Kid’s party food in mid 1990s onwards - what have a missed!

[Cloudtraffic]

So we are looking to do a typical late 1990s/early 2000s “kids party buffet” to celebrate adult DC’s birthdays (think 24 years+)

This is their ask not me being weird!

Obviously we did shopping and catering then but blowed if I can remember beyond obvious what was in the menu - so what have I missed (obviously generic here!)?

Colin the Caterpillar cake (Obvs)
Sandwiches - egg, ham, chicken, cheese
Pineapple on sticks (why?)
Sausage rolls
Salad (to look good)
Crisps/tortillas
Hummus, dips and olives (exotic at time!)
Crisps - no idea what they had (pombears?)

Any other nostalgic suggestions?

[Cao77]

Vol-au-vents, egg mayo, prawn mayo or chicken and mushroom 😉

[Daisychainsandglitter]

I was born in 84 so definitely a 90s child.
Jelly in a mould
Cheese and pineapple sticks
Wagon wheels
Chipsticks/Skips/Wotsits
Rainbow drops
Cornfkake/rice crispy cakes
Iced gems
Ham/cheese/egg mayo sandwiches
Cheese and pineapple sticks.
Enjoying this thread

[Gossipgirl2]

Panda pops, chocolate fingers and jam tarts.

[SerenityNowwwww]

How could I forget- Rice Krispie and chocolate cornflake cakes. And fairy cakes (pre muffin days)

[mynameisnotmichaelcaine]

Parent since early 2000s. Cornflake cakes and onion ring crisps always featured at my kids' parties. Have a big age gap between my kids - if I'm honest I'm still serving up the same sorts of things now as I did years ago 😂

[SerenityNowwwww]

Mum once went mad and had a birthday cake baked with a bloody ring in it when I was about 7. I almost lost a tooth. I was wailing - but why would you bake a hard ring inside a cake????? I still don’t know why you’d put a ring in a bloody cake.

[Whenwillow]

I think no child's party is complete without jelly and ice cream. We were not posh enough for Colin the caterpillar cakes, but did make a pirate cake one year

[SerenityNowwwww]

chipolata sausages
It was pineapple and cheese on sticks (or teensy plastic swords)
Home made biscuits with those rock hard silver ball decorations
Bags of crisps
Orange squash
Matchsticks

[TSSDNCOP]

You need cherry tomatoes, carrot and cucumber batons to look good.

[Sophoa]

2001 here:
Colin caterpillar
Cream cheese chocolate spread and tuna sandwiches
Bag of crisps on each plate either s&v or ready salted
Carton of apple juice
Squeezy yogurt
Bowls of tomato / carrot and cucumber
Plates of Cadbury’s fun size chocolates handed out after the rest

Occasionally a slice of dominos pizza and a fruit shoot

[labazsisgoingmad]

those cheap pizzas cold and cut in 4
multi jelly different flavours melted one at a time then layered rainbow jelly
chip sticks
quiche lorraine
chocolate fingers

[PinkPosyPetals]

Cheese strings. I once paid £28 alone for cheese strings for a party, and still haven’t forgotten about it....

I completely overcatered, it cost a fortune

But then my daughter once went to a party with No sandwiches, some cucumber and carrot sticks, nasty cup cakes with no icing ( the cheapest) and marshmallows with a smarty stuck 9n them.

For a class of 30.
All the kids complained, and all the mums had to shush them up.

Wealthy, but very mean parents were hosting.

[BabyLlamaZen]

All of this and don't forget the wagon wheels!

[Poppyismyfavourite]

Monster munch??

My mum used to make jelly oranges - orange peel with jelly set in it, then cut into segments!

[DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon]

Also everyone always talks about colin but in my circle colin was a rare treat.

Normally it would be plain sponge with jam and icing in the middle and fondant icing on the top in either a barbie or superman theme

[PumpkinsMum18]

We always had party food in these car shaped food trays. Best thing ever! It was what I got excited about when we had birthday parties 😁

partypieces.co.uk/products/sports-car-party-food-trays

[ClashCityRocker]

Can you still get sunny D?

I thought it had been banned due to it's delightfully ott e-numbers and other additives?

Or maybe my mum just told me it had been.

You can probably recreate by mixing tropicana with sugar and amphetamines though...

I had a caterpillar cake for my ninth birthday, which would have been 1996. It wouldn't have been a Colin though.

Other food I remember:
Jam tarts
Rice crispy cake
Sandwiches in white bread with simple toppings
Party rings
Cheese football crisps
Cherryade, limeade and raspberryade - basically anything that glowed in the dark.
Cheese savouries
Mini scotch eggs
Cheap cold sliced pizza
Cheese savouries
Those iced buns from kits which had rice paper characters on the top.
Chocolate fngers

[lastqueenofscotland]

Party rings
Cold cheap as shit cheese and tomato pizza
Ribena

[DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon]

Also yes oftem twiglets which no one but we ate 😋

[MissPoldark]

Maybe easier to say what wouldn’t have been in a Buffett in the 90s.
I don’t remember having hummus then. Certainly not 10 different varieties.

[DishRanAwayWithTheSpoon]

Im a similar age to your DC and we wouldnt have had most of the food on this thread

Pickle on a stick? I think we were almost past cheese and pinepple tbh. Um bongo was never seen!

We had:
Those cartons which are plastic square you put a straw in the top of, in bubblegum or red flavour, to me this is the key party food.
Maybe a cheap coke or lemonade, or q jug of squash as well

Party rings
Chocolate fingers
Fairy cakes with a circle of pink or yellow icing on top

Chipsticks -always chipstix
cheese balls or wotsits
Normal crisps
Cheese footballs - those weird wafery crisps with cheese in the middle

Sausage rolls/cocktail sausages
Sandwichs - ham, cheese and egg, maybe tuna if the parents were fancy

Maybe some crudités, but no hummus. Maybe also some cheese in some form so keep your cheese and pineapple sticks

[Squaffle]

I’m not coming unless there’s Twiglets

[midnightstar66]

Maybe now it wound be nostalgic but in the 90's it was still standard part fare, at least at the ones I went to. I grew up in rural Scotland though so perhaps we were less sophisticated

[roadsurvey]

Yeah I think I misunderstood what OP was asking for. Party food is party food and it does span the decades.

[BunnyBerries]

@roadsurvey
No it's not a 90s book, but the parents brought up on it as children made the party food in the nineties for their children (rather than their children actually using it!)