Rukmini Iyer’s Magical Children’s Party Recipes
Fun allergy-friendly recipes you can involve children in, and sage advice for a successful kids party. Words by Rukmini Iyer. Illustration by Lizzy Stewart. Photos by Georgia Rudd.
Welcome to Vittles Kids, a special series of features, essays, opinion and a guide about feeding children at home and in restaurants. Today Rukmini Iyer, author of the celebrated Roasting Tin books, shares hard-earned advice on catering a children’s party and shares four fun, allergy-friendly recipes.
A note from all of us at Vittles: it is impossible right now to think about the subject of food and children without also thinking about the forced starvation of children and adults in Gaza, as part of Israel’s ongoing genocide. There are many individual projects you can donate to, and we would encourage you to donate freely to those you know. The Sameer Project is currently raising funds for tents, food and water in north and south Gaza and you can donate via the links below.
The illustrator of this piece, Lizzy Stewart, is selling Giclee prints of the illustration below with all profits going to The Sameer Project. You can pre-order here and they'll be sent out in late August.
When I think of a magical children’s party, I always think of the midsummer gathering in Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World. In the novel, the party is in a beautifully decorated garden with paper lanterns and streamers hanging from the trees, under which there’s a long, linen-covered table laden with homemade bread, chicken, and salads. For pudding, there are raisin buns, layer cake, Danish pastry, and chocolate cake. The birthday cake is a tower of fifteen almond cake rings, one for each of Sophie’s fifteen years. It’s an idyllic setup, with flowers in bloom and – in my mind – golden evening light.
In reality, I’m mother to a three-year old and a baby. In my experience, all the under-five crowd wants are balloons to chuck at each other, unrestricted access to crisps, and a slice of birthday cake. They’ll feed unwanted sandwiches to the dog, leave cucumber sticks mashed into hummus like stubbed-out cigarettes, and conduct pitched battles over inflatable unicorns.
Here’s what else I’ve learned from the last few years of hosting (real) children’s parties:
yelling ‘There’s pizza!’ will get fifteen under-fives sitting at a mini-table in seconds (whether they’ll stay there is debatable)
you cannot buy too many strawberries (ditto watermelon)
homemade cupcakes or butter biscuits, iced or uniced, are a good shout after pizza and before The Cake
pink wafers carry nostalgia value for adults but hold no value for under-fives, but Party Rings go down just as well now as they did in the 1990s.
By far the most important thing I’ve learned is that there’s absolutely no point giving yourself a nervous breakdown over the catering the day before the party (been there). Although I’m providing recipes for four different types of party food here – some of which can double up as activities for the kids – making just one or two is more than enough. Whatever you choose to make, delegate as much as you can to friends and/or family, and appoint someone to take your kids to the park so you can party-prep in peace.
The Menu
Cheddar and rosemary cheese stars (vegetarian, nut free)
Pick-your-own-herb pizzas (vegetarian/vegan, nut free)
Lavender honey gingerbread men (egg free, nut free, easily veganised)
Coconut strawberry cupcakes (egg free, nut free, easily veganised and made gluten-free)