When Angel Adoree set up the Vintage Patisserie four years ago, serving scrumptious hand-made cakes to online customers, she couldn’t have predicted the country’s growing appetite for such classical fare.

With Downton Abbey melting our hearts, memories of the Royal Wedding lingering on and excitement growing over the Queen’s Jubilee next year, everyone is feeling nostalgic for traditional tea parties and bunting.

With typical foresight, the BBC’s Dragons knew that vintage style would never go out of fashion. And when Adoree appeared in their den last year, she was offered £100,000 of investment by Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis to develop her website (vintagepatisserie.co.uk).

Her new book, The Vintage Tea Party, divulges just how she’s moved the mid-afternoon gathering from boring sandwiches and a volley of cheap pastry dished up in paper napkins to an elegant table laden with delights.

Think vintage china, silver cutlery and inventive food that makes your guests gasp – and even burst into polite applause. Here are five recipes to make your mouth water…

Cream cheese and cucumber hearts

(Makes 24)

2 small cucumbers

6 slices of soft white bread

15g butter, at room temperature

150g cream cheese

Salt

Top and tail the cucumbers. Using a vegetable peeler, peel four strips from the length of each cucumber (one strip on each ‘side’). Discard these.

Next, peel 12 more strips from the peeled faces of each cucumber (each strip should still have a narrow edge of skin). Cut each strip in half widthways. Set aside.

Spread each slice of bread with butter and then with cream cheese, and season with a sprinkling of salt.

Lay four overlapping strips of cucumber across each slice of bread to cover the cheese. Using a small heart-shaped cutter, cut four hearts from each slice of bread. Discard the remains. Serve immediately.

Adoree’s Tip: “Afternoon tea traditionalists will tell you that cucumber sandwiches are a must on a sandwich platter. Well, to be honest, I find them a tad boring, so I’ve come up with an Angel Adoree version that is pretty to behold and lovely to eat. You can ring the changes by using a different type of cream cheese and varying the sandwich shape.”

Lollipop jam sandwiches

(Makes 30)

6 slices of soft bread (white, brown or a mixture)

15g butter, at room temperature

3tbsp jam (apricot, strawberry, blackcurrant or a mixture)

Flatten each of the bread slices with a rolling pin, then slice the crusts off with a serrated bread knife. Carefully spread each slice with butter and then jam, making sure that the fillings do not overlap the edges of the bread. Using both hands, roll up each slice into a sausage. Wrap each sausage tightly in clingfilm and tie each end in a knot. Place the sausages in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm them. Remove the sausages from the refrigerator, untie the ends and peel off the clingfilm. Slice 5 pinwheels from each sausage (discard the ends, which tend to be a bit messy). Insert a cocktail stick into each sandwich to secure it. Serve immediately.

Adoree’s Tip: “Jam sandwiches take me back to the time when I was a little girl. As an afternoon tea snack, my grandmother would slice up some fresh white bread and spread it thickly with some golden butter and sweet strawberry jam. I would sit happy and contented, munching the sandwich with a glass of cold milk. This is an updated version of a happy childhood memory. Use different types of jam for maximum visual effect.”

Tomato mozzarella balls

(Makes 24)

24 sprigs of basil

24 mini plum tomatoes

24 mini mozzarella pearls

Black pepper (optional)

Extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, for dipping

Carefully thread the basil sprigs on to 24 cocktail or kebab sticks. Cut the pointed base off each tomato and thread one tomato on to each stick behind the basil, cut-side up. Thread a mozzarella pearl on to each stick, to sit on top of the tomato. Sprinkle with black pepper, if you like, and serve with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Adoree’s Tip: “I adore the simplicity of this recipe. The presentation takes a little bit of time, but your guests will love this different take on the ubiquitous tomato and mozzarella starter. I put the oil and vinegar in shot glasses – but I have to make sure that no one drinks any of them!”

Cherry and dark chocolate trifle shots

(Serves 6)

6 sponge fingers, broken into small pieces

100ml cherry brandy or chocolate liqueur

50g dark chocolate, grated

1 pack of dark cherry jelly (made and set according to the instructions on the pack, then chopped up and bashed a bit)

Jar of morello cherries

100ml custard

100ml whipped cream

Arrange the sponge finger pieces at the bottom of six shot glasses. Add one tablespoon of your chosen liqueur to each one and sprinkle with one teaspoon of grated chocolate.

Once the sponge fingers have absorbed the liqueur, add a heaped tablespoon of prepared jelly to each shot, then top with a few cherries and more grated chocolate.

To serve, top each shot with a heaped tablespoon of custard and a generous tablespoon of whipped cream, and finish with the obligatory decorative sprinkle of grated chocolate.

Adoree’s Tip: “I’m an old-fashioned girl at heart and I love traditional desserts. Trifle is one of my favourites – the cake, the booze, some jelly, custard and cream… what a wonderful concoction of ingredients. It’s also really quick to make if you use packet jelly.”

Tall filo baskets with stilton, pear and walnuts

(Makes 12)

6 sheets (20cm x 40cm) of ready-rolled filo pastry

70g butter, melted

2 small ripe pears

100g Stilton cheese, crumbled

12 walnut halves, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 220C/Gas Mark 7. Unroll the filo pastry and, using a sharp knife, cut each sheet into eight, so you have 48 10cm squares. Using a pastry brush, brush one side of each square with melted butter.

To make the pastry baskets, lay one square on top of another at a 45-degree angle so the points are offset. Then add a third and fourth square, arranging the points to fall where those of the first two squares fell, so you end up with a four-layered star shape. When you have finished you should have 12 baskets.

Push each layered star into one of the holes in a tall 12-hole mini-muffin pan. Brush the edges with any remaining melted butter.

Bake the pastry baskets for seven minutes, until golden. Allow to cool in the muffin pan.

Quarter the pears and remove their cores. Slice each quarter into three lengthways, then arrange two slices of pear in each pastry basket. Divide the crumbled Stilton evenly between the baskets, then do the same with the chopped walnuts.

Serve the baskets either individually or on a large serving plate.

Adoree’s Tip: “I like to combine contrasting flavours and textures in my recipes, and this one is no exception. The silky-sweet pears perfectly balance the saltiness of the Stilton, and the walnuts and filo pastry provide a nice crunch. I prefer to use ripe pears as they are often sweeter and juicier than the firmer ones. Alternative fillings that you might like to try are: roasted tomato with goats’ cheese; Cheddar cheese with pickled onions; pancetta, pea and mint, and roasted shallot, red pepper and smoked sausage.”

• The Vintage Tea Party by Angel Adoree is published by Mitchell Beazley, priced £20.