.

 When we were in England with our friends the Moes we went to a tea house in Brighton, one of the high lights of our trip for me.  (Ranked slightly below seeing Jane Austen's house) We had scones and clotted cream.  The scones were more like an American biscuit, but a little sweet, and they had raisins.  I loved the clotted cream, but have never been able to find such a thing in the US. 

Clotted Cream

Last year, when I had my Canadian friend, Stacy, and her Mom to the house for 'tea', I found  a recipe for faux clotted cream on the Internet, and we loved it.  I find it pairs well with crumpets as well.

Take an 8 oz cream cheese at room temp, and using a fork work it until quite soft.  Then start working in , a tablespoon or so at a time, of a pint of whipping cream.  Don't get it too smooth, or it won't be 'clotted'.  Serve on scones or crumpets, also good paired with jam.

I got to Staci's around 2:00 A.M. Friday morning and we wore tiny tieras while we watched the royal festivities happening live in the mother kingdom (of Canada at least) across the pond. Did I mention that Stacy is an honest to goodness real royal subject?)  I had to run off to babysit some adorable munchkins, so I left at 5:45 A.M.  We had a wonderful time bonding, as neighboring queens should, and our countries should continue in peace and harmony for many seasons to come!!