I recently hosted a combined birthday party for my two daughters, for their 10th and 3rd birthdays. I thought a cooking themed party might be fun since my girls both enjoy helping out in the kitchen, measuring and mixing. Read on to see how you can put together your own cooking party for kids.
Cooking Party for Kids – Decorations
I went with a colour scheme of red, pink and white. First I hung paper fans of various sizes on the wall behind the dessert table. I didn’t like the look of the only pink ones I had been able to buy. Instead I switched them out and blu-tacked pink plastic plates to the wall! I have a variety of cooking utensils – mixing spoons, spatulas and whisks – in timber, white and red colours. These I displayed in a couple of white ceramic jugs. My red and white table runner (originally made for the pirate party) worked well again on the dessert table. I used a mix of red and pink plastic plates and serviettes to carry through the colour theme.
Cooking Party for Kids – Activities
Once all of the guests had arrived and snacked on cheese and fruit platters, we had everyone help themselves to a simple lunch of chicken, salad and rolls. I also had water bottles available for the children with the label “Just Add Water”.
Hunger abated, we then moved to the main activity of the day – cooking! By combining my own collection and borrowing from my sister and a friend, we were able to gather enough aprons for each of the kids and we began with a group photo of our budding chefs. We made sure everyone washed hands – no one needs a side order of food poisoning with their birthday cake! Then we got started with the first of our our three recipes – pizzas. Fortunately the weather was kind and we were able to set up our makeshift kitchen on our deck using our large outdoor table and a trestle table.
Recipe 1 – Pizzas
My husband (our resident pizza aficionado) had made several batches of pizza dough the night before the party. It helped that we could do this in our bread maker machine. We had divided the dough into individual portions for each party guest and stored them in the fridge overnight. By the time of the party the dough balls had expanded crazily, bursting out of their cling wrap coverings. However, with a bit of extra flour kneaded in they were good to go.
Each child was given a plastic plate and a sheet of baking paper to work on as they rolled out their dough. We wrote their names in pencil in a corner of the paper to make sure everyone got the right pizza once cooked. Pizza sauce and various toppings – ham, mushrooms, tomatoes, capsicum, grated cheese, olives – were on offer. We laid all of them out in dishes down the centre of our work bench in easy reach. The kids chose whatever toppings they liked. We cooked the pizzas on either my own cookie slides or disposable aluminium cooking trays I had bought inexpensively at a discount store. Most of the kids chose to eat their pizzas hot out of the oven. We sent any leftovers home with them as an easy dinner.
Recipe 2 – Pretzels
While the pizzas were cooking we worked on our second recipe – pretzels. Again I had made the dough the night before and wrapped portions individually. The kids were free to roll out the dough and shape it as they wished, making letters of their names, snails, twists etc. We finished the pretzels with a spray of oil and a sprinkling of salt. Once baked and cooled, we placed the pretzels into individual cellophane bags. I had earlier labelled the bags with each child’s name. We popped the pretzels into their take home party favour bags to be enjoyed later.
Recipe 3 – Cupcake Decorating
Our final recipe for the afternoon was cupcake decorating. My mum had whipped up a batch of her delicious cupcakes and left them un-iced. We put out jars of frosting. We also had coloured fondant with cookie cutters and various sprinkles and toppings to let them create their own masterpieces. I realised after the party that sadly I didn’t get any photos of either the pretzels or the cupcake creations.
Dessert Table
After our busy afternoon of cooking, we moved inside to the dessert table to sing Happy Birthday, cut the cake and enjoy some sweet treats.
The cake this time was simple to prepare but looked really cute. I made a circular vanilla cake and covered it in vanilla frosting, then decorated with toy kitchen accessories and utensils. There was plenty to choose from as my girls love their Sylvanian Families sets! The final step was to pose paper doll cut-outs of the birthday girls wearing miniature chef hats in their ‘cake kitchen’!
The other foods included a mix of chocolates and lollies in various shades of pink, red and white. We also served strawberry flavoured milk, tic toc biscuit tea cups and chef hat cups of popcorn.
Cooking Party for Kids – Party Favours
Once the presents had been unwrapped and the last slice of cake eaten it was time to farewell our guests. I had made party favours by attaching labels which read “Thanks for cooking up a storm with us” to plain white paper bags. Each bag held a tea towel, a utensil (either a mixing spoon, tongs or spatula), a cookie cutter and the bags of pretzels. I was able to pick up all the items inexpensively at discount stores.
I am happy to say that a fun afternoon was had by all and my two birthday girls loved their cooking party! If you are keen to throw your own cooking themed party, then be sure to have a look at our printables pack. Before you know it, your birthday child will be cooking up a storm with their friends!