The Children’s party food challenge

It’s party food time! I have been rather looking forward to writing about party food!

I love food – love it. In particular I love party food – I really do believe it should be an official diet (maybe only on a Friday/Saturday) but what’s not to love! When we have a staff meeting we have a party food buffet (My strict no eating rules during parties are rewarded with this!). However as wonderful as food maybe which type of food is best for which type of party?

Common food related questions may include:

• Is this too unhealthy?
• How many should I cater for?
• What will the other parents think if I serve certain foods?
• Will they eat a lot?
• Do children still like Cheese and Pineapple on sticks? (Yes – always yes to this question whether you are adult or child- I love cheese and Pineapple on sticks!)
• Should we do dessert?
• Should we do party boxes?

To answer these questions (having watched and seen about every variation of party food known to man – from humous and olives to hotdogs to pitta wraps to pizza to jam sandwiches, we really have seen it all!

So where to begin with my food advice. Simply what will they like and enjoy? I have never seen any chocolate fingers left after a party but I have seen an awful lot of cheese sandwiches abandoned. So I decided to break this down into your options and party numbers:

Under 10 children?

Traditional party food all the way followed by Jelly and Ice cream! Two triangles per child and then some crisps, carrot sticks, cucumber (so many children love cucumber), mini sausages, biscuits and of course – cheese and pineapple! Party boxes can be great for this number as well as they save on mess!

10 – 15 children:

Party food as above with some bigger plates down the table of sausages/sausage rolls andtwo big Pizza’s, again plenty of biscuits, chocolate rolls and cakes – but bring these out as pudding!

15 children

Big bowls of crisps for the table and 3 – 4 large Pizza’s and then HOT DOGS!! One per child. Then cakes and biscuits as above, again only reveal them when the savoury food has been well devoured – usually when the first three children begin to finish!

You can always go with healthy options for each number and party boxes for each number too (at your own peril – I did it for 50 once…never again…) However always remember, keep it simple and don’t over think it, it they are hungry they will eat. Think about the time of day for the food and cater to how hungry they will be then and finally party food is fun and children are only little for a short period of time (I know I wish I could eat twenty party sausages and not feel guilty!) so as they say “Let them eat cake!”

Stuck for extra ideas? Here is a link to the BBC Good food children’s party page!

BBC Good Food