I need to get the sugar monkey off my back straight away. The ratio of sweet to savoury at a children's party is a hard one to master. I'll talk more about the timing of parties in an upcoming 'Kid Wrangling' party post, but I think if you start late afternoon you are not as obliged to do a full lunch or dinner option than if you scheduled the party earlier or later in the day. A two o'clock start is my favourite, ending at 4.30 pm. My thinking is that parents generally feed their child a nutritious lunch in advance of a 2 o'clock party and I run with that notion.
At each party I put out some kind of fruit option and some kind of healthy savoury option (home-made sausage rolls, mini-quiches and meatballs are all stand-bys) and the rest is just plain not-good-for-anyone party fun. That's how we party at this place. So, apologies, but I'm not going to be a font of healthy party food options, although I might explore this at some stage.
Party food doesn't have to be complicated, but for me it needs to tick three boxes:
1. It's fun and not 'every day'
2. It's simple to put together on the day or can be prepared in advance.
3. It ties in with the theme I'm working.
If you're not a baker, you don't have to bake. Party centres don't bake - they just throw frankfurts and chicken nuggets down into the centre of a table ladden with lollies and chips and the kids go nuts. You could do that.
I like a 'half and half' approach. One half baking: the cake, cupcakes and biscuits and, formerly, cake pops. The other half: no baking. I can't bring myself to do chips, franks and nuggets, but no-bake items with maximum impact include lollies stacked by colour in a bowl or 'fairy wand' breadsticks dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles or 'things on sticks' like marshmallows or fruit. It is also a tradition of ours to have cheezels at every party, mainly because we love cheezels so much we need to ban them from the house on all other occasions.
Depending on your theme, here's a round up of some other really fun, really easy party foods that are special and delightful. Oh, and we'll talk about making food look good (aka 'tablescapes') in our 'Tables' party post.
Cakepops
I used to love them, but now I hate them with the passion of a thousand burning suns. Or something like that. Regardless, there is no denying that these little morsels should be part of your go-to foods for parties. They are fiddly, but achievable and with a few tweaks they will work with any theme. Bakerella is your goddess of foodspiration here.
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Cupcakes
Nothing wrong with a cupcake. They are simple and classic and you can work them into any theme you like. Not surprisingly, Bakerella is amazing at cupcakes too, Hello Naomi isn't half bad either.
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Biscuits
Biscuits can be as easy or as complicated as you like. The Decorated Cookie has lots of step-by-step tutorials for making amazing bickies, so you might surprise yourself! You can go the plain biscuit / fancy icing route or make an amazing flavour of biscuit or even a macaron. On a biscuit / cookie random note: these days I find myself calling chunky-style biscuits by the American 'cookies' and the more delicate types are still biscuits. What about you?
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Stuff On Sticks
Portable, easy for little hands... Stuff On Sticks are awesome party food. Things you can put on sticks include kebabs, scrolls, marshmallows, sausages, swirls of chocolate, fruit, rice balls, meatballs, cakepops, slices, cheerios... let's face it, pretty much everything tastes better on a stick.
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Jars, cups, cones
If you've got the fridge space, this is the easiest party food to serve. Make individual portions of chocolate mousse, cheesecake or jelly or fill cones and cups with servings of lollies, fruit, little biscuits... Personalising the cups and jars makes it very special.
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Push Pops
Latest craze on the party scene seems to be push pops. Cake, lolly, ice cream, jelly, frozen drinks... fill them with whatever you fancy. Australians can order the cups here, you can reuse them after the party as handy carriers for snacks.
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One of a kind
Whatever your theme, there is the potential to create something unique and amazing. Think outside the bread slice and come up with something perfect for your party.
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Phew. I could do this for hours as there are so many ideas out there, but we'd better move on. There's more inspiration at my Party On Down: Food pinboard. I promise there are far more savoury options on there. Can you tell I have a sweet tooth?!