Kids' Parties: Boys' Ball Party

It's not that I'm tired of kids' parties. I'm just tired in general! I actually really, really love them--they seem to be so much more fun that adult parties, but after 15 years throwing them for my daughter and son, I'm tired of the fuss.

I've been doing Simpler and Easier for a few years now {here is my list of parties, all increasingly easy as the kids get older!} and yesterday's party for Riley's 12th birthday was one of my faves yet. The only prep needed was goodie bags--choc malt balls in a cello bag with mint leaves on top {mimicking dirt and grass} and a squeezy sports ball. I printed 'thank you' labels, folded them over and stapled them to the top of each bag.

I made miniature bunting by printing letters onto card, cutting them out and stringing them between two pieces of dowel anchored in bottles of sand.

I also printed astro turf {for goodie bag labels and invitations} and pictures of soccer balls, AFL and NFL balls. I cut these out and stuck on them on picks for the food. They looked SO effective and are just so easy. It's not often that 11- and 12-year-old boys will come up and compliment you on decorations, but several boys did! So yes, even kids can appreciate lovely things.

Venue: Don't gasp, but ... I had it outside my home! I know! Mildy anal retentive, I can no longer be fagged cleaning the house for visitors, so I chose Bowen Park on Lake Burley Griffin, carted a fold up table and a few cloths, and let the beautiful shores of our capital's lake play host.

It was a good move.

A gorgeous, warm day with a light breeze, sunshine and clouds, the boys descended and set up stumps. They played cricket, then they tumbled onto an enormous piece of red cowboy gingham and nibbled chips, crackers and hotdogs, and opened presents.

hurrah! healthy {and delicious} muffins

Let's face it. Finding recipes for healthy muffins (less fat, no cane sugar, less or no wheat flour) can be tough. But by golly, I think I've found some good 'uns. I was on a mission on Friday to find make some goodies for the holidays and found and adapted the following recipes to suit what I had in the pantry.

You could also adjust your ingredients but be sure to adjust them like-for-like. Instead of LSA mix, you could use ground flax seeds or almond meal. Instead of honey, you could use maple syrup. Instead of almond meal, you could use LSA. Instead of raisins, you could use cranberries; you get the idea.

Remember the muffin golden rule: don't over-mix and don't over-bake. These will keep 5 days (longer in fridge) or wrap well and freeze for up to three months.

Have fun trying these out over the school holidays! And rest easy in the knowledge that you and the kids are eating something delicious AND packed with vitamins and minerals.

sugar-free with a hint of raspberry

Lovely, light and fluffy, these are flavoursome but not sickly sweet. Add berry puree for an intensified berry flavour or yoghurt for calcium. The spelt flour bakes beautifully.

ingredients.

1 cup spelt flour

1 cup whole oats

1 tsp baking powder

I tsp baking soda

2 tblsp Natvia or Stevia powder

1 tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

¾ C coconut cream or milk of your choice

¼ cup coconut oil or 50g butter

1 cup sugarless berry puree or apple puree or 1 cup natural Greek yoghurt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup frozen raspberries 

method.

Add all dry ingredients to a food processor and blend for 10 seconds. Add wet ingredients and blend another 10 seconds. Bake in 180C/350F oven for 15 – 18 mins, testing regularly. They are done when they spring back. Will make around 16 small muffins.

carrot and ginger

These were my favourite by far. Soft, light, fluffy, packed with flavour.

ingredients.

1 cup wholemeal or whole-wheat flower

½ cup rolled oats

2 tsp baking powder

3 tsp powdered ginger

¼ tsp ground allspice

½ tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup applesauce or natural Greek yoghurt

1/3 cup honey

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup coconut oil

2 cups shredded carrots

½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

½ cup raisins or currants or chopped pistachios

method.

Process carrots in a food processor until they resemble breadcrumbs. Mix together dry ingredients. Whisk eggs then add wet ingredients including carrot, coconut and raisins. Mix together wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Bake in 180C/350F oven for 25 – 30 mins, testing regularly. They are done when they spring back. Delicious at room temperature. Makes 12 – 14 small muffins.

coconut, prune + banana

Without eggs or raising agents, these muffins are dense with a large crumb (like a scone) but would be amazing heated and smeared with a little butter. The title ingredients give lots of punches of natural sweetness, especially if you leave the prune chunks quite large. You could also use dates or other dried fruit (cranberries, raisins) instead of prunes.

ingredients.

1¼ cup whole wheat or spelt flour

1¾ cup buckwheat flour

½ cup soy flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ cup shredded coconut

6 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp ground flax seed

1½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

2 large bananas

1 cup chopped prunes

½ cup coconut oil

5 tbsp honey or agave syrup (I used Elderflower syrup), or two big squirts Stevia liquid

1½ cups almond, rice or soy milk

method.

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Mash bananas then add chopped dates and wet ingredients. Mix till just combined. Bake in 180C/350F oven for around 15 – 20 mins, testing regularly with a toothpick for uncooked centre. Will make around 18 small muffins.

my birthday boy is 10

This was the very first year I felt a major heart-twinge at age-change in my kids. I now have two in double-figures. No more 9-year-olds, no more 3-year-olds, no one-year-olds. Both 10 and above. It felt really really strange but also exciting in that 'can't wait to see what they do with their lives' kind of way.

This is probably one of the last official parties I'll throw for my kids. Ella won't be interested this year, turning teen and all, and Riley just wants to play sport, which is - frankly - out of my league.

So - this party today, in a way, is probably an end-of-an-era thing. I know I'll miss it but things have become more simple as the years have gone by, anyway. When you're in book deadline, and I seem to be perennially in book deadline, you tend to do simple! In fact, only yesterday, I hadn't even decided on a cake - and yes, this is mighty strange for me. I found myself wandering the aisles of Woollies, desperate for some inspiration to call out to me - and lo and behold, it happened in the biscuit aisle.

Cookie cake! Riley loves Oreos, chocolate chip and Monte Carlos, so I gathered up some packs, nabbed me some tubs of Betty Crocker icing, and whipped up the easiest cake YET. You could do all manner of patterns with all types of cookies. Such fun.

Riley and his friends met at the local golf course for an 18 hole mini round, then came back here for lunch. I only decorated the table . . .

. . . and, again, I have been so busy, I was well out of ideas. So I stacked the goodie bags {those with the orange frisbees in the back} and blew up some odd-sized balloons to loll on the table with the food.

Lunch was extra extra extra simple. Cheese, tomato and cucumber stack, which take about 2 minutes to make . . .

Jars of pretzels and cheeseballs and chips - what boy doesn't love these?

Mini muffins from Woollies, iced with canned frosting. No shame.

Marie biscuits iced with canned frosting and dipped in sprinkles. That's right. They were delicious.

Boxed, instant mac 'n' cheese. Now, before you gasp in horror, let me explain. These kids spent five hours running and kicking balls today. A little bit of carb is everything they need - and I explain the trashy instant version by saying what we all know - kids only sniff at party food and barely eat a thing. If it were a party of taste-discerning adults, I would have done this from scratch, but this quick version was well-received and I'm sticking by it. Twelve years of party-throwing has taught me much! And on that note, they never eat the cake; you could make it from old sponges; they just lick off the icing and are done with it.

And I got this idea from our recent trip to Thailand - watermelon wedges on sticks. I hammered the sticks into the melon before cutting.

After lunch, it was to the park for basketball and soccer. I snapped photos of the kids playing, thinking "gee, wow, what a super cool party" {insert facetious voice here} but as they played, I realised, the whiz-bang games and prizes don't matter. THIS is what they love to do.

It was then back to the house for the mega hit of the afternoon - slushies. A $30 investment - my goodness, what a winner. Ella, the Ice Mistress, took control.

It was then time for cake.

I simply adore the raucous way young boys sing 'happy birthday'. It was hysterical. We even waved sparklers to make things extra special sparkly - and don't boys love pyrotechnics?

Happy birthday, my darling Riley. You may be ten now, but don't grow up too soon.

Love,

Mum
x

christmas traditions

I love tradition at the best of times - and of course, Christmas drags a hankering for special things out of the cupboard, and dashes it with sprinkles.

In our house, we have a particular penchant for Advent Calendars at Christmas time. Each year I create a new type of calendar, and it's a lot of fun coming up with new ideas to delight the kids.

Another tradition we have in our house is cookies on Christmas morning. I don't know where this started - I think maybe when Ella was little. I used to make her personalised cookies and, not wanting her to eat sugar before bed, I would leave some of the cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve. Up early for her stocking, perhaps Ella picked up a left over cookie on Christmas morning and nibbled it under the Christmas tree.

I'm not sure how it all began - but it's a lovely tradition we've kept, and each year I make four special cookies, one for each of us, and we nibble them with coffee (the kids have juice) under the three as we open presents.

The idea for this particular cookie came from - where else - Martha Stewart. Dani Fiori of MS Living created a similar style cookie, but in the style of a snow globe. I made do with what I had, and this is the result.

I simply adore these amazing dragees and sugar sprinkles - found at Spotlight and Woollies at Majura Park (Canberra). I also found these adorable little sugar gingerbread men at La Torta, also at Majura Park.

The initial cookies are also a favourite thing to do - the kids will adore devouring these Christmas Eve, along with purchased stollen and home-made pfeffernusse cookies. More on them soon!

What Christmas traditions do you hold dear?

chocolate bark

Fancy avoiding the gift-giving mountain? Why not scale a chocolate mountain instead?

Every year, I spend days on the gingerbread production line, pumping out intricately-decorated houses and people for friends and family to enjoy. As a large slice of my brain is currently tied up with end-of-school-stuff, two books, our upcoming trip and oh - a little thing called Christmas - I've decided to downscale a little, without compromising deliciousness in the least bit.

Enter chocolate bark. Traditionally strewn with candy cane shards, I've take a different tack, with a variety of festive flavours for both kids and adults.

Above you will see a gingersnap, cranberry and sanding sugar peak - and it's incredibly easy to make.

For all flavours, simply melt your desired quantity of chocolate. Each slab I made contained around 250g Cadbury Dairy Milk. I melt my chocolate in the microwave on half power, but you may have a different method. If heating in the microwave, be sure to remove from the heat well before the chocolate is liquid, then stir until remaining lumps have dissolved. Overheating chocolate will make it seize.

turkish delight, cashew, cachous

Spread the chocolate on trays lined with baking paper. Using an offset spatula, smooth the surface until around 3mm - 5mm thick.

Scatter your chocolate with prepared ingredients. Press down gently with your hands so ingredients sink into the chocolate. Cover loosely with cling film and refrigerate until firm.

Snap into shards and store in containers in the fridge until needed.

tip.
Use the best quality everything. If you use slabs of cheap chocolate from the $2 shop and shoddy additions, it will really taste quite revolting. Use great chocolate and fresh, quality ingredients and you'll still save a fortune on Christmas presents and absolutely delight neighbours, teachers, friends.

To put together packaging, print the template {below} to your desired size. Print onto card and cut out. Score along dotted lines and fold up edges.

Take your chocolate shards {above we have crystallised ginger, sanding sugar, chocolate stars and cracked black pepper} and stand it in the centre of your card. Bring cellophane up and around the card to hold it in place, tying with string.

Add a label et voila -

Quick, easy, utterly delicious, affordable. I also made the following flavours, but you could do anything you like:

gummy bears + marshmallows + cachous

turkish delight + cachous + cashews

pistachios + dried cranberries + sanding sugar + sea salt

chocolate party

What better way to celebrate turning 12 than with chocolate? What girl could possibly resist? Ella's 12th birthday party was a hit with her guests; I mean - show me a girl who doesn't like chocolate and I'll show you a disillusioned mum.

This is the last 'official' home party I'll throw {famous last words} for Ella, who is now just about and pretty much a young woman. It's kind of freaking me out, but that's another story.

You can see my chocolate party invitations here.

For decorations, I laid a strip of wrapping paper down the centre of the table, made a kabillion pink paper chains and pinned them against the wall. A few curling, chocolate-coloured ribbons also hung from the ceiling.

The ice cream cones were super easy. I drew a gridlike pattern onto cream card and then rolled it into cones. These were glued to inexpensive pink paper lanterns. I was originally going to hang these, and the lanterns are perfect because of the wire loop for hanging. To finish them off, I cut 'dripping' circles from wrapping paper {you could also use fabric} and glued them on top. I stuck them in jars of chocolates to keep them upright; they are super light, so this was easy to do.

Food was super easy. Being a chocolate party, I didn't want the girls stuffing themselves 'til they were sick, so I only had a few nibbles, really. Mini croissants filled with chocolates squares and warmed to melty. Chocolate mud cupcakes swirled with chocolate butter cream. Chocolate rectangular muffins covered in a rash of pink spots. Chunks of fruit - cherries, strawberries, banana and pear with a chocolate cream dipping sauce. Water and pink soda {you could serve chocolate milkshakes}. That's it.

I also provided pink cardboard containers and tongs so the girls could fill them with chocolates to take home later. I put their initials on these so there was no lolly confusion.

While Ella played on her iPad and awaited her guests, I put three cups of chocolate chips and a small can of condensed milk in the microwaves on 50% and stirred 'til smooth. The mixtures quickly stiffens - we used this to make truffles - one of our planned games/activities. But first, it was the old classic chocolate-stabbing game.

Sit the girls in a circle and place a room temperature block of chocolate {not too soft!} on a sturdy plate with a knife and fork. The girls have 60 seconds to don a hat, scarf and chunky gloves, then cut the chocolate into little squares and pop them in a container. No hands allowed. The person with the most pieces in their container receives a prize. Due to much laughter, giggling, silliness, chocolate-snatching and rule-flouting, it was impossible to decide a winner, so everyone ended up with a little prize {something I'm normally against}.

One thing that really struck me during this party was how funny girls are at this age. I was in hysterics listening to them. Such fun.

Next on the agenda was truffle-making. Be warned - this is messy! but so much fun. Just plonk your bowl of truffle mix into the centre of a workspace, provide teaspoons, plates and plenty of napkins, and let them at it. The girls rolled their truffles in cachous, dragees, coconut, sanding sugar cocoa and all manner of sweet decos. They did a wonderful job. Provide little truffle cases to lodge them in. Also be on standby with a wet sponge for chocolate smears on gorgeous clothing.

After the truffles, and while the kitchen bench was still a war zone, I handed the girls sheets of baking paper, and they used all mannner of goodies - lollies, chocolates, pretzels, dragees - to create edible chocolate artwork, all bound together with melted chocolate. They produced some beauties! I slid the artwork onto squares of card and allowed them to set, ready to take home.

Next was the very popular chocolate beauty spa. I provided the girls little jars with silver lids, and into these they squashed handmade and totally bespoke concoctions: chocolate coconut foot scrub and chocolate oatmeal honey facemask.

chocolate coconut foot scrub 
coconut milk
dessicated coconut
cocoa powder
Combine all ingredients to make a runny paste. Rub onto feet over a bathtub. Rinse and pat feet dry.

chocolate oatmeal honey facemask
oatmeal
honey
cocoa powder
cream
Combine all ingredients to make a spreadable paste. Apply to clean skin, avoiding eye-area. Allow to sit 15 minutes then rinse. Licking around mouth advised.

Both concoctions are edible and last 5 days in the fridge.

After the beauty products, the girls made lip balm by combining petroleum jelly with natural flavourings such as vanilla extract, cocoa powder, chai syrup, honey, and lemon, almond mango and peppermint food flavourings. I provided little craft containers with small sections and the girls mixed a few drops of each flavouring into each section. It takes some time to work the flavourings through, so only use a few drops at a time. The results were wonderful.

Suddenly, it was time for the cake. I created a bit of an experiment . . . using Donna Hay's divine chocolate brownie recipe, I baked two batches in a deep-sided round pan. After cooling, I cut both in half, horizontally, to make four layers.

For the ice cream, I simply blended raspberries with softened vanilla ice cream. Lining the original baking tin with gladwrap, I dropped a layer of brownie in, covered it with a third of the softened ice cream, then kept layering. The top ice cream and brownie layer sat above the cake tin, but I just froze it like this and then used a knife to trim around the top edges later.

When I removed the cake from the freezer, I iced the top with butter icing then tumbled raspberries on top. Being both frozen AND a brownie, the top was too hard to insert candles into. Despite some hefty stabbing with knives, we only managed to set one candle in, but it still looked pretty.

Thinking the cake would quickly soften, Ella tried to 'make her wish' but that knife was going nowhere. Donning her snow and ice gear, she tried again after a few minutes, but nope - still too rock hard.

I eventually got in there with a chainsaw and served up some slices - but the ice cream had started melting and the brownie was unyielding, so we ended up with a bit of a landslide . . .

But my golly, it tasted fine. Next time I would use regular chocolate cake, which would thaw really quickly, and of course, would be less dense.

It was really clear from this party that these little girls are no longer little girls. They nonetheless, laughed, giggled, played and had a blast together. This may be Ella's last 'kids' party' but it was so wonderful to see that childlike spirit in these gorgeous young women. Like the finest chocolate, watching my daughter turn twelve with a gaggle of friends was - well . . . bittersweet.