A First Birthday Tea Party - The Food

I love to cook. One of the most exciting parts of throwing a party is deciding on the menu. Once I settled on having a tea party I started brainstorming what food I was going to serve.

I wanted a mix of savoury and sweet, and I wanted it to be single serve food. I often make food single serving for parties as I find it is less messy. There is nothing worse than being the person that is left with the scrapings at the bottom of a bowl. With single serve food you know everyong gets a serving, and it is all of the same quality. It is also great to pack away at the end of the party. I don't like being left with a lot of leftover food at the end of a party so I always send people home with a little 'doggie bag'.

I tend to over cater on sweets because that is what I love to eat. However my Mum and Sister convinced me to serve more than just sandwiches for savoury food. I am lucky I did because all the savoury food when very quickly.

The Menu I decided on was

• Finger Sandwiches - Chicken and herb, Cucumber and cream cheese, Creamy Egg
• Mini Quiche - Spinach, Lorraine and Roast Vegetable
• Meatballs - Served with a tomato sauce
• Scones, Jam and Cream
• Berry Cheesecake
• Chocolate Mousse
• Lemon Tarts

I bought the mini quiche and the meatballs so I could focus on the other food. My sister made the sandwiches, and my Mum made the scones. The desserts I made myself. I looked arond and different recipes and found ones that were simple, and that did not have to be cooked. They were all mix and chill type recipes. This was great as I was able to prep them all very quickly and have them in the fridge ready to serve.

Setting up the food table was lots of fun. I was able to put all of my own cake stands, crystal bowls and platters to good use. Everything I used I already owned except for the pink spotted towers. Those I bought on sale for $2 each. I also had a beverage table where I set out a urn of boiled water, tea cups and tea/coffee. We also had some iced tea and soft drinks. It ended u being quite a hot day so we were glad we brought the cold drinks.

I decorated the table with some pretty tea pots I owned filled with flowers. They were really simple, but added some colour to the table.

I also had a table with some treats for the kids on them. I was making sure that I had healthy options for the kids and babies. For the kids and babies I served

Banana and Blueberry muffins - Sugar free
Fruit cut into flower shapes - Rockmelon, Watermelon anf Honeydew melon
Jelly cups - Natural colours and no preservatives (From Aldi)
Fairy Bread
Cookie Pops - Chocolate Chip cookies with smarties on a stick

The best part about the food was that it was all made ahead of time and was set up just as guests started to arrive. This way there was food that was ready to eat as soon as they arrived, and I was also able to enjoy the party.