My first Tea Cup Tuesday!

This is my first post on the new blog I have set up to let me take part in Teacup Tuesday. I found out about Teacup Tuesday through the Artful Affirmations blog of a fellow crafter Terri. I have linked to her blog in my side bar. I loved the idea of joining in as I have quite a collection of lovely chintz china, but sadly, I do not have the space to display it properly in my little house. I thought I would use this blog as a virtual china cabinet so I could enjoy my collection more and hopefully other people can too!

Tea drinking is an important part of my life, one way I like relax. Tea is the cup that cheers. I like some usunual tea blends and will share some of those here too. I also love to bake and to bake with love. So from time to time I may also share some of my favorite sorts of home-baked goodies along the way!

So here is my first tea cup to share. A beautiful Shelley Chintz cup and saucer in the Summer Glory pattern. I wish I could manage a slightly sharper picture but the light was terrible today.

I won't show you a close up of the cup as it is badly cracked and has seen better days - but it is a pretty pale green colour. Here is the saucer in close up.

Here is the backstamp. This pattern was manufactured in Staffordhsire in England in the 1940s. My cup is the pink version of summer glory.

To celebrate my first ever post I baked some cupcakes. These are golden gingerbread cupcakes with lemon frosting and are based on a slightly adpated recipe from this amazing cookery book - Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World -  how could you not love a book with a title that crazy! I cannot recommend this book highly enough, these recipes are so inventive and so reliable. These cakes are a little extra special as they are spiced with a lebkuchen spice mix I bought back with me from our last holiday in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. One of our most favourite places in the world and where I always leave a little part of my heart.

Once I had added the lemon frosting and some crystallised ginger and lemon peel, I thought I might give one of my chintz cake stands an outing!

So here is how I enjoyed my reward for setting up my new blog, a cup of my very favourite Marrakech Mint Tea - a very special and refreshing blend of green tea and spearmint made by Liptons and one I can only seem to find in France and a golden moment with my cupcake, using some of my modern chintz china, that may get another outing here on another day.

Thank you for joining me on my first ever Teacup Tuesday!

Elaine x