Rocket Ship Party!

My gorgeous baby boy, Jed Alexander, turned one last week, so what better way to celebrate than with a Rocket Ship Party!  I was keen to make the food pretty healthy - I always find people prefer to snack on the savouries and just stick with one or two sweets, so I kept this in mind.  I also know that my friends are pretty like-minded, and while we don't mind our kids having a few treats, we generally like to keep them pretty healthy.  So, starting with the savouries, here's what we enjoyed...

I wanted to include the always-popular Savoury Noodle Cakes, so my sister whipped up a batch in mini-muffin pans and they went down a treat!  I used Rocket Ship and Star-shaped cookie cutters for a batch of Cheese Biscuits (recipe to come) - they all got eaten so I take it they were a hit!

Good old plain popcorn in cute cupcake wrappers were a hit with the kids - we also had some yummy caramel popcorn as well.

Found this idea online - I bought plastic shot glasses from a cheap shop, made some corn relish dip (cream cheese mixed with corn relish), put a teaspoon of dip in each cup, followed by a piece of carrot, celery and a Cheesy Twist (recipe to come) - these were a big hit!

My mum made a batch of Zucchini Fritters (complete with her home-made tomato relish - yum!).  I love these because they're perfect for kids of all ages, plus the adults enjoy them too.  Recipe here.

My mother-in-law brought along some savoury scrolls - Spinach & Feta, Ham & Cheese and Vegemite & Cheese.  Something for everyone and these were definitely a favourite too!

Why have a boring fruit platter when you can have Rocket Ship Fruit Kebabs?!?  The kids loved eating their fruit off a stick and I don't think the photo really does them justice, but they looked pretty cool!

We set up this little table with some leftover icing & lollies and the kids could decorate their own star biscuits.  Naturally, they loved it!

I had these cute little printable labels, so I stocked up on bottles of water (pretty cheaply from Aldi) and got some stripey straws.  I was quite amazed - we had no water bottles left at the end of the party, and we only went through about 2L of soft drink...the evidence speaks for itself!

I have made cake pops a couple of times before, but wanted to give them another go.  They're pretty fiddly and the end result was pretty "rustic", but the guests said they tasted great, so I'm happy with that!  Will post this recipe soon.

Instead of party bags, I decided to make Rocket Ship Biscuits for the guests to take home.  I can't believe I forgot to take a photo of the finished result, but I just popped them in plastic gift bags, tied it with a red ribbon and a rocket ship tag that said "thankyou".  I used my trusty Spice Biscuits recipe - my handiwork with the icing wasn't as neat as I'd like, but hey, you can get away with it for a kiddy party!

And of course, the main feature, the centrepiece - the cake!  It was based on this design from Super Food Ideas and I was over the moon (pardon the pun!) with the result.  Most importantly, the little guy loved it.  It was actually really easy to put together and didn't take me long at all to decorate, so I'd highly recommend it!  No late-night stressful fondant dramas for this one!

So, that's the Rocket Ship Party in a nutshell.  Happy Birthday to my little champ, Jed.  Here he is with his daddy at the party (aren't they gorgeous?!?)  I hope he enjoyed the party, as he's not getting another one until his 21st!