To ask your best British themed buffet food ?

[rudolphrainbownose]

My boyfriend will have lived in the UK for 5 years on Saturday, ( he's originally from Latvia). We have a couple of friends coming round on Saturday evening, and so I thought a fun way to celebrate his having five years in the UK would be to do a buffet themed around traditional / old school British/ English nibbles. So looking for some inspiration.
Idea's I had so far, ( obviously won't be including everything), were:
Scones
Jelly/ ice cream
Blamange
Cheese and pineapple sticks/ hedgehogs
Party rings
Fairy cakes with union jack flags on them....

Any other ideas welcome :)

Pork pies
Cheddar cheese cubes
Cocktail sausages
Iceberg lettuce
Salad cream
French stick (baguette) cut into flat rounds and buttered
Branston pickle, pickled onions
Sausage rolls
Cornish pasties
Bacon or sausage sandwiches

Cheese and pickled onion hedgehog

Sandwiches, sausage rolls, cocktail sausages… anything beige!

Scotch eggs

As a Brit living abroad, 100% sausage rolls.

Sausage rolls and devilled eggs.

scones are amazing but wouldn’t do them as a part of a ‘birthday tea’…

Sausage rolls
Rice krispie cake
Cadbury choc fingers
After eights
Finger sandwiches- ham,cheese,egg mayo,jam
Quiche
Scotch eggs
Mini yorshires with beef and horseradish or mini sausage

Mini eclairs and cheesecakes
Prawn cocktail
Fairy cakes or Victoria sponge.
Proper birthday cake with sponge,jam,buttercream and fondant

Roast beef and horseradish sandwiches.
Sara Lee cakes.
Blackforest gateau.
Arctic Roll.
Cocktail sausages.
Cheese board with English cheeses.
Trifle.

Home made cheese sticks

Vol-au-vents with a variety of fillings.
Primula on Ritz crackers.

M&S do a fab mega sized sharing sausage roll. It’s gorgeous.

Sardines
fruit cake
lashings of ginger beer

Prawn vaul au vants, technically french I think but we always had these on a special buffet and were one of my favourites.
Party rings.
Twiglets.

All the above, but maybe slip some piragis on the table- amazing Latvian buns filled with bacon - as a treat for the bf, they are delicious 😋

Egg mayonnaise sandwiches or bridge rolls
Boiled ham & pickle sandwiches
Prawn cocktail with shredded iceberg lettuce
Smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches on Hovis
Cheese and pickled beetroot sandwiches
Sticks of celery filled with Primula cheese, cut into bite size pieces
Devilled eggs
Chicken & mushroom vol au vents
Chicken drumsticks.

Sherry trifle
Apple pie
Chocolate cake

Vol-au-vents ! Leftover cooked chicken mixed with cambells condensed soup was an old favourite.
Cheese and pineapple on sticks
egg sandwiches.
sausages on sticks.

Thanks for starting this thread.
I will be doing exactly the same on Xmas eve. We are currently visiting (ex-pat) relatives who live abroad and want to do a British themed buffet.
So far we have - sausage rolls, pork pie etc. pickled onions, Walkers crisps, cheese and pineapple hedgehog, trifle (with jelly), party rings, jaffa cakes, and marmite/puff pastry whirls.
I will be watching this thread with great interest to pick up more ideas.

Prawn cocktail vol-au-vents
Cheese and pineapple hedgehog
Cocktail sausage rolls
Cheese and onion quiche
Wotsits
Skips
Jelly
Blancmange
Trifle

Mini Yorkshires with beef
Pigs in blankets

Coronation chicken

I'd leave out the kids party food, such as jelly/ice-cream and go with trifle, eclairs, cheesecake etc. Mary Berry does traditional English foods, you could look up some of her stuff. Pick a decade, because they varied. Sandwiches, vol au vonts, anything in pastry traveled through the decades, including Quiche. There's lots of miniature party versions around.

Half these things aren't even british! E.g. Vol au vents, quiche, baguettes, eclairs, pirogis, black forest gateau. I would do less of the kids party food (jelly, blancmange) and more savoury. Definitely sausage rolls, pork pies, sausages, maybe pasties. Sandwiches? Scotch eggs? Traditional cakes such as Victoria sponge, and if you want to do a 'wet' dessert then a trifle is lovely, or something traditional like a summer pudding or an apple pie.

Vol au vents have been a buffet staple for 70 years, so how far back are you going?