If you’re a child of the 80s, two things are happening right now: your knees pop, and you’re partial to sugar-related highs.
That’s because in the 1980s, no party table was complete without a rainbow of food filled with artificial colours and preservatives.
In the 80s, primary school party-goers ‘helped’ blow out the birthday candles while marshmallow-filled ice cream cone clown heads were passed around.
He-Man and She-Ra were perfectly suitable cake toppers, kitchens had a steady supply of cocktail umbrellas, and party food was anything but healthy.
So, what exactly was on your paper plate?
Clown cones
All eyes at the party would be on the plate of upturned ice cream cones that Mum would have made the night before. Crispy cones moonlighted as clowns, complete with marshmallow (or ice cream) heads, 100s and 1000s, and Smarties for their eyes, mouths and button-down shirts.
Fish fingers
Whoever decided that fish would taste better served as deep-fried rectangular fingers needs a high five because this iconic 80s food is still devoured at parties today. And it doesn’t matter if they’re hot or cold. Primary school kids love them either way.
Toffee apples
Unless you had an orchard for a backyard, crisp, fresh apples ensconced in toffee hardened to cracking stage and pierced with a stick were in short supply at 80s birthday parties. The predilection of 80s adults meant parents loved them, too. That meant once your 8-year old self spotted those crimson balls of goodness on a plate, you developed a cunning plan to get your hands on one for fear of never seeing them until the next party.
Cup and saucer biscuits
Denim-clad 80s kids would bypass these marshmallow and icing biscuits, leaving them for the parents who would transport them home in “doggy bags” where they’d fall apart. They were pretty, though.
Fairy cakes
Whether they were butterflied with cream and jam, topped with white icing or sprinkled with 100s and 1000s, fairy cakes are the quintessential 1980s party buffet food. They also appear in almost every vintage family photo album!
Cheese and spinach triangles
If there wasn’t a plate of warm, flaky cheese and spinach triangles being passed around amongst the adults, it wasn’t a 1980s party. And that’s a fact.
The Barbie birthday cake
Let’s face it. Everyone was really at the party to see the drawcard of this entire soiree: the birthday cake. There were all sorts of cake creations back then that sent parents to bed in the wee hours, for one couldn’t just pop down to the store for an iced number.
On the wishlist of birthday kids were buttercream hedgehogs and zoos lined with Boudoir biscuits, Smarties-covered cakes in the shape of numbers, and liquorice-lined “choo-choo” trains. But the piece de resistance was a perfectly good Barbie doll plonked in the middle of a sponge cake, covered in icing and adorned with cabochons. This was the cake that made it to the pages of recipe books and was so undeniably popular, people even bought Barbie dolls just to make it!
More from our retro series
What was everyone eating the year you were born?
The rolled-up pud that was all the rage at British school dinners
Comments (3)
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Log in Register