Magic Cookie Wands

What you’ll need :

Biscuit Mixture 
185gm butter 
1 cup castor sugar 
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla essence
2 ½ cups plain flour
1 egg and 1 egg yolk extra

Icing
1 ½ cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons water

What to do :
Preheat oven to 180ْC.  Mix butter, sugar and vanilla together with electric beaters until smooth, then add flour, egg and egg yolk until mixture makes a dough.  Knead dough slightly and place in the fridge in plastic wrap for approximately ½ hour.

When dough is cooled, remove from fridge, roll out flat and cut into star shapes (approximately 5mm thick).  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  As soon as biscuits are cooked, push a wooden skewer through the middle of two star points to create the wand, then placing on cooling tray to cool completely.  Wands can also be decorated with ribbon. 

To make the icing, mix icing sugar with water and a few drops of your desired food colouring.  Once biscuits are completely cooled, decorate with icing mixture as desired. 

Other decorations can be sprinkled on top to further decorate the wands;
• 100’s and 1000’s
• cachous’
• jelly crystals
• shredded coconut – coloured slightly darker shade than icing to create a contrast
• miniature heart sugar cubes – available in specialty gift stores and kitchen ware shops
• smarties or M and M’s
• crumbed chocolate flake bars
• mini marshmallows

Remember, the more creative, the better!

Octopus bites

What you’ll need :
Cheerios

What to do :
Take a cheerio and cut almost in half (approximately ¾ of the way through), turn on side and repeat.  Place in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, the octopus legs will curl!  Serve with tomato sauce.

Marshmallow cereal bars

What you’ll need :
50gm butter
300gm marshmallows
175gm cereal, hoops, rice bubbles or cornflakes

What to do :
Slowly melt butter in a large saucepan, add marshmallows, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in the cereal.  Tip into a lightly oiled baking tin and gently press down.  Leave to cool then cut into fingers and serve.

Kebabs for Kids

What you’ll need :
Assorted seasonal fruits such as -
Apples
Banana
Watermelon
Rock melon
Pears
Pineapple
Grapes
Mandarins
Strawberries
Kebab skewers or wooden chopsticks

What to do :
Cut all fruit into 2cm cubes and place on skewers.  Fruit kebabs can be served as is or with a chocolate dipping sauce or natural yoghurt.  Both yummy and healthy!

This can also be used as a party activity.  Chop all fruits and place into separate dishes for each type of fruit.  Cut pointed end off the skewers (for safety) and put in a pile.  Get the children to assemble their own fruit kebabs – encouraging them to come up with different designs.

You could also buy an assortment of sweets (marshmallows, jellybeans, soft jubes or other lollies of a similar pliable consistency) and the party guests can assemble these in conjunction with the fruit or separately.

Fish Bowl or Frog Swamp

What you’ll need :
4 packets of blue or green jelly
Water
Lolly fish – shark lollies are usually available at Coles
Glass bowl

What to do :
Make jelly according to instructions on packet, pour into the bowl and place in refrigerator until almost set (approximately 1-2 hours).  When jelly is almost set, place fish lollies in the jelly to give the illusion they are swimming in the bowl.  Gummy worms also look great as bait.  For a Shrek themed party, why not use green jelly, with frogs and all sorts of other creatures to create Shrek’s swamp!

Mini Pizzas

This one is great as it doubles as a fun party activity!
What you’ll need :
English muffins (1 for every 2 guests)
Mixture of pizza toppings (pepperoni, capsicum, olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, pineapple, ham, onions to name a few!)
Pizza sauce (tomato, barbecue, etc…)
Shredded cheese

What to do :
Cut muffins in half and top with pizza sauce and shredded cheese.  Place various toppings in bowls in the middle of the table and let each child decorate their own pizza.  You’ll be amazed at what they come up with.  When they’re finished, place on a baking tray and put in the oven until brown.

Play Dough

Obviously not one to eat, but great fun to play with!
What you’ll need :
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 cups water
food dye

What to do :
Mix together all ingredients, cook on stove top until you cannot stir any further.  Tip out on bench and knead. Voila! 

You could pre-make the play dough in several batches, using different food dyes to create a variety of colours.  Use the play dough as a party activity and get each child to cut out play dough shapes from cookies cutters.  Each child could take home their play dough and cookie cutter as part of their loot bag gift.  You can theme the cookie cutters to match the theme of the party, e.g. train cookie cutter for a Thomas the Tank Engine themed party.