Party Planning Tip #3 - Fun Food, Delicious Drinks and a Memorable CakeI have covered invitations, costumes and themes for a Disney Princess Party and it is now time to feed the hungry little party animals. My formula for parties is simple - feed the kids first, get them started on an activity and then feed the parents. For now anyway, our parties are big affairs. We don't mean them to be but we have lots of friends with kids and our parties are for adults and kids alike. Maybe when the kids get older we will do the "drop off the kids only" party but for now, because they are all mostly under 5 years old, I much prefer the parents be there anyway, from a supervision point of view, so I can concentrate on the fun & games (refer Part 4 tomorrow). Back to food. Depending on how much time I have left in the morning after icing the cake, I try to make healthy alternatives to bowls of chips and Smarties. One such snack that was a hit with adults and kids were plain Jatz biscuits, topped with a slice of tomato and cheese stars - made simply using cheese slices and a star shaped cookie cutter. I have also made cheese and Vegemite scrolls - again, an easy recipe. Brush pastry sheets with a bit of melted butter then spread with Vegemite and top with cheese. Roll the sheets into a sausage shape, brushing the end with the leftover butter to hold in place. Cut the roll into lots of little swirls, line on a baking tray and cook for 10-15 mins or until golden brown. You can even substitute the Vegemite and cheese with ham, cheese and pineapple. I am not silly though - I know the average kid loves their junk, party food and mini sausage rolls (store bought, although Kiki's mother makes some really good home made options) and cocktail franks tend to fill that void quite nicely. My mum is on hand to help in the kitchen and these two options are quick and easy. Add some mini bread rolls and the kids can make their own hot dogs.
Aunty Lala always brings her chocolate crackles and Gigi is now at the age where she helps make the fairy bread - always a hit! I also get some savoury vol-u-vants from the party shop, as well as Spinach & Cheese triangles for the adults and have a variety of dips and cheeses etc on hand to nibble on until lunch is served. Lunch for the big kids is usually always chicken & salads, the chicken I pre-order from our local chicken shop (asking them to cut them up for me to save me the time) and the salads are usually home made, usually by my mum who makes the best Caesar salad and also a pumpkin & rocket salad. I always have a plain Greek salad as well for those who prefer no dressing and complete with fresh bread rolls, everyone is happy. For the adults drinks we have beer, wine, soft drinks and we have a chilled water machine year round for those who would prefer. I used to make a fruit punch for the kids but found they were happy just to drink poppas of juice or water. Apple juice is very kid friendly - easy on the tummy and the carpet - one year I had apple blackcurrant juice - bad move on beige coloured carpet. For the adults for dessert with coffee or tea I usually get mini chocolate eclairs and though I find the kids don't usually expect dessert, I sometimes have ice blocks in the freezer just in case. This year I found some really cute mini gelatos at Harris Farm Markets which were a hit. Of course the best dessert is the birthday cake. Now I am not the world's best cook - my friends and husband will attest to that - but I have been known to make a killer chocolate cake over the years and I made a promise to myself that regardless, I will always make the effort to make my children's birthday cakes, preferably from the Women's Weekly Kids Cake book, as my mother did for me as a kid. For this cake, I actually found a really cool cake topper set on ebay (refer above right). The cake is simply 2 square cakes of varying sizes, one of top of the other to make the castle, and it is all in the decorating to give it the full effect. I am not a big fan of piping, as they have done in the picture, choosing to stick with plain white chocolate icing (with a few drops of red food colouring to get it a shade of pink) on a marble, vanilla cake (Gigi helped with the marbling before we put it in the oven). Each year I try to get into the routine of making the cake the night before but leaving the icing until the morning of the party. Sometimes this proves challenging time wise (especially when the fish tank decided to shatter just as I finished this cake this year, cutting things very fine!) but I find the icing is nicer if it hasn't been set in the fridge overnight. So what do you think about my attempt at the castle? I am very happy with the final product - it looks like it is alot more work than it is - but the main thing is the birthday girl was absolutely delighted with it. The final food item to discuss is the goody bags. I have always separated the bags into 3 kinds - boys, girls and babies. The babies goody bags come with rusks, baby bikkies and sometimes a little bath toy. I may even throw in a couple of Fantales for the parents. The boys & girls bags are the same food wise - usually mini boxes of Smarties, a few mixed lollies and one of my friends introduced me to Mini Chuppa Chups this year. I then find knick knacky little toys to include instead of too many lollies. Usually a toy car for the boys and princess jewellery or hair accessories for the little girls. Besides being more practical and something to keep, I am trying to save their teeth. I can't wait to share with you tomorrow's post - Part 4 in the series - fun & games! We have an annual Dad's game which is always a hit at our parties so make sure you check back here to see what we got up to this year ; )Related Posts: Part 1 - Invitations, Part 2 - Costumes & Themes, Part 4 - Fun & Games
Content in this post is for the most part created by gigi+lulu - Copyright 2008
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