It can be difficult figuring out what exactly you should do when it comes to cooking for children’s parties. Some kids just want to spend their entire time running around and playing, whereas others would prefer setting up camp by the buffet and snacking all day. It is all a matter of personal preference, so it is important to tailor your day to the needs of the children you are entertaining.
Food wise, for example, if nobody likes jelly or ice cream, you’re not going to get on very well if you’ve only got jelly and ice cream for dessert. In general having a good selection makes you a very cool parent indeed, but you want to be able to provide a good selection without having to buy the whole supermarket.
That being said, here are four simply and easy recipes that are bound to go down great with the kids, and you can customise them to meet the needs of your party!
Homemade Peanut Butter Cups
A healthier and cheaper alternative to Reese’s, you can make the peanut butter yourself or buy it straight from the supermarket (smooth). You’ll want some cupcake cups, a bit of fridge space, a glass bowl for melting the chocolate into and a spoon!
Melt the chocolate over a pot of boiling water by stirring it gently in to make sure it doesn’t burn. Then take your spoon and add a tablespoon of melted chocolate to the bottom of the cupcake cups, making sure the chocolate fills out the entire base. Pop those in the fridge for about ten minutes while you heat up the peanut butter. Gently heat up the peanut butter just enough so that it is easier to spread and then take your cups out of the oven and fill them a tablespoon once more, covering the chocolate nicely. Put them back in the fridge for ten minutes and repeat the first step again to get a nice sandwich layering of chocolate-peanut butter- chocolate.
If your kids don’t like peanut butter or are allergic, you can always make the cups using different types of chocolate! Such as white chocolate and dark chocolate instead of peanut butter as the filling.
Cake Pops
The trick to this is knowing how to bake your cake first. For this recipe you’ll need all your normal cake ingredients, plus lollipop sticks, cream cheese frosting, and coloured chocolate pieces to dip the pops into.
Bake a normal cake and leave it to cool, then once cooled, crumble it up into tiny pieces. Then grab a couple of spoonful’s of frosting and mix it into the cake with your hands. When you can create lovely unbroken balls of cake mixture with your hands without it flaking apart, you’re ready.
Form small balls of the mixture, skewering each one with a lollipop stick. As mentioned with our peanus butter cups, melt your chocolate pieces using a glass bowl over boiling water and then dip the cake pops in the melted chocolate. Make sure they are well covered! Place into the fridge to cool.
Chocolate Fondue
Easy easy! Melt a whole lot of chocolate into a big bowl using the glass bowl over boiling water method and then place it on a raised tray with a candle or two underneath to keep the chocolate melted. Cut up some fresh fruit, bananas, kiwis, strawberries you name it, and add a few marshmallows, give the kids a skewer each and let them at it!
Alternatively you could also drizzle the melted chocolate over each fruit and put them in the fridge to dry for the kids to nibble on. This is a less messy alternative and can be quite a success for kids of all ages, particularly as they have less work to do!
Cheese and Ham/Cheese and Onion Puff Swirls
Add something savoury into the mix! For this recipe you’ll need; ready to roll puff pastry, 1 onion or wafer thin ham slices, grated cheese and chilli to season. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Roll out your pastry and distribute your little bit of chilli powder across the pastry. Then sprinkle your cheese and cut your onion or your ham into smaller pieces and distribute in the same way. Now that it looks a little like a pizza you want to roll it up lengthwise into a sort of Swiss roll.
Now grab a sharp knife and cut the roll into smaller slices, so that all the cheesy, chilli goodness is kept compacted into little swirls. Put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes until they go a delicious golden brown and leave them to cool for five minutes before serving. Absolutely delicious and easy for kids and adults!
And there you have it, four easy and delicious recipe ideas that are sure to be a hit at your next children’s party!
Article provided by professional cake sculptor Cakes by Robin; a Wimbledon based specialist with almost 10 years experience in providing stunning cakes for parties, celebrations and corporate events.