A friend asked them to lay on refreshments at the I Love West Leeds Festival in 2004 – and the Marvellous Tea Dance Company was born.

After the festival, the women, who both like baking, share a love of all things vintage and have degrees in fashion, began talking one night at Angie's house – and before long they had laid the foundations for what has become a successful company, organising social events with a vintage theme.

Angie, a fashion lecturer at Leeds College of Art, said: "It started off as a one-off event and it's just grown from there. We get people ringing us from all over the place and they come to us with their own ideas.

"I find baking relaxing and I just like feeding people. I think the idea for the name came about because we just both liked vintage and the word marvellous seemed a little old-fashioned itself."

Since then, the Marvellous Tea Dance Company (of Armley) has gone from strength to strength. The concept was to offer an old-fashioned tea service, complete with lovingly decorated, scrumptious home-made cakes of every variety, a slice of nostalgia served to eager customers by two 1940s-esque tea ladies, replete in period costumes.

Spiffing

And they can also add in a swing band and and a dance class – optional extras and all part of the service – for an awfully spiffing afternoon.

Clients of all ages enjoy the tea dances – enjoying the recreation of a genteel, well-mannered, well-behaved and very British event.

Donna and Angie always provide pretty embroidered tablecloths, crocheted doillies and flowers on the tables to make the tea dances look very traditional and they are asked to provide their own brand of Britishness for everything from birthday parties to leaving dos.

Donna, a fashion graduate from Bretton Hall, part of the University of Leeds, said she had always had a passion for baking.

She said: "My mum used to bake a cake every Sunday and me and my sister, Lisa, used to help. She also used to make jam tarts and her pastry was the best. We would always get a little bit to make into a shape and put in the oven.

"The Marvellous Tea Dance company started out as passion but it's become more of a full-time job now. It has taken off in a big way. We're getting more and more interest in the idea.

"For us, it's quite old-fashioned. It's the idea of sitting down with tea in a nice cup and with a slice of cake. We bought hundreds of china cups and saucers, we have some nice vintage tablecloths and we put bunting of all different colours up everywhere.

"Sometimes we have a swing or jazz band and we offer dance classes. We also sometimes do bingo and raffles.

"Most people have a budget so we tailor our events to suit them. We accept most bookings and we make all our own cakes. I would say that for a typical event, I would make between eight and ten cakes and about 60 fairycakes, which takes about two days."

So far, the idea has gone down a storm... in more than just one tea cup.

In addition to a plethora of local events, they have worked at festivals as far afield as Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

They can next be seen plying their wares closer to home, at Headingley Arts and Crafts Market, Headingley Methodist Church, on Saturday, October 11.

However, don't let the crisply pressed creases in the pristine tablecloth of civility fool you into thinking that's all they do – on November 1 they will be providing refreshments at a burlesque night as part of Leeds Erotica Festival at Headingley's The Lounge, Merrion Street.

Naturally, they will be getting dressed up to keep in step with their customers.

Donna said: "It should be fun and we are entering into the spirit of things. I think it's going to be more flirty than dirty, though."

In fact, the idea has been so well received that the pair have branched out into their own product range, so those who enjoy the finer things in life can set up their own tea and cake parties in their own homes.

Vintage

Donna added: "We have a number of items for sale through our company from candles in teacups to bags made from vintage material to cake-stands and hair slides. They have been well received so far. We decided to do it for people who want to stage their own private tea parties."

Price-wise, it depends what you want but a basic tea and cake session will set you back something in the region of £5-a-head, whereas if you want to push the boat out and have them stage the entire event, complete with bands, dance lessons and multi-coloured bunting, then you're talking four figures.

If you fancy a slice of unabashed refinement washed down with a cup or two of decorum, contact them on: www.themarvellous teadancecompany.co.uk; or www.myspace.com/marvellous teadance.