After much consideration, this year I have decided to surprise my mum on Mother’s Day with breakfast and tea in bed.  For many of you this might be an old trick, but for me it is an adventure into uncharted waters.  You see, I don’t actually eat breakfast…and to top it all off I’m utterly hopeless in the kitchen.  I was the only one out of four kids in our family who failed to become an independent two-minute noodle chef by the age of 12, because quite frankly the stove scares the living daylight out of me.

Despite my domestic shortcomings, I’m going to give it a crack anyway!  So, here are a few easy menu options for us kitchen-impaired kiddos trying to make mum’s day special. To complete the menu, I’ve paired each meal with the perfect tea companion.  Light, iced and fruity if the weather is warm.  Robust, bold and hearty if there’s a full days work ahead.  Sweet, luxurious and lavish if staying in bed and finishing that book is on mum’s agenda.

This is sure to make your mum feel fresh, fine and ready to shine on her day of days.  It’s an incredibly healthy and energizing way to kick-start the morning and can be prepared by even the most culinary-challenged hands.

Light, Iced and Fruity
A cool mix of berries with a topping of muesli served with a refreshing iced tea.

What you’ll need:

• Your mum’s favourite muesli
• Fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and pomegranate
• Natural Yoghurt
• A box of Turkish Apple & Cinnamon and a box of Sweet Spice
• An orange and a cinnamon stick

Here’s how:

• The night before Mother’s Day, scoop 5 heaped teaspoons of Turkish Apple & Cinnamon into the bottom of a 1.2L T2 ‘The Jug’ and fill the infuser with 10 heaped teaspoons of Sweet Spice.  Fill your jug with boiling water and infuse the Sweet Spice for 10 minutes.  Remove the infuser and store the tea in the fridge overnight.
• In the morning, chop the tops of your strawberries, scoop your pomegranate, and half fill a teacup with the strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and pomegranate.
• Sprinkle a generous amount of muesli over the top – extra points here for pretty patterns.
• Add a big dollop of yoghurt on the side to serve.
• Take your iced tea out of the fridge and pour over ice in long, tall glass.  Add a cinnamon stick and orange slice to garnish.

If fruity isn’t your mum’s thing, and you think she’d rather just get on with the day like the superwoman that she is, then try dishing up this perky platter for a punchy morn.

Robust, Bold, and Hearty
A generous serving of bacon or ham, baked beans, two eggs made to order and a slice of toast served with a black brew.

What you’ll need:

• Two or three slices of bacon or ham
• A small tin of baked beans
• Two eggs
• Bread
• A box of English Breakfast or Really Russian Caravan

Here’s how:

• Whip up two eggs just to your mum’s liking – scrambled…sunny side up?
• Heat baked beans and serve in a teacup from your cupboard
• Lightly toast bread, place on a matching saucer, and pop the eggs on top.
• Cook bacon until delightfully crispy and drool-worthy.  Delicately arrange on top of your beautiful eggs.
• Brew a cup of English Breakfast if you know it’s her favourite – but if you’re feeling adventurous brew a dark cup of Really Russian Caravan.  It’s strong, black and smoky and will give her the energy she needs to power on through until elevensies.  You could even add a slice of orange or pineapple to spice up the brew!

And lastly, if you’re sure that she’s got nothing planned for the day why not spoil her with an exuberantly indulgent morning feast.

Sweet, Luxurious and Lavish
A delectable stack of pancakes drizzled with honey, served with fresh berries, banana and a toasty tea treat.

What you’ll need:

• Home-made pancake mix from page 54 in the Breakfast, Lunch, Tea cookbook found at T2 Retail locations
• Teapot cookie cutters
• Honey
• Fresh strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries
• Banana
• Chocolate-coated macadamia nuts
• A box of Toasty Nougat

Here’s how:

• Pour pancake mix in dollops roughly the size of your palm into pan.  Once cooked and lightly cooled, use your teapot shaped cookie cutter on the fresh pankakes.  Stack 4 or 5 teapot pancakes in a neat pile on a teacup saucer before dressing in honey.
• Slice banana and serve with berries in a matching teacup from your cupboard.
• Brew a warm cup of Toasty Nougat and serve with two or three chocolate-coated macadamia nuts – it’s a special day after all!

I hope you enjoy our Mother’s Day menus fit for a queen…

…the hardest thing now will be getting up before mum at 5:30am!

Until next time, sip back, relax and get cookin’!

Nothing ruins a nice table like a heat stain, and as everyday tea drinkers we’ve had our fair share! We made this rope trivet to not only hide them, but to prevent them and with a little knotting luck it made the perfect table and tea accessory.

You’ll need around 4 meters of rope (either cotton or nylon) and a needle and thread to fasten the ends.  We made little colour patches by wrapping small sections of the rope in yarn.

This one takes a bit of perseverance but its well worth it.

Step 1.
Lay the rope infront of you with the longer end to the right.

Step 2.
Make a look with the right side of the rope

Step 3.
Sit the loop over the left side.

Step 4.
Pass the left end over the right end then under the right side loop.

Step 5.
Pass the end over, then under, then over.

Step 6.
Weave the long end of the rope through the loop the left end just followed.

Now you can pull the long end through to make the final loop, then just keep following the path already created until you run out of rope.

Once you are finished just tuck in and stitch down the loose ends to the back making sure they can’t unravel.

Now you just need a pot of tea and to marvel at your new trivet (and mark free table).

T2 x

For as long as I can remember my mother has been using everyday items for things other than their intended purpose. Growing up we always kept a ridiculous amount of lemons around the house because she used them to ‘sanitize’ the chopping board. I’d go in search of an apple only to find that she’d lined the refrigerator vegetable drawer with newspaper – apparently it kept it dry and absorbed bad smells.

Nothing lights up her eyes like genuine ingenuity and craftiness when it comes to quirky ways of spicing up everyday life. So with that in mind, here are 10 ways to use teapots beyond of their humble beginnings. Made especially perfect for those with cracked lids, broken handles and chipped spouts.

For those with sunny dispositions and sunny corners – pretty pansies!

Fish in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but this is more of a grand palace isn’t it. It should also be noted that not all fish are suitable for this kind of bowl so check with your local aquarium or pet store for advice.

The perfect addition to the breakfast table? A tea pot sugar bowl of course. Just dont get the sugar and tea around the wrong way.

Bathrooms can be boring except when you colour coordinate your toothbrushes with their tea pot holder.

Always ready for Tuesday night take out, a chopstick holder for your zen corner.

The perfect centrepiece in any high tea setting, coffee table or garden picnic – teapots make great vases.

Surely this one speaks for itself… and if you go with a heavy pot like cast iron your pen holder doubles as a paperweight. Double whammy with wow factor!

YUM! and the perfect way to monitor how many party snakes are left in the pot.

They’re called tea lights for a reason…we like to think this is it.

Herb planters so practical, pretty and kitchen convenient. And for those who would rather drink tea than cook, mint is perfect for your brews.

This is just a few ways to upcycle your old teapots, or you can even start start with some new ones. So sip back, relax and get creative!

x T2.

Beyond the perfect tea set, sweet treats are made for this cup and saucer. Unashamed chocolate fiends take note, this self saucing pudding recipe will have you running for the oven, and it’s oh so simple.

It took about 15 minutes to get them ready, 15 minutes cooking, and 3 minutes to devour.  Straight from my mum to you with creative licence on modifications.

½ cup plain flour
1 ½ tbs hazelnut meal
¼ cup brown sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
3 ½ tbs cocoa powder, sifted
½ cup milk
35g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup brown sugar, extra
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift the flour, hazelnut meal, sugar, baking powder and 2 tablespoons of cocoa into a bowl. Add the milk, butter, egg and vanilla and mix well.

Divide into 4 cups and place on a baking tray. Combine the extra sugar and remaining cocoa and sprinkle over the puddings then pour over the water.

Bake for 12–15 minutes or until the tops are firm.

We served ours with vanilla ice cream, but would also recommend chocolate (too much is never enough).

These Treat Time cups and saucers come in 5 pretty colours and are now available as part of the T2 Mothers Day range. Enjoy!

T2 x

… Or should we say tea-rrarium?

The perfect addition to any happy home, we have brought one of our glass tea pots to life with just a little potting mix and a few mini succulents.
Here’s how we did it, but we highly recommend getting creative on this.

What you need:

• Glass teapot (we use one from the T2 Glass range)
• A small amount of potting mix
• A selection of small succulents & cactus (Particularly ones with tiny ones growing around the edges)

This took a leisurely half hour with minimal mess.

• First we put a small amount of potting mix in the bottom of the teapot
• You could probably put some pebbles at the bottom to optimize drainage but in this case we didn’t
• Then we separated some of the bigger plants and arranged them in central spots with spaces for the little guys in between – remember it should look good from all angles
• We lightly pressed in the roots as we went
• Then filled in the gaps and spaces close to the edges with the small buds
• To finish off, we gave it a little water, cleaned any stray dirt off the glass and put its lid on

With just a little water every so often your new terrarium will be wowing house guests over and over.

They say talking to your plants can improve their growth, so this one is straight from my Mum (a natural green thumb) “be happy and grow”.

T2 x

My Grandma lived at the bottom of mount Wellington in Tasmania.  Every raspberry season we would go with her to pick fresh raspberries from the mountains raspberry farms.  We would come home with buckets of them and Grandma would then make enough raspberry jam to last everybody the whole year. After the jam was made she would then bake raspberry treats for weeks.  My favourite is her Raspberry shortcake.  Every time I bake this now I think of sitting in her kitchen on a cold Tasmanian winters day, drinking strong black tea and eating warm freshly baked Grandma Iles Raspberry shortcake…. yum!

1 cup self-raising flour
30g butter
Homemade raspberry jam
Almond essence
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp water
1/2 cup caster sugar

Sift together the flour and sugar into a bowl and rub in the buter until it has a breadcrumb like texture. Add water and 1 egg and mix into a dough. Tip the dough onto a flat surface and roll it out to fit a lamington tin. Place the dough into the greased lamington tin and press down to fit evenly in the tray. Spread the raspberry jam over the top of the dough.

Beat the remaining egg and caster sugar until thick and pale. Add coconut and almond essence, mix and spread over the jam and dough. Bake in a moderate oven for 20mins.

Kate @ T2 x