Post-party

This morning, once the kids were at school, I was planning to do nothing. Maybe take a nap. Maybe just read an actual book. (Probably one I've read many times before, so it wouldn't be too challenging.) Have a cup of coffee in peace. That sort of thing. There's play-doh smushed into the carpet, new toys that have yet to be assigned homes strewn about, serving dishes waiting to be washed, thank-you cards to start on, and I'm sure the laundry is piling up again, but I was going to ignore all that.

Then I took Mabel to school and somebody asked me if I'd mind awfully switching my co-op day with them, because they had meetings all day at work and hadn't realised that today they were supposed to be helping at school. I suppose I could have said that my mother-in-law is coming on Friday and I have a house to clean and a shopping list as long as your arm, but while those things are true it wasn't exactly an accurate representation of my plans for the morning, so I suckered up and stayed.

The party went well, thank you. The children played, the adults drank wine and beer, everyone ate and said nice things about the food. We spirited most of the presents upstairs before Mabel could demand to open them right away, and there were hardly any fights over dolls or lego trains. After the cake we opened the back door and let them loose to frolic in the large pile of leaves our back garden so kindly provides at this time of year. As the light dimmed, I looked vaguely out the window and thought I should take a photo, but I didn't get round to it.

 

Mabel had a new dress. She took off her new shoes before the guests arrived, and put them back on the wrong feet, and wore them that way for the rest of the evening. Whatever. It's her party, she can do what she wants to.

This is my favourite cake for birthdays. Probably because Nigella calls it "Birthday Sponge," and I have no imagination. You have to track down Bird's Custard Powder for it, which might be more or less difficult depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on, but it's totally worth it.

I decided that we needed butterfly buns. They're a staple of Irish birthday parties, but they were new to my neighbours. Take an undecorated cupcake, slice the top off and split it in half. Dollop cream (or buttercream) on the flat top, and stick the two pieces back in at an angle, to make the wings. Decorate with strawberry quarters, or candy, or whatever you like.

This was the finished spread, just before it was dismantled. We have pigs in blankets (mini-sausages wrapped in Pillsbury crescent roll dough), peanut-butter-and-jelly fingers, butterfly buns, pita chips, chocolate cornflake buns (melted Mars Bar [Milky Way in the US] mixed with cornflakes - another classic with a twist from Nigella), lemon ricotta muffins, grapes, and - last-minute gotta-hava-vegetable: baby carrots. Also present: hummus, salsa, ranch dip, M&Ms, mini marshmallows.

A lot of the mini muffins were left over, but that's okay - they freeze well. I think I made too many yellow things, but I was trying hard to steer away from the chocolate end of the spectrum.

Onward and upward. Tomorrow I have to start thinking about guests, Thanksgiving, and even Christmas. Or maybe I'll just read a book.