Cause A Frockus

How to plan a vintage Easter party

Apr 18, 2014 | by Becky Oeltjenbruns

Spring has sprung, ushering in the excitement of egg hunts, family dinners, and merriment. Allow us to show you a few decorating tips and tasty recipes that are guaranteed to make your event the talk of the neighborhood. Join along as we learn how to plan a vintage Easter party.

Vintage Easter decorations

Decorating in retro style typically involves the philosophy of less is more. That’s great news for any host or hostess in a bind. Our ideas come from the 1971 edition of “Betty Crocker’s Hostess Cookbook” and it offers some trustworthy suggestions.

Holiday tree for Easter

Decorative trees brighten any space they’re in and instantly lend a sense of drama with their height. To achieve this look, simply start in the backyard. Find some medium-sized tree branches and, if desired, spray paint with white or a metallic color. Once the paint has dried, arrange them to your taste in a large container, and it’s time to add the final touches!

Feel free to decorate with Easter cookies, faux flowers, candies, or decorated Easter eggs. You may use paper grass to camoflauge the branch bases. If you’d like to use this technique for a table centerpiece simply find smaller branches and place them in a flowerpot or small vase. The best thing about this holiday tree is that it can be adapted to any holiday you’d like and welcomes your imagination!

Vintage Easter egg decorating

Much like the above tree, a glass bowl filled with decorated eggs makes the perfect centerpiece for your vintage Easter party. Betty Crocker recommends using empty egg shells so you can reuse these beauties for future celebrations. There are a lot of fun vintage decoration techniques, some are used before you dye the egg while others come into play after the dye has dried. Traditional vintage colors include pink, green, yellow, and purple.

If you want to add some details to the eggs prior to dying you can wind a rubber band around the egg first (this gives your egg some cool lines) or you can apply bits of tape in whatever pattern you want (we recommend scotched tape for this). After the eggs have their colorful shells you can glue on all sorts of vintage accessories: beads, buttons, ribbon, or artificial flowers.

Vintage Easter Recipes

Scent may be most associated with memory, but we always remember Grandma’s cooking in detail! With that spirit in mind, we offer a couple vintage Easter recipes that will add a nice, retro touch to your festivities. Once again, it’s the 1971 edition of “Betty Crocker’s Hostess Cookbook” to the rescue.

Bouquet Fruit Cup

This recipe is as much about taste as it is preparation. You will want to use sherbet glasses with 6″-8″ lace doilies to create a bouquet-like appearance. Serve these as your guests arrive, setting the stage for beautiful conversation.

Fold each doily into fourths. At the tip of the folds, cut an arc large enough that lets the doily fit just around the outside of the sherbet glass. Be sure to buy a few extra doilies as you’ll have some trial and error. Slip the doily over the base of the glass and use some clear tape to hold it in place.

Fill the glass with the fresh fruit of your choice, although you can’t beat strawberry with pineapple. To complete the bouquet look add some sprigs of mint around the edge to look like leaves.

Easter egg cookies

Ingredients
1.5 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2.5 cups flour (If you use self-rising flour, omit baking soda and cream of tartar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions
Cream sugar and butter together. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and almond extract. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Once sifted, add them into the creamed mixture. Stick the final product in the refrigerator for about two to three hours.

Once the dough has chilled, heat your oven to 375° and separate the dough in half. You will be working with the dough one half at a time. Roll the dough on a floured surface. You’ll want the dough to be about 1/8″ thick. Cut the dough with an egg-shaped cutter. (If you don’t have one you can easily create one by bending a juice can into shape.) Decorate with Egg Yolk Paint and bake for about seven minutes or until golden. This will yield about five dozen treats.

Egg Yolk Paint
In a small bowl blend one egg yolk with 1/4 teaspoon water. Divide this mixture among several smaller containers. Add food coloring to each container, making bright colors. Paint designs onto your cookies using small paintbrushes. If the paint seems difficult to work with, just add a few more drops of water.

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Cause A Frockus would like to thank their tremendous resources: Betty Crocker, Imperial Glass, and the people who post their imagery without restriction.

For our readers: What are your favorite Easter traditions?

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