Articles

Nov 22 2014

Apple Layer Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Author: Jenna

Growing up, apple pie was my favorite dessert. Yeah I’d eat cake or cookies or ice cream, but if you put a slice of apple pie in front of me, you’d be my best friend for life–or at least until someone else gave me a slice of pie. My love even went as far as having an apple pie instead of a birthday cake for my 13th birthday party.

Apple Layer Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I should have made this cake that day, since it is the best of both worlds, a hybrid of apple pie and the best cake I’ve ever tasted. And I make a lot of cakes. If only I had come up with this recipe back then! Alas I wasn’t such a crazy baker back in my tween years so I had to wait a decade to develop the perfect apple pie cake.

Oct 02 2014

Peach Crumble Bars

Author: Jenna

It’s October! Or at least I think it is. You don’t always believe the calendar when you live in California because, let’s face it, it’s frequently hotter in Fall than it is in Summer. Don’t believe me? It was 102°F today! Fall is supposed to be the season of sweaters and pumpkin spice everything (yes I am a full charter member of the Pumpkin Spice Obsession Club so be prepared), not short shorts and tropical fruits. But, that’s California for you! So let’s indulge in a couple more summery desserts before we give in to all things pumpkin and cream cheese covered.

Yes, everything with pumpkin requires cream cheese frosting.

Peach Crumble Bars

Sep 15 2014

Mango Coconut Macadamia Nut Scones

Author: Jenna

Remember my promise to post more regularly now that the roommate thing was over? Uh…oops. Just when you think your life is about to slow down, it speeds up even more. Murphy’s Law and all that, right? (Curse that darn Murphy! Who is Murphy anyway? If I give him scones will he cut me some slack?)

I definitely don’t want to bring acting up in this blog regularly, but I promise this isn’t really about acting. Acting just gave me the setting for The Great Mango Catastrophe of September 2014. The other weekend, I did this 5 manager showcase–short story even shorter you do a scene/monologue for 5 talent managers, they answer your questions, hopefully they like you and you like them, and we all celebrate with cake–after an audition in a completely different part of town. To kill the hours in between, I took a trip to Whole Foods for a little treat: MANGO.

Mango Coconut Macadamia Nut Scones

In case you didn’t know, mango is my absolute favorite fruit, and when Whole Foods has good mango, they have good mango! I was sooooooo excited to eat it after my showcase. But while I was there, disaster struck! THE CONTAINER OPENED UP IN MY BAG AND ALL THE MANGO SPILLED INTO MY PURSE!!!!

Aug 19 2014

Peach Blackberry Scones

Author: Jenna

Wow it’s been a long time since I posted, but I promise you I have multiple valid excuses. As you may know, baking and blogging is just a side passion of mine. My actual career/job is acting. And this past month, my career has been taking off in so many directions that I’ve barely had time to do my laundry much less keep the blog current. We’re talking 20 auditions and 4 short film lead roles and multiple business meetings and acting classes! There have also been some living situation changes that have required a lot of additional attention, but with all that settled I can come back to Once Upon An Afternoon Tea and continue pursuing acting. So more scones for you

But scones aren’t the only thing on our teablog menus coming up! There’s a fun scone-based dessert, some cake, and our first real tea sandwich recipe in the queue. And a lot of delicious bars/tray bakes if I ever get around to photographing them…

Peach Blackberry Scones

Jul 01 2014

Red, White, and Blue Scones

Author: Jenna

I feel super accomplished because I am getting you a holiday scone recipe before the holiday so you can actually make them for your holiday get together!!! Yeah, I feel proud. Like, American pride!

Red, White, and Blue Scones

Jun 27 2014

Blueberry Scones

Author: Jenna

There was just a really loud bang in my apartment. No idea what it was, but it scared me half to death! All I know is that our power went out and then came The Big Bang and the power turned back on. What the bleep?! Now the alarm system keeps chirping and I have no clue how to stop it. Why does living away from your parents have to be so scary and confusing?

Blueberry Scones

So since I’ve had my share of scary and confusing for the day, let’s go with simple and easy for our tea time scones. No crazy mix-ins, no experimentation, no wild steps like smothering dough in Nutella...just a classic scone that everyone loves: The Blueberry Scone.

Jun 21 2014

Dark Chocolate Chip Blueberry Scones

Author: Jenna

Dark Chocolate Chip Blueberry Scones

Father’s Day is tomorrow!!

Okay, technically Father’s Day was last Sunday the 15th, but tomorrow my mom, my brother, and myself are taking my dad to a Dodgers-Padres baseball game down in San Diego. So we are celebrating Father’s Day tomorrow. Yeah we did the full family barbecue (that wasn’t as good as my dad’s famous barbecue) on the actual day, but tomorrow is really when the four of us are going to spend time together as a family and cherish every moment of the day with our beloved patriarch. Unless the Dodgers lose. Which they won’t!

Live. Breathe. Blue.

May 26 2014

Vanilla Yogurt Covered Blueberry Scones

Author: Jenna

When I was in elementary school, everybody brought cupcakes for the class on their birthday. I never really understood why the person whose birthday it was brought in the cupcakes; it always made more sense to me that the class should bring cupcakes for the birthday boy or girl. But what’s done is done and we all looked forward to our classmates’ birthdays because we were allowed to eat dessert in the middle of the day.

Vanilla Yogurt Covered Blueberry Scones

Now I was a weird kid. I know it, I accept it, I have recovered from it. I didn’t want to bring cupcakes! Come April all I wanted was blueberry muffins. From a box. With tons of sweet yummy streusel topping. It’s funny because now I insist on making everything–cakes, brownies, scones, muffins–from scratch. But back then, it was all about those boxed blueberry muffins with a sugar topping. Forget birthday cake, bring me on some muffins!

May 18 2014

Strawberry Vanilla Bean Scones

Author: Jenna

Let’s take a quick break from the banana, shall we? There’s only one more (for now) but it’s officially embarrassingly late to post a photo with Easter decorations so I don’t want things to get any more awkward for me. I don’t want to have to wear a paper bag over my head with ‘I’m Not a Scone Baker Anymore” (is it too late to make that joke too?).

Strawberry Vanilla Scones

One of my first recipes on this blog was Strawberry Vanilla Scones. I went on and on about how amazing Gaviota strawberries were and how I was afraid that my usual scone recipe would be too strong of a flavor to work with the Gaviotas. So I used a mascarpone based scone instead. Well it’s well into strawberry season again, but this time I forgot my earlier qualms and decided, “Hey! I’m going to make strawberry vanilla scones!” also forgetting that I already had a strawberry vanilla scone recipe on the blog. Oops. Shows you how many scones I make.

May 11 2014

Banana Nutella Scones

Author: Jenna

Remember how I made banana chocolate chip coffee cake when my mom requested chocolate swirl banana bread? Remember how I felt like a terrible daughter since it was so close to Mother’s Day and I was pressuring you to make that coffee cake for Mom? It was a dark time in my life. I love my mom more than any other person in the world, and to not give her the world–or at least the banana bread–she requested made me feel so bad, I knew I had to make it up to her.

Banana Nutella Scones

These are how I did it.

Once Upon an Afternoon Tea

The Art of Afternoon Tea from Los Angeles and Beyond

Articles

Apple Layer Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Peach Crumble Bars

Mango Coconut Macadamia Nut Scones

Peach Blackberry Scones

Red, White, and Blue Scones

Blueberry Scones

Dark Chocolate Chip Blueberry Scones

Vanilla Yogurt Covered Blueberry Scones

Strawberry Vanilla Bean Scones

Banana Nutella Scones