Birthday Party Food
Ideas for Birthday Party Food
When planning a birthday party, the birthday party food is often one of the primary concerns. Below are some tips for featuring birthday party food that all in attendance will enjoy.
To Cater or Not to Cater
The decision about whether to cater or prepare the food yourself has a lot to do with the party budget. If you can afford to have the event catered, doing so can take a huge burden off of the party planners. Even if you work hard to prepare the food ahead of time, there is a good chance that you will be stuck in the kitchen for at least part of the party.
If you have the food catered, you will be free to mingle with the guests and concentrate on other party details.
Birthday Person’s Favorites
When planning the menu for the birthday party food, be sure to include some of the honorees favorites. This goes for all of the food that is served from appetizers to the cake. Knowing that you kept their likes and dislikes in mind when planning the birthday party food will mean a lot to them.
Special Needs Guests
It seems like every party includes someone with special diet needs. Gluten free, vegetarian, no salt, low salt, sugar free…and the list goes on. While many of the needs are for legitimate medical or religious reasons, others are not. It is just not possible to cater to the dietary requests of every guest.
If you know of someone with a real medical need, you could arrange to have at least something that they can eat. Do not, however, go out of your way trying to please every guest. Also, do not spend your evening apologizing to vegetarians or those who only eat whole grain products. You invited them to a party. They should be gracious enough to understand you cannot cater to their every whim.
Pot Lucks
If you are on a very tight budget, consider trying to cut some of the cost of the birthday party food by having some form of potluck party with a twist. For example, ask everyone to bring their favorite childhood dish, or the dish that they know the birthday person would enjoy. Then make a game of it. Have guests vote on which dish they liked best and give a small prize to the winner.
Keep it Simple
Another idea for those on a tight budget is to just keep the birthday party food very simple. Have cake, punch and perhaps a plate or two of appetizers. You do not need to serve a four course meal at a birthday party.
Prepare Ahead
If you do choose to make the food yourself, choose foods that are easy to prepare ahead of time. On the day of the party, there will be lots of little details to attend to, so you do not want to be stuck in the kitchen all day.
Warehouse stores, such as Costco and BJ’s sell many readily prepared cold cut and veggie trays that are reasonably priced and make perfect birthday party food. They also sell frozen appetizers that are delicious, look great and only need to be heated up a few minutes before the party.
Birthday party food does not have to be complicated or expensive. Remember, at a birthday party it’s not really about the food. It’s all about the cake!