I don’t always have time to make party food from scratch especially when there are quite a few dishes to make. Sometimes I rely on shop bought things – I tend to do this more with sweet things and desserts as shop bought desserts can be really good and there is so much to choose from. But even when I buy readymade stuff, I always like to put my own spin on it. Just a simple twist that makes it personal and served with love.
When I have kids over for playdates, one my my go to treats is shop bought madeleines. Madeleines are small enough for little hands and are generally loved by all kids so they go down a treat. Recently I thought about serving these madeleines for a kids party too – but I wanted to dress them up and put my own fun touch on them as I think food should be fun, especially kids party food. Madeleines always remind me of boats – they are shaped like boats and so I decided to turn them in to actual boats.
These couldn’t be easier to put together. I simply attached a sail to each madeleine using a cocktail stick. The sails are cut out of some pretty wrapping paper I had and I’ve taped them on to the cocktail sticks. Next, I put little flags on with each child’s name so that these little madeleines could double-up as cute edible place holders for any kiddy gathering. And to finish, a little sprinkling of icing sugar.
If you’re looking for more kids party food ideas, take a look at my fun fish and chips.
With the party season nearly here, over the coming weeks I’m going to share some of my favourite ‘go to’ easy party food recipes. Some of the recipes will be for kids while others will be more for adults but even the kids recipes will work just as well for adults and the other way around. Also all these recipes are great for any kind of party – festive parties, birthday parties, informal get togethers – anything at all.
To start my party food series, there is nothing yummier than mini fish and chips. This is something I’ve often served at Anya’s parties and every kids adores it. I always make extra as the adults can’t seem to resist picking either. I’m not a big fan of battered fish, preferring breadcrumbed fish, so that’s what I go for. Also, the advantage of breaded fish is that it can be fried in advance and gently heated in the oven just before serving so you’re not left slaving over a hot stove after your guests have arrived.
Party food needs to look as good as it tastes. Of course it’s fun to make cute food sometimes – like animal shapes – but there are lots of ways to make your food look really fun and I hope to share a few of those ideas too along with my party food recipes. The most important thing of all is that the food is fresh and wholesome and is something that people will genuinely enjoy eating, not just looking at.
MINI FISH & CHIPS Serves: 10 kids (as part of a bigger menu)
400 gms firm white fish fillets (haddock or lemon sole are my preferred ones) breadcrumbs 3 eggs 2 tbs plain flour salt & pepper oil for shallow frying chips (oven chips or your own home made ones)
Cut your fish in to thin, long strips, like goujons but thinner – around 10cm/4in long pieces and 2cm/1in wide. This kind of size makes them really easy to pick up and eat with fingers. A great tip for cutting fish so that it doesn’t break is don’t cut it horizontally, but cut it lengthwise. Put your flour on a plate, beat the eggs and place in a very shallow bowl and place the breadcrumbs in another shallow bowl. Season the breadcrumbs with salt and pepper to your taste and then start breading – coat fish strips with flour, then dip in egg making sure they’re completely coated, next dip in breadcrumbs, again making sure the fish is well covered. Repeat till you’ve coated all the fish strips.
Pour oil in to a large frying pan (the oil should come up to about 1.5cms) and heat. When it’s quite hot place your breaded fish strips in the oil and shallow fry till golden brown. Drain on some kitchen towel and your mini breaded fish is ready. As mentioned, these can be made a few hours in advance and heated in the oven just before serving. Make some fries or chips to serve with the fish.
I serve the fish & chips with ketchup and mayo for the kids and tartar sauce and lemon for the adults. One of the ways I love serving this fish and chips is as pictured here – individual portions in mini paper party bags. This is an easy party food recipe for kids and adults that goes down a treat for any kind of gathering.
Last weekend we celebrated Anya’s 5th birthday with a small party at home. It was a very girly do with lots of paper pompoms, pink tissue and 5 giggling girls. Last year we had a big party where I hired a venue and invited loads more kids but this year we wanted a more intimate do at home. Anya loves lady bugs so that’s what we chose for the cake: lady bug cupcakes in pale pastels. I wanted to keep it simple with a home-made feel so we chose cupcakes instead of a big cake. I wish I could take credit for making them but they were made by my talented friend and cake maker Mirna. For the food we chose Anya’s favourites and very kid friendly things like pizza, chicken goujons and crisps all home made. I thought the food would look pretty served in little cardboard boxes lined with pink and white striped tissue. Having the party at home meant space was limited and there was no room for an extra table for the girls to eat on. So I lay a white sheet down on the floor at one end of the living room and scattered the sheet with little gold stars and some honeycomb balls and this is where the girls ate. The kids loved the honeycomb balls and started playing catch with them!With a December birthday you have to have the party indoors as it’s way too cold. So that usually means a venue but I so loved having the party at home and keeping it really small and simple. I think Anya enjoyed it more too. All in all the sun shone, the food went down well, the decorations were destroyed and the girls giggled and screamed while my husband and I watched and celebrated our baby turning 5!
Today is my daughter Anya’s 4th birthday… happy, happy birthday Anya! We had her first proper birthday party on the weekend. So far, we’ve only had a little celebration at home but I think 4 is the age where they really start to appreciate a party with their little friends. She asked for a pink party and a purple princess cake and that’s what she got. I thought I would share some pictures of her party and also take this opportunity to introduce my newest sponsor Hugo & Adele which is a super pretty party shop.
When I started looking for her party decorations, I soon began to despair as all I could find was shiny plastic things which I am really not keen on. And then by chance I stumbled upon Hugo & Adele and it was love at first sight. Hugo & Adele are a small shop selling the prettiest party wares and they had nearly all the stuff I was looking for. So I ordered all the paper plates, paper cups, paper straws, party bags, bunting and more for the party from there. When the goodies arrived wrapped up in soft pink tissue, I was delighted as they looked even better in person than in pictures. I’m so happy they’ve since become a sponsor as I really love their store and would wholeheartedly recommend them because not only is their stuff lovely but they were also very efficient and pleasant to deal with.
For the kid’s table I bought a white paper table cloth and thought it would be fun to give each child a set of crayons so they could draw while they waited for their food. This worked really well as not only did they have fun but it kept them occupied {read: out of trouble!} while the food was being served. I kept the decorations simple on the table as I felt the cups, plates and straws looked lovely and didn’t need much embellishment. I did however make some washi tape bunting which I hung all around the table.
I served most of the food in pink and white cupcake holders for the kids but made disposable platters for the adults, using cardboard and pink patterned tissue paper. The party food was simple and of course very, very kid friendly!
While the whole party theme was pink and white, I used a combination of polka dots, stripes and solids. I also used a variety of pink shades ranging from pale pink to bright. I loved these spotty party bags and thought it would be fun to stick those cute pencils on the front. The party bags turned out to be a bit of a kid magnet so it was a little difficult convincing the kids to wait till the end to get one!
Anya really enjoyed her pink party and I loved putting it together for her. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my husband and very good friend Angus. I’d also like to say a big thank you to our friend Antoine Aoun for the stunning photography, Mirna Cakes for the striking cake and finally to Hugo & Adelefor the beautiful paper party wares and decorations.
UPDATE NOV 2015: Unfortunately Hugo & Adele are no longer operating. But if you want some fab party decorations similar to these, you’ll find them at pretty little party shop.
My daughter turns 4 in a couple of months and I asked her what kind of party she would like. Her answer, without a seconds hesitation was ‘I want a pink party’! So, a pink {and white} party it will be. I’ve been searching the web for ideas to create a tasteful pink party and I have found many like these cute bunny cookies. The plan is to have lots of white in there too, to balance out the pink. I’ve started putting together a pink party inspiration board on pinterest and if you’re on there you’ll know just how fun and perfect pinterest is for something like this. So that was the inspiration behind today’s post. I’m seeing pink everywhere and thought I would share a few things I’ve liked in the last few days; some are party related but others are just lovely pink things. I hope you like them too and have a wonderful weekend wherever you are.
Pink seems to be the colour of the moment in this house. My daughter is beyond obsessed with the colour and yesterday even asked if she could have ‘pink teeth’! While I’m not a blue for boy/pink for girl type of mama, I have no objection to pink in moderation… just like any other colour. When there are so many wonderful colours to choose from why restrict yourself to just one or two. But since we’re thinking pink these days, I went in search of some pretty pink things and here’s what I found:
1. Love this origami pendant light which comes with a choice of pretty pastel coloured cables so you can mix and match … 2. This is one of the most gorgeous tutu’s I’ve seen in a while… the vibrant, almost neon pink colour is so striking. 3. Just looking at these beautiful pink raspberry cookies makes me want to head to the kitchen and get baking… so delicious! 4. Last is this super cute polka dotted cloud cushion which would make a very sweet cot companion.
This past weekend I was browsing Paper blog when some brown mustaches caught my eye. On delving deeper I found a beautiful site filled with utterly divine looking recipes and I’ve picked out some that I think would make super fun food for kids parties. I know I’m going to include some of these for my daugther’s next birthday bash:
You’d never dream of eating a mustache but how delicious do these chocolate mustache lollipops look? So perfect as a sweet treat for a kids birthday party. But I don’t think the adults will be able to resist either! (I NEED these at my kid’s next birthday do.)
Put these heart shaped pies on a stick and teddy bear bread rolls on your kids party menu and watch all the kids make a beeline for them. You can fill them with whatever you like… sweet or savoury or maybe even a few of each. With the pies, you can go for any shape you like including stars, circles (lollipop pies!), triangles… the list is endless.
I love this idea of elevating a simple cupcake to new heights! These balloon cupcakes look so pretty and best of all you don’t need to spend hours decorating with icing to make them in to a party treat. This couldn’t be simpler but has a huge wow factor.
All these divine looking (and I’m sure tasting) treats are the creation of Sandra Mangas Hernandez, a Spanish mama who has a flair for creating extraordinary food. Sandra gives much of her food, especially the kids stuff, a fun and exciting twist making it extremely inviting to eat. Serve up any of these inspired treats at your kids next birthday do and you’ll impress not only the kids but the adults too, not to mention how stunning and tempting your table will look. You’ll find all these recipes and more at Sandra’s blog called La recita de la felicidad and thankfully there’s an English version of the site too.
Ever since I laid eyes on these divinely delicious looking cakes and treats over at the lovely Paul et Paula blog, I haven’t been able to think of much else… seriously! How good do they look?! I love cakes and sweeties anyway (who doesn’t?) but when they look this scrumptious, I just can’t resist. These cakes are the creation of Aline Caron, a French lady with a penchant for food, styling and photography. These treats are part of her first cookbook called ‘Gouters Rigolos’ which means funny snacks. Perfect for kids birthday parties or just snacky treats for a kiddy get together, these yummies are full of fun and oh so beautiful too. For me, food should appeal to all the senses and these do that in abundance. You can find more pictures on Aline’s blog My little Fabric or if you want the recipes, Amazon sell her book ‘Goûters Rigolos’
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Ebabee Likes is a style guide for babies, kids, teens and their mamas. It’s all about inspiration, ideas and indulging yourself and your brood. It’s written by me ~ Nomita ~ a style loving girl from Mumbai who now live’s in London. Read More...
