Strawberry tea roses and Valentine’s day Expectations.

Valentine’s Day, the words causes men to sweat while women are dreaming up fantasies for themselves. Most people would now notice the large supermarket and store displays of love hearts, teddy bears and chocolates; all aimed to prove how much you love your partner. Prrfff.... as if.



I have never been big on any holiday but especially Valentine’s Day. Memories of high school flood back o me and we all know how horrific that period is. Giant, massive, humongous bears and flowers would line the halls the corridor, all held by girls bragging silently bragging about how much their boyfriends love them by the sheer size of a stuffed animal. Some even were delivered to the school and were call out to get them in middle of class. I admit in my early school days I was jealous, to have someone to care about them enough to give them such a token. Unfortunately, life is not as simple as that and I soon learned that not all were brought these “boyfriends”.



Expecting something so grand on Valentine ’s Day is setting up the chance for more problems to occur in a relationship than it already is. One it creates the standard for men, two it makes women expect more and more every year (creating ALOT of room for disappointment).



Readers, do not buy into the commercialism and return to good old fashion wooing. We all know food is a great way of expressing how much you care about someone, by taking time and effort to produce something to bring them joy. These bread buns are my take on saying “I care” this Valentine’s day.

Soft strawberry tea infused bread, lovingly shaped into a rough rose shape. I used a few tea black bags which are flavoured with strawberry, raspberry and loganberry, strawberry essence and a few drops of pink food colouring to produce the pink hue of buns. These are sweet edge but not overly so that you can serve them with jam or sweeten whipped spreads (cream, ricotta, butter. You do not have to shape them as roses, but I think it makes it a little more special if you serving them as breakfast in bed (hint, hint).Roses are good, but these are better because you can eat them AND you do not have left over wilting flowers to clean up.

Break the expectations and deliver something truly from the heart.




Strawberry tea rose buns.

Makes 18

Adapted from this recipe by Honeybeesweets.

Shaping technique taken directly from Table for two or more.


400g bread flour

6g yeast

50g caster sugar

3 strawberry, raspberry and Loganberry infused tea bags

1 tsp strawberry essence

Optional; Drops of pink food colouring

10g milk powder

5g salt

300ml milk

80g beaten egg

40g room temperature butter



Scald the milk in a medium sauce pan. Add the milk powder and tea bags. Allow to infuse for 10 minutes, remove and leave to get to room temperature.

In large bowl mix the rest of ingredients BUT not the butter. Add milk tea mixture. Knead the dough by hand or with a stand mixer until it forms a rough ball.

Slowly knead in the butter and continue to knead until it is shinny and elastic.

Shaped the dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Cover with cling film and leave to proof for 1-2 hours.

Prepare two baking trays with grease proof paper

Once it is doubled, punch down and divide the dough into two.

Take one dough ball and follow the instructions here. I recommend you use balls of 10 grams rather than 15 grams in order to get more petals, but 15 is OK too.

Place on trays and repeat until all dough is used. Cover and leave to proof for 45 minutes

Set oven to 180c. Brush buns with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes.