Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

I hope that the restaurant issues corrections on their website for the items other readers have mentioned. So far, I have LOVED this book. I made a lemon-blueberry cake with butter cream frosting and it was delicious - so light and fluffy, my friends were very impressed. Then I made my favorite from the restaurant- their granola. My husband & I can't stop eating this. Its so good, and very easy. Though I did have to add more honey/butter and cook for a bit longer, but that didn't make it that bad.

If you love this restaurant (or brunch or tea or dessert for that matter), you'll love this book!

I bought this cookbook last week after reading the reviews so I was cautious in ensuring I read the recipes carefully. I made the Berry Scones which were great and very easy to make. I would recommend maybe adding a little extra sugar next times since I like mine a little bit sweeter but they turned out really well. I also made the Turkey Chili which is awesome!!!! My kids devoured it and I loved it. Again I made a few tweaks with the seasoning. It was really good as is, but I probably doubled the cumin and chili powder to my families liking. That being said it was ridiculously good and a real keeper. I plan on trying the salad dressing and cupcakes that include marshmellow fluff:-) It looks like some great ideas and good book for a cook that understands when you need to add and subtract a little with the seasoning.

Like another reviewer, I expected this to be mostly bakery-style bites for tea time or coffee with friends. There is a much wider variety of recipes than anticipated, some very creative, but most of them were not things I'd be likely to use much (tea infused scones and cookies). I was also a bit disappointed at the large amounts of sugar in nearly every recipe; in this day and age when so many people are on restricted diets or watching their health, one tends to expect everything but dedicated chocolate-dessert books to balance heavily sugar- laden treats with more modest options.

The pictures were gorgeous, the writing friendly and upbeat, and the offerings certainly not standard cookbook repeats. That said, its worth flipping through a copy of this in person if you can before spending the money to own it.

not so sure about this...some recipes work and some don't...
i like the format tho..and it's homey=ness just needs a bit more editing on recipes

This is a nice little gift cookbook for anyone who's eaten at, stuck their head into, or walked by the little Alice's Tea Cup bakery on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The recipes look as good as they taste, and the design is scrumptious too.

Dying for alice's pumpkin scones I dove in and followed the recipe exactly as written but ended up with a very soft dough that could not be used - so I pitched that batch. Second time around I only used 1 cup of buttermilk and it helped a bit, but find this incredibly frustrating because why the heck did I buy the book if the recipe isn't correct!
They're in the oven right now, so yet to know if they taste half way decent. I used the 1/4 c. of cinnamon and 1/4 c. of ginger and seemed to be fine with 3 c. of flour.
Definitely not delectable!!

Bought one for me then went and bought two more for gifts. Great recipes. Would give it 5 stars if it weren't for the mistakes in some of the ingredients. Thanks to the other reviewers who looked into the mistakes and published the proper amounts in their reviews.