Great for kids party food

I love making these little banoffee pies, they are so quick and super easy to make plus they look pretty impressive. They are great for buffets, dinner parties and also a good idea for kids parties too. I love mini food, it looks cute and plus I think you can get away with eating loads more. That’s my excuse anyway. They are great to make with your little ones, why not give them a try and let me know what you think.

What you’ll need to make these little beauties:

• 1 x block of ready made shortcrust pastry.
• 1 x can of ready made caramel.
• 1 x ripe banana.
• 1 x tub of cream for whipping.
• 1 x bar of chocolate for grating (Size optional – I go for large, so you can eat the left overs)

All the ingredients you need, unless you are a real domestic goddess and make your own pastry and caramel!

The most essential piece of equipment you’ll need is the mini muffin tin. I got mine from a Pampered Chef party, but you can pick them up pretty cheap at Amazon (see below). Plus, you’ll need the dobber too.

How to make these mini banoffee pies…..

Cut a third off the block of pastry and just use the remaining two thirds. Cut up the block of pastry into little squares, ready for rolling.

I only use two thirds of the pastry otherwise the pasty is too thick in the case

Roll each square into a little ball and pop into the mini muffin tin.
Use the dobber to push into the tin and then prick the bottom with a fork.

Use the dobber to mold the pastry cases

Don't forget to prick with a fork

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200c (180C for fan assisted ovens), Gas Mark  6 for 12 mins, or longer until the cases are cooked.

Take them out of the oven and add the caramel.

Let them cool off and then add the sliced banana.

Use a nozzle and bag to add the whipped cream.

And then finish off with your grated chocolate and you can also stick a Cadburys Button in each one.

Eat 3, to taste test.
Then tell everyone you made the caramel and pastry from scratch. Smug face. Yes sir.

Enjoy

Thanks for reading……….AML x

Perfect Royal Jubilee Party Food

Stuffed Strawberries

I love a Royal party! I had never really seen myself as a Royalist until the Royal wedding last year of Wills and Kate. We had a big garden party with all our friends and it was great fun. We hung out the bunting, opened up the Pimms and everyone turned up with a dish for the table. Good memories. So now we have another planned for the Royal Diamond Jubilee in June 2012. Any excuse for a good old knees up! 

These little beauties are a great idea for party food, not only are they very patriotic for a royal party, they are ideal for busy mums on the run, as they are super quick to whip up, really tasty, relatively good for you because they are mostly fruit (urmm?) and they look pretty impressive too. Plus kids love them! It’s a win win solution for a quick and easy party dish.

The ingredients

The ones I’ve made are literally:

• Strawberries
• Whipped cream with icing sugar to make it a bit sweeter & a drop of vanilla essence
• Blueberries

But other ideas for fillings are:

• Cheesecake mixture – cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla essence
• Chocolate mousse
• Crème fraîche

And other ideas for toppings could be:

• Crumbled biscuit
• Chocolate – melted, crumbled or buttons
• Crumbled meringue

How to make stuffed strawberries

Cut off the tops and bottoms of the strawberries and hollow out the tops.

Use a mini muffin tin to help store the strawberries

Pipe in your choice of filling with a piping bag and nozzle, or you can just use a sandwich bag with the corner cut off. Then top with your chosen topping.

Also brilliant for dinner parties

If you’ve tried these, I’d love to hear your suggestions, recommendations or what you thought.

Some great little Jubilee party food ideas…

Thanks for reading….AML x