Like many families, we’ll be watching the historic Coronation of King Charles 111 on tv tomorrow. The key coverage starts from about 10am so I’ll be putting together a ‘morning tea’ for us to snack on throughout the proceedings; I’m talking dainty sandwiches, classic scones and cake with plenty of tea in the pot and a cheeky glass of champagne two to toast the Monarch’s health. I’m not making the quiche!

To make properly dainty finger sandwiches, you need to use a pre-sliced square tin loaf. Both white and wholemeal Homepride works perfectly as it’s uniform in shape, has a very thin crust that you will be cutting off anyway and is squishy enough to hold the filling without it squeezing out. Fill the sandwiches evenly, cut the crusts off carefully and cut into 3 or 4 equal rectangle slices depending on how dainty you want them. You can then display your perfectly uniform little finger sandwiches on a nice sharing platter or on a cake stand. I like to do a good range of fillings and for those that need butter, I make sure I’ve got a good quality spreadable butter like President or Lurpack slightly salted so that it spreads evenly without tearing the bread and I use Stokes mayonnaise. To judge quantities, I make one full round per person of each sandwich flavour plus one extra per 3 people (there is cake too don’t forget). So, for example, for six people I’d make 8 rounds of sandwiches. You can make however many you want though.

My favourite tea sandwich fillings

• Cream cheese and smoked salmon. Mix the cream cheese with a little lemon juice, white pepper and chopped fresh dill. There’s no need to use butter. You could always mix in a few baby capers instead of the dill.
• Cream cheese and cucumber. You can use the lemon and dill trick for the cream cheese or just mix in a little sea salt. The cucumber must be wafer thin so use a mandolin and build up overlapping layers> I don’t use butter but I do spread cream cheese on both sides of the bread so that cucumber stays in place.
• Egg and chive mayonnaise. Boil your eggs (2 per sandwich) and mash with mayonnaise, a little salt, plenty of black pepper and finely snipped chives.
• Prawn mayonnaise. Mix good quality cooked baby cold water prawns with Stokes mayo and a little white pepper.
• Ham and mustard. I use wafer thin cut ham, salted butter and Dijon mustard.
• Coronation chicken. One cooked and shredded chicken breast mixed with a tbsp of mayo, a tsp of Madras curry powder and dessert spoon of mango chutney.
• Wensleydale and 1 stick of celery. Crumble the Wensleydale in a bowl and mix with finely chopped pieces of celery and some dressing – half Stokes mayo, half natural yoghurt. The dressing is just to bind the crumbly cheese and celery no need to drown it.
• Roast beef and horseradish. I use wafer thin cut roast beef, horseradish mixed in with cream cheese and sprinkled with sea salt. Salted butter is optional.

The cakes

As this is a morning tea and I don’t want to do too much work, I would choose my baby scone recipe as they are easy to make freshly in the morning plus my lemon syrup loaf cake which you make as a loaf cake or a traybake to cut into squares. It can be eaten on its own or with clotted cream topped with strawberries.

Anyway, however to choose to spend it, have a fantastic Coronation weekend!

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