Alice's Tea Cup: Delectable Recipes for Scones, Cakes, Sandwiches, and More from New York's Most Whimsical Tea Spot [Hardcover]

Haley Fox (Author), Lauren Fox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 26, 2010

The delightful sisters and owners of Alice's Tea Cup share nearly one hundred recipes from their charming and wildly popular Manhattan restaurants

For almost ten years, Alice's Tea Cup has been a destination in New York City for locals and tourists alike who crave a scrumptious afternoon tea without airs or pretension. Haley and Lauren Fox learned at an early age that tea was more than just a beverage—it was an event to be shared and protected—and they divulge their tea-making philosophy and dozens of delectable recipes in this beautiful cookbook.

Embodying the mantra "tea turned on its ear," Alice's Tea Cup serves up unique twists to traditional Victorian tea fare, including:

Savories—Lapsang Souchong Smoked Chicken Salad and Cucumber Watercress Sandwiches with Lemon Chive Butter

Baked goods—Banana Nutella Cake and Mint Black Bottom Cupcakes

Sweet treats—Alice'S'mores and Queen of Tarts

Tea selections—from African Dew to Rooibos Bourbon

Specialty drinks—Alice's Tea-jito and Ginger Mar-tea-ni

And of course Alice's world-famous tender, moist scones—including nineteen versions, from pumpkin to peanut butter and jelly to ham and cheese

Haley and Lauren also show you how to throw a personalized "Curiouser and Curiouser" tea party with household props and offer lots of other ways to celebrate with tea and festive food. From salads to scones, pancakes to cupcakes, afternoon tea to evening mar-tea-nis, this fabulous cookbook lets you enjoy Alice's mouthwatering recipes without leaving home.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The several locations of Alice’s Tea Cup in Manhattan have so grown in popularity that they now serve every meal of the day, not just afternoon tea. Fans of their esteemed scones, cookies, and cakes now have in hand the shop’s recipes recast for the home cook. Lemon–poppy seed and mixed-berry scones figure among the tea shop’s favored pastries, but there are savory scones as well, such as walnut-Stilton, and ham and cheese. Sandwiches transcend traditional egg and tuna salad to encompass even cheeseburgers for those seeking a substantial meal. Whimsically decorated cakes satisfy the serious sweet tooth. Many of the specialty baked goods have tea baked into them as part of their flavor spectrums. Those who need something more stimulating than tea may imbibe some cocktails such as a mixture of smoky Lapsang souchong tea and Scotch, meant to recall an after-dinner whiskey and cigar. --Mark Knoblauch

Review

In the “Alice’s” book, you’ll find recipes both delightful and down to earth. In only six steps, you can re–create the shop’s popular berry scones… A savory and crunchy cumin carrot sandwich takes just minutes. The vanilla tea–infused granola or the blueberry lemon cake are, well, a piece of cake. (NY Daily News )

One of the Best NYC Cookbooks of 2010 (New York magazine )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks (October 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061964921
• ISBN-13: 978-0061964923
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 7.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Coffee & Tea

More About the Author

Haley Fox, a New York University film school graduate, started her career as an aspiring director. She went into film development at MGM in California and worked with various film companies before moving back to New York to open Alice's Tea Cup with her husband, Michael Eisenberg, and her sister. She lives with Michael and their two children in Manhattan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoying this book..., November 1, 2010

By 

Patricia Ann - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alice's Tea Cup: Delectable Recipes for Scones, Cakes, Sandwiches, and More from New York's Most Whimsical Tea Spot (Hardcover)

My family ate at Alice's Tea Cup for a celebration and everything was scrumptious. I am thrilled with the book because it has all the delicious recipes I enjoyed in their tearoom. So far, I've made the molasses ginger cookies and the curried chicken sandwiches and both recipes turned out great. Their recipe ideas are very creative.

3 weeks later...Hi all, Here are some corrections to Alice's Tea Cup's new tea book...I made the pumpkin scones; they were extremely over-spiced. When I first read the recipe, the quantities of the spices sounded wrong, so I called them. A gentleman insisted the 1/4 cup each of cinnamon and ginger was the correct amount. I doubted it, but decided to give them a try since he verified the recipe. Well, the scones were totally unpalatable and I threw out the whole batch. A sad waste of money:(
This morning, I called again and tracked down the cook who actually makes the scones. She said she uses only 1 teaspoon each of the cinnamon and the ginger. I asked about any other recipe corrections and she said the curried chicken sandwiches should have chopped red apple in the recipe.

Despite the corrections, I still believe it's a book that most will enjoy, as I do. The curried chicken recipe is very good. I found you can get away without dry rubbing and baking the chicken. I made it again with leftover roasted chicken to which I added equal amounts of mayo, sour cream, and apricot preserves. Then I chopped up celery, red onion, sliced almonds and dried apricots and added those in. Finally I sprinkled on sea salt, fresh ground pepper and curry to taste. It was delicious. Alice's cook told me they add in chopped red apple so I'll do that next time.

Another update...I made the pumpkin scones with the 1 tsp each of the spices and they turned out great. Don't miss the topping, it truly adds to the scone. I had extra topping so I refrigerated it. To use it on something else, I warmed it on a very low heat and added a few spoonfuls of heavy cream...Oh my, how delicious, and it reheated really well.

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mistakes can be costly, November 28, 2010

By 

T. Borden "bsypaintin" (Wellington, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Alice's Tea Cup: Delectable Recipes for Scones, Cakes, Sandwiches, and More from New York's Most Whimsical Tea Spot (Hardcover)

WARNING! RECIPE ERRORS ...Pumpkin scone recipe has incorrect amounts for the spices (which another reviewer confirmed by calling Alice's and talking to the baker who actually makes them. The correct amount is 1 tsp. ginger, and 1 tsp. cinn.) Unfortunately I did not read the reviews before diving in to make the pumpkin scones (the reason I bought the book in the first place!) which were inedible and a waste of time & money. I get very frustrated with books that are poorly proofread. According to same reviewer the curry chicken was also missing chopped apple.(although this mistake at least makes it just taste different, not inedible!)
It makes me wonder how many other recipes I'm going to go through that might have mistakes, and what the cost of them could be to the consumer who purchased the book trusting the outcome would be correct according to the recipes paid for by buying the book. I think the integrity of the book is at stake when already 2 mistakes have been found and the book just came out.
On the positive side.. this might very well mean they really did give out their real recipe which most establishments don't usually do. They change something. But since they have to bake these in bulk, I am guessing that 1/4 cup of ginger and cinnamon was actually the amount in their bulk recipe before it was reduced for home baking. The scary part is the reviewer who called talked to someone who confirmed the book was correct, and lucky for her she knew in her gut it still had to be wrong (after knowing they were inedible!) and finally ended up talking to the baker and found out it really was a mistake.)
Note to self: Always check reviews on Amazon BEFORE I start baking out of any book. At least I would know if there were any mistakes already found that needed correction before wasting my time and money. :) And.. I would know which recipes were the most successful to start with!

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected., March 13, 2011

By 

Corrie Snell (Kalispell, MT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alice's Tea Cup: Delectable Recipes for Scones, Cakes, Sandwiches, and More from New York's Most Whimsical Tea Spot (Hardcover)

I've had this book on my wish list for quite awhile and since I'm planning an afternoon tea, I thought I'd buy it and get some new ideas. I already own several little books on afternoon tea, petite desserts, entertaining, etc.. If I had thoroughly read the product page, I would have seen the comment in Editorial Reviews that said that there's a recipe for cheeseburgers, "for those seeking a substantial meal." I don't know about you, but I don't want to serve cheeseburgers at my afternoon tea. Furthermore, I would never look in a "tea" cookbook for a recipe for a cheeseburger, and I can't say I actually even need a recipe for one...

There are several scone recipes that start the book off, including the famous pumpkin scones with an interesting sounding caramel glaze. Then we get into breakfast recipes: pancakes, waffles, granola, hash, and omelet. Next are soups and salads. Then sandwiches, including the cheeseburger and a Rueben. The third of the sandwich recipes that could be made into tea sandwiches are not incredibly original: an egg salad, two chicken salads, ham and cheese, cucumber and watercress...the exception being the carrot and cumin. Cookies, then cakes and cupcakes, and other sweets and treats are fine chapters. I must admit that the Peanut Butter Ganache Cake and the Blueberry Lemon Cake both look delicious. The "Mar-tea-nis" chapter is very original.

To sum up, I was looking for a book with new ideas for filling tea sandwiches, and other dainty tea-time fare, and this book did not deliver.