Cooking for kids parties

Minder

I'm looking for ideas for food for kids parties, if you have something out of the ordinary that is a real hit with the under tens, let's hear it! My little girl is 5 next week and ten of her friends will invade our lives for a few hours to be fed and entertained; and because I can never take the easy option, I would like a few ideas that are a little different from the sandwiches and rice crispy cakes?

tSubh Dearg

I know this seems like a bit of a mad idea, but what about sushi?

My partner's kids love it and have loved it since they were well under 5.

Buns with butterfly wings (tops cut off and in half and put into icing or cream) are an absolute must!

rubadub

chicken nuggets, sausages etc, but also maybe mini chinese spring rolls and those indian platter things, bhajis and other stuff.

The sushi does sound a bit odd for kids. I hate the stuff, but also I would be wary of upsetting kids parents, who heard their kids were served "raw fish", as in they might not think it was safe for them, and though they might not say anything to you they could be upset.

Just watching TV now and they mentioned those Piñata things, you know those things you see in the US, a sort of papermache donkey hanging up full of sweets, a blindfolded kid knocks it with a stick and sweets come out. I always wanted one of those!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi%C3%B1ata

The Sweeper

Things that are important to note:

1) Kids can't wait for their meal like adults can.
2) Kids are finicky and some won't eat various things.
3) Ketchup is your friend.
4) Sweet things are compulsory.

The Sweeper

Let me add to the above so it's more useful. I think the most successful approach, something to suit both your love of cooking and kids expectations, is going to be the route of serving recognisable party food, but taking the home-made approach so you're not just dropping £200 at Iceland and dealing with the additive-fallout two hours later.

Do a lot of your cooking prep the day before so on the day you're not distracted for 90 minutes making up something fiddly while everything else goes undone.

Prepare your home-made chicken nuggets the day before, and have them ready just to be fried on the day. They're always popular.

Make home-made sausage rolls the day before, ready to just put in the oven on the day.

Look into individual pies done in muffin tins, preparing the filling - a plain beef or chicken stew (or both?) the day before, and using frozen shortcrust pastry on the day.

You need finger food, something that requires no cutlery. I watched a show on TV a while ago, three chefs competed to cook for kids parties to see what children would enjoy. One of them (can't remember his name, male, Irish accent, french cooking) made a rack of lamb chops and served them, with the idea the kids could use the little lamb chop bones to hold them. They went down a storm - until one of the seven year olds announced "This is really good steak!" and the poor chef, who had been gloating about how you can 'serve real food to children' looked utterly crestfallen.

Something that doesn't seem to work is dips - one chef did a sort of 'chicken ball on a chopstick' thing, looked all the world like an oversized lollipop, served it with a cheese dipping sauce. Kids avoided it like the plague, it was the only thing not eaten.

Home-made pizzas - lebanese khobz breads and other flat breads work really well as thin crust pizza bases. Plus you can top with fresh vegetables and interesting cheeses and they should go down well. Trick is not to over-top anything. Less is more. Make a few different flavours, they take 10 minutes under the grill because the bread is already cooked. Take them out, cut them into eight wedges - you could make up four in total which should mean everyone can have a good serving.

Potato wedges - home made, oven cooked, keep them plain so even the picky kids will eat them - or do some plain and some with more adventurous seasoning. Try other vegetables as well - maybe pumpkin wedges and sweet potato wedges?

Cold pasta salad - let it be said, I believe this dish is a crime against humanity, but it'll work for small kids who don't like anything. Keep the dressing plain (you and me both know the kids who want nowt but plain buttered pasta, and sadly they're not a single event these days). Toss a bit in a store-made pesto if you like, or try a coronation chicken type pasta dish - I'm sure M&S sells something like that as a cold chicken pasta, it's palatable and easy enough.

That should handle the 'food' element. Then there's the 'sweets' element.

Look into making up some fruit punches, diluted down with either still water or sparkling water, to replace plain old fizzies. Serve them with cut fruit pieces and dress them up - think non-alcoholic pimms.

Try cooking James Masters chocolate coca cola cake. You mix the ingredients, pour as quite a loose batter into a cake tin, bake and then ice when cold. Try cooking a double lot if you want to bake a birthday cake - I'd make the stack sandwich filling of plain fresh cream. It's really tasty and pretty foolproof. It's in his desserts book, page 159. Also remember his raspberry marshmallows? They could be a goer...

A range of flavoured muffins? Profiteroles?

That and just head to the supermarket and buy a few party packs of sweets and bars. They'll go well in the party gift bags and nobody will begrudge you the store bought element when you've put the effort into the rest of it!

muckety

For little girl's birthday parties our staple is spaghetti bolognaise, with a little added cream - this makes it go really PINK. For the cake our staple is the trusty ice-cream assembly job, put on a large chopping board or platter and cut/shaped into the birthday number. Cover with (eg) smarties or flake or other decorations. Its the only 'cake' we have seen birthday party kids eat.....

You probably already know this but its best to have something you can put up quickly and easily as you will be quite busy just entertaining / sorting out minor scraps / etc (unless you are looking for an excuse to escape to the kitchen?).

Minder

Thanks the replies.

Sushi - children who are eat sushi will be the envy of many parents, if they'll eat sushi, there are probably not many things they won't eat. But I doubt that a birthday party is the best place for an introduction - that and the fact that I am largely limited to buying fish from the cold counter in Tesco - I wouldn't eat that as sushi myself.:eek:

Plenty of other ideas there, spag bol tends to be a staple in our house for parties, butterfly cakes are good and my 5 year old sous chef likes making them too. My MIL makes a similar roll to a sausage roll, except with a cheesey type stuffing - that should avoid any arguments over pig eating (Big issue in our house.)

Majd - plenty to think about there, thanks for the lengthy post.

Muckety - looking for an excuse to escape to the kitchen? you found me out - but aren't all the best parties in the kitchen?

Talliesin

Minder wrote: »

Sushi - children who are eat sushi will be the envy of many parents, if they'll eat sushi, there are probably not many things they won't eat.

Alas no. They first had sushi (that was meant to be my sushi:mad:) before they got to the age of being suspicious of new things.

watna

Here are two staples for kids parties I've learned in NZ. I had a kid themed birthday party for myself last month ad was told to make these.

Fairy bread which is white bread, buttered with hundreds and thousands. Kiwis are very nostalgic about this!

Monkey tails - these are bananas, halfed, covered in chocolate sauce and then rolled in crushed nuts. These went down VERY well!

The Sweeper

...you can keep the fairy bread, but I now *want* a monkey tail.

Minder

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Try cooking James Masters chocolate coca cola cake. You mix the ingredients, pour as quite a loose batter into a cake tin, bake and then ice when cold.

Chocolate cola cake was a doddle and went down well too. Only problem was I made a trial cake a week before and froze three quarters of it. I made another and also defrosted the frozen one. That was too much cake - kids ate their share but all the parents must be on some springtime health kick. So now I have a big chocolate to shift.

CJhaughey

How about those rice krispie buns? you know, vegetable fat and cocoa and sugar mixed up with rice krispies and put into those muffin cases.

The Sweeper

I find the arse about rice krispie buns is they won't set unless they're cold, and I never have enough room in my fridge for a stack of them if I'm doing party preparation. But thats most probably because I persist in using 'decent' chocolate (G&Bs or other organic, high cocoa chocolate). They'd probably work if I used a bar of dairy milk.

CJhaughey

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

I find the arse about rice krispie buns is they won't set unless they're cold, and I never have enough room in my fridge for a stack of them if I'm doing party preparation. But thats most probably because I persist in using 'decent' chocolate (G&Bs or other organic, high cocoa chocolate). They'd probably work if I used a bar of dairy milk.

Not sure about Aus, but in NZ you can buy Kremelta which is vegetable fat, use that and good quality cocoa and you will be good.

Faith

CJhaughey wrote: »

Not sure about Aus, but in NZ you can buy Kremelta which is vegetable fat, use that and good quality cocoa and you will be good.

I really don't understand why you'd use vegetable fat and cocoa over chocolate? Using chocolate makes rice krispie cakes far superior!

CJhaughey

Faith wrote: »

I really don't understand why you'd use vegetable fat and cocoa over chocolate? Using chocolate makes rice krispie cakes far superior!

Yes, for adults.
It's kids you are talking about. Kids like chocolate and vegetable fat and cocoa is essentially the same thing as chocolate.

Anyway I didn't read the OPs line where rice krispies were ruled out.
I would tend to make Hawaiian pizza's and slice them up into little squares.
Our kids like celery sticks and carrot sticks cut into small batons and the celery peeled to remove the fibrous ribs.
Maybe a little dip with these, hummus perhaps?
Small squares of pitta that have been toasted in the oven until they are hard.
Sushi might be a little too advanced for some kids but ours love it.
Miniature fish and chips? easy to prepare and cook.