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?

[NC4Now]

My kids were born 2002 and 2006. At their toddler parties I used to do jam sandwiches, cut out into heart shapes with a biscuit cutter and arranged nicely on a paper plate.

Pork pies cut in half
Party rings
Little sausages (no sticks cos pointy)
Cold pizza slices

[PenguindreamsofDraco]

For adult kids, could you make the jelly vodka jelly? We did that for a leap year friend and it was ace

[Cloudtraffic]

Thanks all! Some blasts from the past there - shopping list coming along nicely

[BunnyBerries]

This is what you need! "We Can Cook"

Need to know how to make cheese straws, how to cut a fancy tomato, make a fancy devilled egg, cheese stick hedgehogs, cornflake nests or add cherries to everything? Lynne Peebles has made the perfect book for you!

[roadsurvey]

So many of these suggestions are typical seventies / eighties fare.

This ^

The cocktail stick things date back to the 60's!

[PineappleUpsideDownCake]

These are nearly all things people still have for kids birthdays arent they? (Apart from the pineapple sticks?)

[roadsurvey]

@BunnyBerries

That's not a 90's book

[EnglishRain]

Sunny d
Lemonade
Wotsits
Quavers
Walkers French fries
Cadbury mini rolls
Cheese on sticks
Cocktail sausages
Jam sandwiches

Basically pure sugar and carbs. I was born in 1992

[midnightstar66]

So many of these suggestions are typical seventies / eighties fare.

This ^

The cocktail stick things date back to the 60's!

The cocktail stick thing was definitely still hanging about in the 90's. I've even seen them on the odd occasion in the last few years

[VashtaNerada]

Yes but in the nineties it was a nostalgic tongue-in-cheek thing harking back to parents’ own childhood parties, it’s not a nineties thing.

[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. Maybe they weren't as classy as yours

[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!)

[roadsurvey]

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

[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

[Squaffle]

I’m not coming unless there’s Twiglets

[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

[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]

Also yes oftem twiglets which no one but we ate 😋

[lastqueenofscotland]

Party rings
Cold cheap as shit cheese and tomato pizza
Ribena

[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

[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

[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

[Poppyismyfavourite]

Monster munch??

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

[BabyLlamaZen]

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

[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.