Mini Fruit Tarts- Christ the King or the Queenship of Mary Royal Tea Party
Updated: Feb 3, 2022
The Feast of the Queenship of Mary is tomorrow and I am going to help you bake a delicious tea party treat!
Peter Paul Rubens
The Coronation of the Virgin
I recently learned that this feast was strategically placed today on the Octave of the Assumption. In the old calendar we would have been partying all week with this as our culminating celebration. These two events, the Assumption and the Coronation of Mary, are intimately related because we believe that once Mary went to Heaven she was crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth. We get this from St. John's vision which he describes in Revelation 12: 1-5! The meaning behind that is better said by Pius XII, "Mary deserves the title because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus’ redemptive work, because of her preeminent perfection, and because of her intercessory power." In other words, we understand Mary's queenship through recognizing her intimate role in God's salvific plan.
If you want to read more, check out this article, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI gives a beautiful explanation on how the Queenship of Mary points us closer to Jesus! https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-explains-how-marys-queenship-points-to-jesus
In honor of our beautiful, Heavenly Queen it would be the perfect liturgical living opportunity to host a tea party . If you are celebrating at home with kids today you could have them color or decorate crowns for Our Lady and place them next to a statue or image of her in your home. You could also do an etiquette lesson, take out your nice table setting, and of course pray for Mary's intercession.
Quick note on the pie crust!
I made this pie crust for a quiche weeks before making the tarts. I do not have the recipe up for this particular pie crust yet but I will soon. I am not a big fan of heavy crusts, I like mine light and flaky so I tend to use the same pie crust for everything. However, you can easily make this recipe with store bought crust or your own favorite crust recipe. For this recipe, I am just going to focus on the filling and assembling the tarts.
Yields: 10-12 Tarts
Bake Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
This is my frozen pie crust, I let it thaw and then kept it in the refrigerator so that it could chill. This will make it easier to work with! :)
If you are starting this recipe like I am then go ahead and bake the dough once the shells are formed, the filling will be made separately and will not take long. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees!
Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out. Don't forget to put a little bit of flour on your rolling pin to prevent sticking.
Since we are doing minis grab a muffin or tart tin, cut out the dough, and fill the molds. I just used a water glass with flour along the edge because I don't have a tart cutter or tamper.
Prick the bottom of the each tart and put them in the oven at 400 degrees and bake for 10-12 minutes.