An Introduction...

Welcome to my blog.

I'm Claire and although I'm nearly 21 I'm a big kid at heart and love nothing more than children's books. My passion for children's literature is what made me decide to write a blog about children's party food. A child's birthday party is one of the most important days of the year for them. They wait all year for the day when they can stop saying they're six and three quarters and will get lots of presents. The birthday cake is the main feature of the day (except for the little birthday monster, of course!) as I can remember myself when I was growing up I loved choosing which cake to have and waited eagerly for the day I could blow out the candles and make a wish!

However, party food isn't just made for birthdays. There's Christmas, Halloween, Easter and tea parties, not forgetting a picnic on a summer's day (when the sun decides to shine in England!) and so there are many occasions to cater for, especially these days with more and more elaborate party themes emerging. Books are a great place to look for examples of food for children's parties and for inspiration for party themes.

In this blog I will be exploring how food is represented in children's books, particularly at parties, and how authors connect food and childhood.  I will also present recipes for making party food and share my experiences of my own birthday cakes. Overall, I hope to show how children's literature can make a big impact on food created for special occasions. 

So my first step was to go back to my family home and dig out my Mum's dusty recipe books and old magazine cuttings of recipes ...

A little taster of what's to come!