I had just finished reading the Australian classic 'My Brother Jack'. It follows a Melbourne family, two brothers in particular, from the end of the Great War until nearing the end of World War II. The clever brother who has no gumption ends up married to a beautiful woman who is interested only in appearances. Her description of cocktail onions dyed bright jewel colours was an inspiration and we had bright yellow, green and red onions on cocktail sticks with pineapple and cheese cubes. Who knew you could buy them already dyed! My photos of that have disappeared sadly. As have the pictures of crab dip piped on to savoy biscuits topped with tiny capers.
Here's the main spread though. Herb sandwich rounds topped with caviar; cucumber salad; champagne chicken and tarragon vol au vents; prawn marie rose on baby cos lettuce; a dairy free fritatta with stripes of asparagus, red peppers and black olives; diana's mini meatballs and crumbed rice balls; jo's revolutionary mini potato and caramelised onion quiches - on bread buttered and baked till crisp and pumpernickel with smoked trout and horseradish.
After a decent interval we had Alex's stunning flourless chocolate cake with raspberries and strawberries and Franca's decadent caramel and chocolate swirl cheesecake - topped, of course, with a chocolate cream.
And as if that wasn't sufficient Shalini's perfectly perfect mini lemon meringue pies and Chrissie's mini banana and chocolate chip muffins. Sarah took a detour past Victoria's famous bakery and brought vanilla slice, raspberry and almond tarts and iced apple rounds.
It was a tea party of course so there was plenty of tea to quench our thirst. We found that 2 cups of slightly sweetened earl grey tea with 100mls each of cognac and lemon juice poured over ice and finished with a splash of lemonade did the trick. As recommended by gourmet traveller.
Thank goodness the boys came round and ate all the leftovers.
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