Would you (like my MIL) feel "cheated" if you didn't have an Iceland-type cake spread after a buffet?

[Moomin]

For my 40th in a few weeks time , for the food we are doing crisps, nuts, crudities and dips on every table, then french bread bagettes with posh fillings mid-evening.

For pud I'm borrowing a choc fondue and doing stuff to dip in on the main table (marshmallows, fruit, etc) and then I thought it would be good to have bowl of sweeties and chocs on every table. MIL is 'panicking' that people will expect an array of gateaux as far as the eye can see. I think it would be unncessary and naff.

I don't see wtf it has got to do with your MIL

it is your party and your food, yes?

Buffets are all completely different and I don't expect anything from them. I just wait and see what's around.

It's completely up to you. Your do. Your food choices.

Happy birthday. Have a good one.

what do you mean by main table?

you mean people have to stand up/ queue around it?

I have to admit I would like something to sit down with otherwise you might not get any pudding for fear of looking like a piglet hanging round the trough

but I do agree that the gateaux thing is dated

Nothing at all to do with your MIL - and not her place to "panic" either.

I think what you have planned sounds rather nice.

Yes, but she is coming and will be helping. For dh's 40th we did the bagettes idea and she made such comments as 'Bagettes are a nice idea for the men; although I think the women like traditional buffets more' ... so will tell her that the men are being provided with Yorkie bars and the women can nibble on strawberries or something.

LOL, yes I will be doing exactly as I please for the food anyway, just wanted to vent about MIL and her mental ideas about food.

oh god I would not want strawberries

I would want a Yorkie

if I came to your party I would have to borrow a fake moustache

Oh let her panic. At her next party make sure she is aware you are panicing that no one will come as they think the party is being held 20 years before they were born.

Your party, your cash, your choice.

and no, I agree about the 'troughs' at traditional buffets. There will be a round table at the back with the choc fountain (which is what I meant instead of fondue) on but I'm hoping everyone will just mill about (or lie under the fountain with their mouths open)

as long as there is enough alcohol no one will care, least of all you

MIL's idea of a casual buffet involves about 20 pasting tables groaning under the weight of prawn rings, a tonne of ham sandwiches and bowls of pringles. oh and not forgetting the exotic cheese board displaying a yellow block of rubber cheese, an orange block or rubber cheese and a wedge of edam.

But is there a hedgehog made out of cheese and pineapple on sticks?

what about the quiche?

and the mushroom vol au vents?

does no-one know how to cater anymore?

maybe let her do the prawn ring etc thing?
my MIL is the same
she has a small extended family and on discovering we weren't coming for xmas went on and on about how she would have to put the prawn ring in the freezer
ffs what has a prawn ring got to do with xmas?!!

pmsl at the hedgehog.

(... but yes. bless her)

What sort of thing do you put in the baguettes? And is it a no plate affair? Just curious. I like a piece of cake myself but a chocolate bar would be fine too.

Though to be honest, I have a sneaking fondness for 70s style buffets. Surely they're due a revival.

posie my mum once went looking for sausage rolls in Asda and was told they only got them in for Xmas

obv they are vital part of Christmas lunch

The prawn ring and hedgehog has passed me by though.

Malory you were meant to have jelly, which they would spill all over the floor, and you would slip on

don't you know anything?

I wouldn't feel "cheated" at any event where someone else was doing the catering! Yours sounds very nice.
People always eat less than you expect anyway (or maybe I just over-cater...)
I really love cheese and pineapple on sticks though