After some great sales of Mother’s Day cards It was time to make time for my own mother (and Mark’s) – afternoon tea in the garden, homemade sweets, flowers and, of course, a free-motion applique card. Sweet treats can be a bit of a challenge when dealing with both our mothers as mine is not supposed to have too much sweet stuff and Mark’s mum lives for creamy sugary treats (but rations them, obviously).
I wanted to give the mums some homemade sweets and Pinterest came up trumps. First off, I found some truffle type goodies that are made from dates, ground almonds, cocoa and honey (no butter, no cream and only the icing sugar they are tossed in to stop them being sticky). The recipe came from SkinnyTaste.com, is ever so easy and far healthier than traditional truffles.
These little lovelies are quite heavy on the sugar, but are small enough to easily ration. They are peppermint creams, but the originals are called Barrington mints and the author suggests making them for weddings (no doubt that is why they are made pink – although I was a little heavy handed with the food colouring!). The recipe is here: Sweet & Saucy.
I had intended to make a show-stopper uber-pretty cake, but it seemed more fair to make one better for my mum. This is an Antony Worrall Thompson recipe from his Diabetes cookery book, made from allbran with apricots – and I added seeds and sultanas too.
When we go out to dinner with Mark’s parents, his mum can never resist pavlova, so I thought meringues with a fruity, bluberry and vanilla cream might go down well…I think I was right!
Add some egg and cress and ham and tomato sandwiches and a few lemon squares on a tiered cake stand and a large jug of chilled homemade lavender lemonade and you have a quite satisfactory afternoon tea.
Mark and I don’t have kids, so mother’s day is something I do for other people, but Mark – being very sweet and silly – turned up Friday night with a big bouquet of flowers and two blu-rays, allegedly from the two cats!
I had another gift on Saturday – our neighbour was clearing out her fabric stash and gave me bundles of real gems!
I do believe that Mother’s Day is a big thing in the UK, we saw lots of advertising in London – and even the pilot on the plane when travelling to London tried to make us buy things for our mothers (English mothers just lie in bed all Mother’s Day, waiting for gifts to be delivered, he claimed).
Seeing all the goodies you made, I wish I was a British mother too!
I think both mothers are very lucky to have you in their lives Sue, you certainly spoiled them! Mother’s Day here is not until May and usually means breakfast in bed for me then a big family lunch somewhere with Stephen’s family.