Notes from my Kitchen - How to Plan and Bake for a Birthday Party

Yesterday I did not post on my blog as it was my son's third birthday party. I spent the best part of the week planning and baking. So often friends ask "how do you do it?". This is the way I do things........

The secret to a great party is planning ahead. Completing tasks ahead of time means you can enjoy the party too.When planning a tea party I always draw up a list of items, using this formula:

For the Moms

• 3 sweet items
• 3 savoury items
• tea & filtre coffee
• juice or iced tea

For the children

• popcorn - sweet and savoury
• cupcakes
• ice-cream
• homemade themed biscuits
• savoury eats
• sweets
• crisps
• other
• juice

Then depending on the number of guests, I plan the menu. My son had 12 children and 10 adults at his party. This is the menu I put together, and allocated the day to bake each item. As I completed each item, I marked it as complete.

Where possible I overlap the menu items for adults and children. Here I have made cupcakes for both, and used the cheese straw recipe to make cheese biscuits which I cut into shapes and baked, and made pizzas for both adults and children.

Where possible, I multi-task pastry e.g. I made 2 types of mini quiches, bacon and cheddar and feta and roasted butternut, and the mini pizza with the same batch of pastry. I could have used this to make a savoury tart too. All this cuts down on the work load.

Some items will require tasks on two consecutive days. I made the ice-cream for the ice-cream birthday cake on Thursday, and unmoulded and decorated the cake on Friday. I made and iced the caramel cupcakes on Thursday, using the same icing for both adult and children's cupcakes. I made the pecan praline topping on Friday and finished off the adult cupcakes with it.

I used the same homemade caramel sauce for the cupcakes and to sweeten the popcorn.

I baked and served the pizzas at 4.30 so that children went home having eaten something of value, after all the sugar.

I do serve store bought items such as Haribo sweets and oven baked crisps, but do so reluctantly and only to please my children!

Adults
Sweet	Day to bake	Complete
Coffee Cake	Thursday	√
Caramel Cupcakes	Thursday	√
Brownies	Thursday	√
Savoury
Mini Quiche	Friday	√
Mini Pizza	Friday	√
Cheese Straws	Wednesday	√
Drinks
Iced Berry Tea	Friday	√
Tea & Coffee	Friday	√
Children
Sweet	Day to bake	Complete
Ice-cream Cake	Thursday	√
Cupcakes	Thursday	√
Biscuits	Thursday	√
Savoury
Popcorn	Friday	√
Mini Pizza	Friday	√
Cheese Biscuits	Wednesday	√
Drinks
Mango Juice	Friday	√

I always have balloons for children to take home, so I give myself at least and hour to blow up and tie balloons and set up the adult and children's tables. I also allow an hour to wash and blow dry my hair, dress and do my make-up, so that I feel good after my hard work.

I have parties in the afternoon so that I have the morning to make any items that need to be freshly made, such as pastry. This way all my baked items taste their best. I also have the evening to clean up once my children are in bed and write thank you notes for gifts.

This year a special friend took the photos. There were more of them, there were some of my children and I together, and I email thank you notes with personalised photos of their children having fun as a thank you to all adults.

On the day of the party I ask a close friend or relative to help me look after my children so that I can dedicate my time to the party.

We always have a good lunch before the party, something I can prepare in advance and heat up. My husband knows that we have leftovers or sandwiches for supper after a party. I know that I can have a long, hot bath at the end of the day.

It is a lot of hard work, but when my oldest son thanked me for all I had done to make the day special, I felt cherished and love. It wasn't even his birthday party, but his little brother's!