It's a Cooking Party!

A cooking party is the perfect way to celebrate the birthday of a young eager-to-learn child.

Not only does cooking with kids provide an invaluable hands-on activity to entertain them and their guests, it concludes with a meal for them all to enjoy.

Scroll down for baking recipes as well as no bake recipes for your kids to create at their cooking party.

chef hats Chef Apron Rolling Pin Lemonade Stand Kit

There are some important preparations to take care of before your cooking party to make sure things run smoothly:

Safety:

• Choose recipes that do not involve using sharp knives or cooking with heat. If you do need to use an oven, make sure an adult handles the oven work.
• Unplug and clear all unnecessary appliances from your workspace.

Tips for You:

• Let your child get involved in choosing a recipe they and their guests will enjoy, such as dips, pizzas or iced cupcakes.
• Make a list and do your grocery shopping well in advance.
• Lay out the ingredients and supplies before.
• Keep it fun and age-appropriate.
• Be prepared for a mess - don't worry about flying flour or spilled milk.
• Have all baking tools on hand.
• Let the kids help with everything that is safe, including measuring, pouring and stirring ingredients, and decorating.

Tips for Them:

• Make sure everyone washes their hands before they start cooking
• Tie any long hair back
• Wear protective clothing.

INVITATIONS:

There are some cute invitations you can buy for your cooking party, or try out our free cooking party invites below.

(When you open the files to download the top half will look upside down. Print them out and fold in half then half again. They will fold into a book-style invitation).

Invite 1	Invite 2

You will need Adobe Reader installed on your computer to open, read, and print this checklist. If you haven't already got Adobe, you can get it here for free (a new window will open so you can download without leaving this page).

COSTUMES:

I hate to state the obvious, but aprons and chef hats are the most appropriate 'costume' for a cooking party. There are some great colours available and you can even purchase some plain ones and have your guests colour on them to make them unique.

PARTY BAGS: Here comes the obvious again .... include their culinary masterpiece in their party bag, such as a gingerbread man with their name iced on it. Or their masterfully iced cupcake wrapped ever so delicately in cellophane paper and tied with ribbon. Include a recipe card in their party bag. Download our free, recipe cards, print them and fill out with the recipe used on the day.

FOOD:

Depending on the amount of guests you have invited and what you intend them to cook, a good idea is for the guests to put pizza toppings on a pre-prepared dough base. For dessert, bake some cupcakes and ice them.

Party Supplies in Australia	Party Supplies in the USA	Party Supplies in the UK

Pizza
Ingredients:
Your choice of toppings e.g.
Cheese
Ham
Mushrooms
Capsicum
Pineapple
Tomato paste

Dough Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups flour 1/2 tspn salt 2/3 cup milk 2 tblspns vegetable oil

Cover pizza base with tomato paste. Add cheese and various toppings. Bake at 375F for about 8-10 mins or until cheese has melted and dough is golden brown.

You can buy ready made pizza bases or if you really want to throw yourself into it, make your own.

To make your own dough: Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add the milk and oil and mix well until the dough is sticky. Sprinkle flour onto your worksurface to roll your dough out. Flatten out dough with a rolling pin.

Face Biscuits
Ingredients
1 pkt plain Marie Biscuits
Icing sugar
Boiling Water
Food colouring
Hundreds and Thousands or sprinkles
Sultanas
Glazed cherries

Directions: Place approximately 1 cup of icing sugar into bowl. Pour boilig water (a few drops at a time) until the icing becomes sticky. Add a few drops of food colouring. Spread icing onto the biscuit. Sprinkle some hundreds and thousands on the top for hair. Add sultanas or other sweets for eyes and noses. Add small pieces of snake jubes for mouths.

Cheese Biscuit Shapes
Ingredients:
1 cup plain flour
2 tbspns self-raising flour
1/2 tspn salt
1/4 tspn cayenne
125 butter
2 tbspns grated parmesan cheese
125 g cheddar cheese
1 tbspn lemon juice
Sultanas (eyes)
cCeeries (mouth)

Directions:
Mis dry ingredients into bowl and rub in butter and grated cheese. Mix until dough is soft and add a squirt of lemon juice. Place dough in greaseproof paper then aluminium foil. Refrigerate until firm. Roll out dough with rolling pin and cut shapes using various cookie cutters. Decorate with sultanas and cherries. Bake in a 180C oven for 15 minutes or until ight and golden brown. Cool on trays.

Sweet Biscuit Shapes

Ingredients: 185 gm self raising flour 125 gm plain flour 1 tspn ground ginger 1 tspn cinnamon 1/4 tspn ground cloves 125 gm castor sugar 90 gm butter or margarine 1 egg 2 tbspns golden syrup 2 tbspns treacle

Directions: Sift flours and spices into a bowl and add sugar. Rub butter into flour using fingers until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a hole in the centre of flour and add egg, golden syrup and treacle. Mix well. Press together with hands until it is a firm dough. Roll out to 5 mm (1/2 inch) and cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Place on greased tray cook at 180C or 350F for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool before decorating with icing.

Vegie Dip
Ingredients:
Cream Cheese
Salad Dressing
Celery
Broccoli
Carrots

Mix (to taste required) salad dressing with cream cheese and place in a small bowl. Arrange cut pieces of washed broccoli, carrots and celery around the bowl of dip. (The vegies are for dunking into the dip).

Egg People
Ingredients:
Hard boiled eggs
Tomato sauce
Alfalfa sprouts

Directions: This is a quick and easy recipe for kids to make - and no ovens. Pre-boil the eggs. After kids have peeled the shells from the eggs, carefully (an adult) cut them in half lengthwise. The children can then decorate faces on the eggs by dobbing tomato sauce for eyes, nose and a mouth.
Then strategically place alfalfa sprouts for hair....told you it was easy!

Open Face Sandwich
Ingredients:
1 slice of bread per child
Butter or mayonaise
Variety of vegetables and other food for face e.g. sliced boiled egg, grated and sliced carrot and cheese, cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, mushrooms, capsicum, lettuce, celery, alfalfa or other sprouts.

Directions: Get the children to grate the cheese, carrot and chop the vegies. Each child then spreads butter or mayonaise onto their slice of bread and makes a face using vegetables.

Example: grated cheese for hair, sliced boiled egg for eyes; carrot for a nose; cucumber for ears; sprouts for eyelashes or eyebrows.

Fruit Sticks
Ingredients:
Bananas
Apples
Grapes
Oranges
Strawberries
Yogurt
Shredded Coconut
Wooden Kebab sticks (or skewers)

Directions: It's good idea to have the fruit cut beforehand. Have children thread the various pieces of fruit onto a kebab stick or wooden skewer. Roll the fruit sticks in a dish of yogurt then sprinkle with shredded coconut.

Visit our Party Recipes page for lots of easy party recipes.

For more kids cooking party ideas, visit this great kids cooking activities site.

And last but not least, how about some chocolate covered strawberries? These were made by my two boys, Ned & Digby, who must take credit for many of the recipes on this page....

Party Supplies in Australia	Party Supplies in the USA	Party Supplies in the UK

Return from Kids Cooking Party to Theme Parties

Return to Top of Page