Easter afternoon tea for kids
Make Easter extra special this year by throwing an afternoon tea party for the kids. They'll love helping in the kitchen with the sandwiches, scones and treats
Enjoying afternoon tea is a staple of being British, but while treating yourself to fine-dining afternoon teas with gilded armchairs and silver three-tiered tea stands is a tempting thought, it’s not plausible in practice.
This Easter, why not show your young ones the fun of an afternoon tea from the comfort of your home? We have created this helpful guide to walk you through the must-haves for your party to make it a success with the kids. From the kit you’ll need to appropriately display your sweet and savoury treats to decorations and games that will help to involve everyone in the Easter fun. And don’t think we’ve forgotten the essential sandwiches, scones and cakes! We’ve comprised the top menu for creating with budding bakers by gathering recipes from our Easter kids’ recipes, scone recipes, kids’ party drinks recipes, kids’ cakes recipes and kids’ biscuits recipes. Now discover our best Easter egg hunt ideas.
If your children are avid bakers and chefs, check out our helpful series, Kids’ Kitchen featuring videos and recipes to guide you and your children through six essential cookery skills to create a variety of delicious dishes from scratch.
For more simple afternoon tea recipes, check out our easiest-ever afternoon tea recipes. If you’re on a budget, our budget afternoon tea ideas offer great cheap-yet-stunning inspiration.
Setting the scene
When you think of afternoon tea, the first thing that springs to mind is a tiered cake stand to display all your delicious treats, so why not check out our review of the best cake stands for showcasing your bakes to choose one that’s right for you? Otherwise, adorn your table with your favourite tablecloth and start setting it for your guests. Let kids take the reins for designing the table’s décor, but make sure they don’t forget the essentials: a teapot, teacups, plates, cutlery, and cake slicers for serving. Add a little pizazz to your Easter spread with decorated blown eggs for each guest and egg carton flowers and chicks to adorn the table. We have guides on how to make decorated Eggs for Easter and the top 10 egg carton crafts for kids to show you how.
Arrival drinks
Make sure you have drinks suitable for all guests at your Easter spread. As adults are partial to a cuppa, having sugar and milk on the table would be helpful to avoid jumping up and down. We have a variety of delicious brews to choose from, such as our fresh mint tea, chai tea, cinnamon tea and camomile tea.
Some of the older children might enjoy a cup of tea, but there’s nothing that beats a rich and indulgent homemade hot chocolate for the younger kids. This is also a great way to use up excess Easter egg chocolate. Why not try our unicorn hot chocolate to bring extra magic to the party? Using white chocolate and pink food gel, it’s vibrant and fun. If some guests don’t enjoy hot drinks, fear not, they can enjoy our gorgeous strawberry milk recipe. Serve all in your teacups for that authentic feel but top with whipped cream and sprinkles.
If it’s cool and refreshing you’re looking for, our rhubarb cordial makes the most of this spring fruit. Check out more of our incredible cordial recipes, or try our easy lemonade for a simple classic everyone will enjoy.
Discover more of our warming tea and hot chocolate recipes.
Easter activities
Of course, this is leaning away from a traditional afternoon tea, but it’s Easter! It wouldn’t be a proper celebration without a good old-fashioned Easter egg hunt, and taking a break after arrival drinks for activities is a great way to build up everyone’s appetite.
We have more great ideas for party games in our guide on the 25 top activities for kids’ sleepovers. Give each game an Easter twist to bring festive cheer. For example, for the mystery challenge game, you could fill each envelope with trivia about Easter, and when children get the answers correct, they could win Easter eggs. For the best Easter chocolate this year, check out our review of the best supermarket Easter eggs 2023.
What to have for tea
There aren't any rules regarding the food, but a standard afternoon tea menu comprises a tier of sandwiches, a tier of cakes and one of scones or teacakes. To make this an Easter-themed afternoon tea, all the recipes contain an abundance of chocolate. To make it a winner with all the kids, we have included extra sweet treats of biscuits and pastries, because Easter is when your sweet tooth is to be celebrated!
Sandwiches
Kids will love helping to build these delicious sandwiches. There are options suitable for meat eaters and vegetarians or vegans alike. It’s good to have a selection of sandwiches available, not only for guests but so children of all ages and abilities can help in the kitchen. For the younger children, we have sandwiches with contents they need to pile together, and for the more advanced chefs, we have recipes that involve some basic skills such as frying and boiling.
Egg & cress club sandwich
Ultimate chorizo ciabatta
Club sandwich
Veggie BLT (bagel, lettuce & tomato)
Paneer & cheddar sandwich
Caprese sandwich
Egg-less mayo sandwiches
Panuozzo sandwich
Our sandwich fillings for kids guide has even more inspiration, or browse our traditional afternoon tea sandwiches to find your favourites.
Scones
Afternoon tea wouldn’t be complete without an argument over whether jam or cream goes first. Whether you like sweet, savoury (or both), we have many delicious scone recipes. For kids, we recommend our easy fluffy scones as a straightforward method. To save time, it might be worth freezing a batch that you have pre-prepared. Scones taste best warm, straight out of the oven, but if you use this method, you don’t lose out on that quality.
Raspberry & white chocolate scones
Classic cheese scones
Vegan scones
Gluten-free scones
Cheese & bacon scones
Lemonade scones
Chorizo & manchego scones
Bakewell tart scones
See our collection of scrumptious scone recipes.
Jams
These simple jam recipes are great for getting children involved in the kitchen, as they will love preparing the fruit before they are boiled. Jam is a great homemade gift, so if you serve your guest's jam in small glass jars, they could leave with delicious spreads made with love.
Apple jam
Blackcurrant jam
Strawberry jam
Apple & blackberry jam
Gooseberry jam
Greengage jam
Rhubarb jam
Homemade preserves always beat shop bought, so check out more of our fantastic jam recipes.
Kids' cakes
Afternoon tea is a great way to get kids into the kitchen. We have bakes that kids can take the lead on, such as our carrot cake traybake, a great way to improve children’s comprehension and reading skills as well as their confidence in the kitchen, to showstoppers that may need an adult lead.
Chocolate brownie cake
Chocolate fudge cake
Giant cookie cake
Easter nest cake
Vegan cookies & cream cake
Pink marble sandwich cake
Frosted white chocolate Easter cake
Chocolate fudge Easter cakes
Find more delicious cakes to bake with the kids, perfect for an afternoon tea, with our teacake recipes and kids’ baking recipes.
Kids' biscuits
There’s nothing better than dunking a buttery biscuit into a warm cup of tea. You can have it in its delicious original form or with the added excitement of it falling into your hot drink at any moment. We’ve gathered classics and more adventurous cookies to get your little ones' creative juices flowing.
Peanut butter cookies
Easter egg cookies
Chocolate fudge crinkle biscuits
Easter biscuits
Deck-of-card dodgers
Maltesers thumbprint cookies
Anzac biscuits
Custard & white chocolate biscuits
Browse more biscuit recipes.
Kids' pastry
When people say less is more, they’re obviously not talking about afternoon tea, because the image of a cake stand chock full of cakes, biscuits and pastries sounds infinitely better than a nearly empty one. So while pastry and tarts aren’t traditionally included in afternoon tea, why not add them in for a special occasion?
Peach melba pop pies
Curly twirlies
Maple, banana & pecan pop pies
Little jam tarts
Banoffee pie
Millionaire's chocolate tart
Treacle tart
Discover more afternoon tea ideas...
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