Last week, one of our customers sent me some lovely photos of her two-year old son’s vintage-style choo choo train birthday party. Nataly, who runs Sitting Pretty – Vintage China Hire in Athens, had seen a recipe for a classic birthday cake in a 1980s issue of Australian Women’s Weekly and decided to make it for her son, Aris. Women’s Weekly show how to make the cake in a You Tube clip here.
Nataly made four plain madeira cakes, then cut them out into train wagons and an engine. She glued them together with cupcake frosting and covered the outsides with frosting in various colours: mint, blue, pink, lemon yellow and poppy red. She hunted in her local supermarket for vintage-style sweets and biscuits to decorate the cake. Although Nataly wasn’t able to find all of the vintage style sweets that she had been looking for, I think she did a really good job of the cake. Aris enjoyed helping to decorate the cake and didn’t want to go to bed the night before the party so that he could carry on helping with the decorating!
The party was held late morning and Nataly used some of our cake stands to display traditional Greek mini breakfast treats such as small spinach pies (my favourite!), cheese pies, and sausage pies. There were also sweet treats too such as mini butter and chocolate croissants.
I like the way that Nataly combined the vintage tea china with retro-looking plastic tableware and fabric bunting. I think the fun nature of the colourful plastic works well with the more delicate china for a party that appealed to children and their parents alike!
As the children were all very young, party games weren’t top of their priorities but they did enjoy cupcake decorating, although I can imagine that things must have got pretty messy!
I also learned a new Greek phrase: Και του χρόνου! which means Many happy returns!
Thanks for sharing your party with us Nataly. If you live in Greece and want to hire some pretty vintage china for a party, why not take a look at Nataly’s Facebook page.
Rach x
Thanks Rachel for covering Aris’ vintage birthday party! This is like sharing a cup of tea in your lovely Nancy’s Tea room full of finest English china, delicate taste & fascinating stories.
Thanks Nataly! I hope that you get to hold more parties using your vintage china 🙂