Valentine's Day Child's Tea Party

Valentine's Day Child's Tea Party

In 2 weeks I'll be hosting my first tea party - for 6 little girls. It was Danielle's idea. It's the first "girly" thing she's ever wanted to do and I am secretly thrilled. I truly want her to be an independent, confident, physically active child. As a result I've made sure that she plays with boys as well as girls, that she can fish, climb trees and build a bird house. I've tried to create a balance with baking and art, but we are not girly girls in this house.

As an impromptu party I really want to keep the plan simple and the budget low. I'm going to have the girls play dress up with Danielle's trunk of dress up clothes (possibly removing the miner's helmet, firefighter uniform and chicken suit first). I found 2 Easter bonnets at Dollar Tree and added some flowers and feathers that we had on hand. If I had found 6 hats I would have used them as a party craft for the girls. I ran past Goodwill and found 3 more hats and several fluffy scarves. I washed the scarves and stuck the hats in a hot dryer for 1/2 an hour to clean them. Total cost for activities $14.

If dress up doesn't occupy enough time I'll have the girls play traditional kids party games: duck, duck goose, musical chairs and clothes pin drop. Maybe we'll sing "I'm A Little Teapot"...

We'll decorate with things we have on hand - pink and white crepe paper streamers, some paper lanterns and table cloths from Dollar Tree and home made heart doilies (instructions below.) I'm looking forward to decorating the table. My china is a modern black and white pattern, but I think I can make it work with enough pink and red paper in the mix.

The Menu (my favorite part!)

• Tea for grown ups and brave little girls & Punch for the less adventurous
• Tiny PB&J Sandwiches, edges dusted with pink sugar
• Fairy Bread (Graham crackers with strawberry cream cheese and sprinkles)
• Chicken Salad with red curry paste sprinkled with almonds on Carr's water crackers
• Mini Egg Free Chocolate Cupcakes
• Egg Free Shortbread cookies with jam

Egg Free Shortbread Thumbprint Cookie recipe
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sifted plus 3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Strawberry, raspberry or cherry jam

Beat the butter on medium-low speed until smooth, add sugar and vanilla. Sift together flour and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture on low. Transfer dough onto a piece of plastic. Pat into 8-inch disk. Wrap with plastic; chill 1 hour.
Heat oven to 275 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick; cut into 1-to-2 1/2-inch rounds. Reroll until all dough is used. Press each round with your thumb and add a tiny dollop of jam. Chill 15 minutes before baking. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until firm but not brown; let cool. Cookies can be made 2 to 3 days ahead, and stored in an airtight container.

Heart Doilies How-To
This is not as hard as it sounds! Danielle can do it (as long as I help a little...) Once you learn the basic folding technique you can also use it to make lovely six pointed snowflakes. We used snowman napkins for our practice pieces since we had them on hand. I really liked the way they turned out.
1. Position a prefolded square paper napkin so that the closed corner faces you.

2. Fold right corner toward left corner and flatten, forming a triangle.

3. Fold left corner toward triangle's longest side and flatten, forming a narrower triangle.

4. Using scissors, cut a convex arc from triangle to create top of half a heart.

5. Cut off bottom of triangle from left to right to create lower heart half, leaving at least 1/4 inch intact on right edge. The more you cut at this point the more distinct your individual hearts will be. (Left side of triangle will be center of a heart.) Unfold.

6. Repeat with napkins in several colors, varying position of cuts to create doilies in different sizes.

Egg Free Mini Chocolate Cupcakes
aka "Crazy Mixed-Up Cake"
I've posted egg free cupcakes recipes before. This is our favorite easy cake recipe. It can be mixed in one pan and baked as a snack cake if you'd like. It's a great recipe for kids to start baking because its very simple. It came from a cookbook my grandmother gave me when I was first married, Reader's Digest Down Home Cooking.

 1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup low-fat milk

Preheat oven to 350. Grease & flour pan or use cupcake liners.
Sift together dry ingredients (you can stir them in the pan if you are using an 8-inch square pan).
Pour in all of the wet ingredients and mix with a fork.
Bake mini cupcakes 10-12 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. bake an 8x8 pan for 28-30 minutes. I typically frost the cupcakes with a simple chocolate butter cream frosting.