Cooking Up a Party: Around the World Birthday

The Kid turned four years old this year and since we spent so much of our summer in Australia, we decided a party themed around world travel would be the perfect way to share our adventure with his friends. We hosted the party at the local children's museum and it couldn't have been easier.

A children's tea menu based on our experience at the Sir Stamford in Sydney was served. And since one of our little guests is allergic to both dairy and eggs (in addition to nuts, just like the Kid), we served vegan variations on the theme in addition to traditional Australian scones and tea sandwiches. I'll be posting my recipe for Vegan Australian-style scones next week - they are dead simple to make and if you're like me and leaning more and more towards a vegan lifestyle, you'll want to have these in your back pocket for a simple treat for entertaining on the fly.

We served cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches (using vegan cream cheese in one and traditional whipped cream cheese in the other), along with mustard butter and cheddar, and vegan butter and jelly sandwiches. And in addition to sandwiches and scones, we served veggie sticks and a fruit salad. I found these clever divided plates online - they are biodegradable and reminded me of airline food service trays. We chose bamboo flatware and cloth napkins as well to keep it green. 

Oh - and I musn't forget - these amazing, adorable, inspired cake pops by the truly fantastic kathyphantastic. One of the many reasons I love having a blog is getting to know people like Kathy - talented, amazing people who love what they do and do it well. I asked her to make these globe and airplane cake pops to go with our theme and boy, did she deliver!

Then there's my culinary contribution to the party - the cake. I have told the Dad so many times that cake decorating has to be one of the most humbling experiences of my life. The professionals make it seem all so easy but trust me folks, it's not. This is probably the best cake I've made so far and it was far from perfect. But the Kid loved it so I'm pretty pleased with myself.

At the end of the party, each of our little travelers got to take home their own little suitcase full of party favors. Inside, we included an inflatable globe, a passport book of stickers, some crayons for coloring the paper airplane coloring sheets I found at Oriental Trading, and a mix CD featuring some of our favorite traveling songs.

And the best part of the party for me had to be sharing one of our favorite museums with our friends. The kids got to play, learn, and eat cake all in one morning!