CHILDREN'S PARTY FOOD

Some ideas for children's party food, old fashioned maybe but still enjoyed! The sandwich fillings can be made in advance, as can the sausage rolls, houmous, the jellies, fairy cakes, jam tarts, Smartie biscuits and the birthday cake.  Most of the rest is just a case of opening packets! I've included some hot dishes but those depend on whether you've access to an oven in your party venue.

SANDWICHES

As a general rule dark fillings should go in white bread and light fillings in brown bread. Cut the crusts off and cut into fingers or squares and make a chequerboard design alternating brown and white sandwiches.

Fillings on white bread:

Wafer thin ham and cream cheese (Philadelphia)

Tuna fish and mayonnaise 

Strawberry jam

Nutella (or chocolate spread)

Fillings on brown bread:

Chopped chicken and mayonnaise 

Egg mayonnaise

Grated cheese and mayonnaise 

Peanut Butter

You could add lettuce, sliced cucumber or sliced tomato to any of the savoury fillings. 

SAVOURY

Houmous with cheese straws, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks

Cooked cocktail sausages or Sticky Sausage Canapés

Mini pork pies

Hot mini sausage rolls

Hot chicken nuggets

Hot mini pizzas

CRISPS & BISCUITS

Plain salted crisps

Iced party ring biscuits

Iced gem biscuits

Pink wafers

Chocolate fingers

Smartie biscuits

DESSERT

Individual jellies with 100s & 1000s sprinkles

Jam tarts

Iced fairy cakes

Fresh sliced strawberries

Fruit salad with chopped apple, bananas, chopped tinned peaches and tinned mandarin oranges (in juice from from the mandarin oranges and peaches)

and of course Birthday Cake! (usually sliced up and put in the party bags).

You can make a simple Victoria Sponge Cake and cover with ready roll Fondant Icing before decorating with sweets and candles.

DRINKS

Jugs of water, orange and blackcurrant cordial

Homemade lemonade

ADULTS

If you have adults attending, in my experience adults love nursery food but if you wanted to cater for adults specifically you could prepare some Tapas.

JAM TARTS

This is a Mary Berry recipe, a childhood favourite.  The pastry is more crisp than a standard shortcrust pastry and can also be used for mince pies or other sweet tarts. You need a 12-hole bun tin.

INGREDIENTS

Sweet Pastry:

175g (6oz) plain flour
25g (1oz) icing sugar
75g (2.5oz) butter
1 egg 

Fillings:

Strawberry Jam

Blackcurrant Jam

Apricot Jam

Lemon Curd

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200c/180c Fan or Gas 6, and place a baking sheet inside to heat up.

Make the pastry using the 'rubbing in' method. Combine the flour and butter by gently rubbing between the fingertips and thumbs, continuing until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Alternatively use a food processor to combine the flour and butter. 

Add the icing sugar and then add a beaten egg to form a ball of dough. Cover in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 mins to rest before using.

Lightly dust a work surface with icing sugar.  Place the dough on top, dust with icing sugar, dust your rolling pin too.  Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 1-2mm (1/8 inch). Stamp 12 rounds from the pastry using a 8cm/3in fluted pastry cutter (your cutter should be slightly larger than the holes in your bun tin). Line each hole of a 12-hole bun tin with one of the pastry rounds and prick the base of each with a fork 3 times to prevent the pastry rising.

Slide the bun tin onto the hot baking sheet and bake in the oven for 12-15 mins, or until golden brown and crisp. Putting the bun tin onto the hot baking sheet ensures cases with a crispy bottom. Once cooked leave to cool.

Meanwhile heat your chosen filling gently in a pan, or in a heatproof jug in the microwave in short bursts, until it liquifies to a pouring consistency, then pour carefully into the pastry cases.    Leave to set.

NB: Most jam tart recipes put the jam in the pastry cases before baking but this method ensures that no jam overflows and burns and you get an even shiny jam filling. They look shop bought!

If you wanted to make "Queen of Hearts" tarts you could make hearts out of the scraps of pastry and bake them separately, placing on the jam filling as it cools.