This time we decided to call on a Fairy to come and help with the entertainment since we had nearly 20 kids coming. Fairy Jasmine was wonderful and I would highly recommend. She was very professional, and had a large majority of the kids under control from the moment she arrived. There are always some who just aren't into it! She came for 1.5 hours and arrived 15 mins after start time which worked well as not everyone arrived on time. After about 50 minutes she did the face painting which gave the kids a chance to have something to eat.
THE MENU
So my experience is that the parents don't eat that much at these parties, and neither do the kids really as they are too busy playing. It is after all only morning tea time so they are keen for a few fun treats! For 20 kids and 20 adults here is what we served:
1) Fairy bread - of course! Just cut into triangles this year and probably 2 platefuls only. This needs to be made on the day, but is quick to make.
2) Fairy cakes - I made about 2 dozen of these, a couple of days before and then we iced the day before. The little marshmallow flowers didn't really survive that well though. Both adults and kids enjoyed the cakes!
3) "4" cookies - we made these a couple of days before also and iced the day before. They survived for days afterward though so could have been done earlier if needed to be. We had stacks of these on hand - they were a big hit and adults enjoyed them also!
4) Popcorn - 2 bags of microwave popcorn. This was an easy filler, and so quick to prepare (2 mins in the microwave!) The kids seemed to like so much I ended up using both bags. I saw some cheap old fashioned popcorn cardboard containers at a 2 dollar shop which could be a great serving idea for a smaller party.
5) Chocolate dipped strawberries - we prepared these the day before but they were a bit watery, still fine to serve though. We just melted a dairy milk block and dipped the strawbs before whipping them into the fridge to set. We made around 20 which seemed to be enough.
6) Fruit wands - I put grapes, pineapple and a watermelon star on the top of a popstick which worked well. I need to find a nicer way to present these standing up somehow. Although it was fruit the kidlies loved them because of the novelty! We made about 20 and that was enough.
7) Hot dogs - these were an epic fail! The plan was to cut butterfly shapes from puff pastry then put red dogs in the middle, bake for 15 mins at 220 degrees and dot the wings with tomato sauce before serving. First problem was that I had filo pastry in the freezer not puff... filo does not work! So I just ended up wrapping the dogs in a few layers of filo, used egg wash and then baked for about 25 mins. They were okay tasting but looked very sad... next time supermarket sausage rolls I think!
8) French pastries - we ordered 20 mini chocolate croissants and 10 plain croissants from our favourite french pattissier, which was mainly for the adults. The chocolate croissants were a hit, plain now so. Twenty would have been enough really, although some of the kids were into them too.
THE CAKE
This year the order was for a Fairy Castle which wasn't actually as tricky as it looked, although I do need to work on ensuring straight lines... the top peak looks a bit like the leaning tower! I found the instructions on Betty Crocker's site and swapped marshmallows for sugar cubes around the sides. It was very important to have the fairies around it as well!!
I made 4 butter cakes, and about 3 batches of icing. The most time consuming part was icing the cake as you need to do the crumb coat first to make sure the top coat is clean. It can be really frustrating, as I found bits of the cake kept coming off; the whole cakes were okay, it is the pieces that you cut that are messy. Anyway it was a pretty good result overall, 4 year olds don't typically notice the flaws!
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