VE Day 80

How to make bunting

1. Print or trace as many template pages as you’d like. You can mix and match designs or create your own.
2. Cut around the triangles. And make sure to cut some holes near the top for the string to go through.

Templates are available:

• blank bunting, for your own designs
• Union flag bunting, to colour in
• VE Day 80 bunting

Games and activities

Challenge your guests to games from the 1940s. Click the game’s name to find the rules:

• marbles
• fivestones or jacks
• dominoes
• card games: Go Fish, Slapjack, Concentration, Crazy Eights
• board games: Monopoly, Scrabble, Backgammon

Music and tea dances

Step back in time with our wartime and 1940s music Spotify playlist.

Or enjoy a social ‘Tea dance’ - with cake! Our Tea Dance playlist has a mix of songs to waltz, foxtrot, tango, and cha cha cha to!

Snacks: Potato floddies

Potato floddies are 1940s snacks, a bit like a hash brown. You can spread jam on them for something sweet. Or cook them with mixed herbs, salt, and pepper for a savoury snack.

Ingredients

• 2 large potatoes, scrubbed with the skins left on
• flour
• salt and pepper
• mixed herbs
• butter, margarine or dripping – whichever you’d prefer to fry in

Each large potato makes about 3 floddies. So this recipe should make 6.

Method

1. Grate your potatoes into a large bowl.
2. Add in a pinch of salt, pepper and herbs.
3. Stir in flour. Adding it until a batter forms and binds the potato together.
4. Place your fat into a pan and heat on medium or high heat. A non-stick pan works best.
5. Drop in a large spoonful of your floddie mix. Press the mix down to flatten it, like a patty.
6. Fry your floddie for a few minutes until it’s brown on one side. Then turn it and fry the other side.

The main event: Homity Pie

A Second World War delicacy made by Land-Girls. It’s an open topped pie perfect for picnics, delicious warm or cold!

Ingredients

•    4 large potatoes
•    2 large leeks
•    1 eating apple, cored and chopped into small cubes
•    2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
•    1 egg
•    Butter or margarine
•    4-6 oz cheese
•    Thyme: fresh or dried, whichever you prefer
•    Salt and pepper

For the shortcrust pastry:

•    6 oz plain flour
•    3 oz fat

This should make about 8 portions.

Method

1. To make the pastry, rub fat into flour to make breadcrumbs. Then bind together with some water to make a flexible dough.
2. Roll the dough out onto a greased pie dish and place into the oven. Cook for 10 minutes at 200°C.
3. Leaving the skins on, chop your potatoes into chunky cubes. Place them into boiling water, simmering until tender.
4. Chop your leeks and garlic. Gently sauté them in a pan with butter or margarine, until cooked. Add in plenty of thyme and your chopped apple. Then toss it to mix it up.
5. Drain your potatoes then add to the leeks. Also add in a whisked egg, more butter / margarine, and 2 oz grated cheese. Loosely mix, adding in salt and pepper to your liking.
6. Dollop the mixture into the pie dish on top of the pastry. Then top with the rest of the cheese, or more if you fancy. Plus a sprinkle of thyme and pepper.
7. Place the pie into the oven at 220°C until the top is browned. Then remove and leave to cool.

A sweet treat: chocolate biscuits

This is a real wartime recipe, from a leaflet sold by Cadbury’s for 1d.

Ingredients

•    1 tablespoon of syrup (golden, corn or maple – it’s your choice)
•    2 oz, or ¼ cup, of margarine
•    1 oz, or 1/8 cup, of cocoa powder
•    4 oz, or ½ cup, of plain flour
•    2 oz, or ¼ cup, of sugar
•    ¼ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
•    1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the chocolate spread:

•    1 oz cocoa powder
•    1 and ½ tablespoons of sugar
•    1 dessert spoon of flour
•    ½ cup of milk

This recipe makes around 8 sandwich biscuits.

Method

1. Melt margarine, syrup and vanilla essence in a pan. Mix in cocoa powder until smooth.
2. Mix in the sugar, then the flour, until smooth. It needs to be handled like a dough, so you might need to add more flour to get to that point.
3. Roll out your dough and cut into squares. Prick the dough in several places.
4. Place the dough into the oven at 180°C for 10 minutes.
5. Let the biscuits cool. Then sandwich together with the chocolate spread.

For the chocolate spread:

1. Mix the dry cocoa powder, sugar and flour.
2. Add the milk gradually, bring to the boil. Then lower the heat.
3. Let the mixture thicken and become smooth. Then allow it to cool.