Ever Wanted to Throw a Fairy Tea Party? (You Know You Have) Here's How:
Set your table with a tablecloth and napkins. For a fairyland effect, sprinkle glitter and other small pastel colored decorations on the tablecloth. I found some shiny butterfly sequins to use. I also happened to have lengths of sheer lilac fabric that I hung from the ceiling over the table for an ethereal effect. You might even add flowers if you think they might not get knocked over. Set places for each guest with a teacup and saucer, spoon, and a small plate to hold special goodies either you've prepared ahead of time, or plan to have children make during the party. I think it's fun to see the creative ways kids decorate, and I usually give kids the opportunity to make one or two of the treats themselves, while making the more difficult ones myself ahead of time. Provide a variety of flavored tea bags, and sugar cubes. Lots of them! Then pour the not-too-hot water from a teapot into each cup. You can teach a little etiquette at the same time, if you're up for it. Let the teabag steep for 3 minutes and show the party-goers how to remove the teabag and drain it using their spoon, and finally leave it on the edge of their saucer. Add the sugar cubes and stir in a figure eight pattern until it is dissolved. Drink up!
Decorate Butterfly Fairy Masks
to Enjoy with Tea...
1/4 Cup flour
1/4 Cup powdered sugar
1 roll refrigerator sugar cookie dough
Ready-made vanilla frosting
Assorted sugar sprinkles, jimmies, and colorful small candies
(Makes 8-10 cookie masks)
Directions:
In a large bowl, knead 1/4 cup flour and powdered sugar into cookie dough. Cover and refrigerate 10 minutes.
Roll out dough on floured surface about 1/2" thick. Using a 2-3" heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out 2 hearts per mask. Lay hearts on a sprayed cookie sheet, overlapping the pointed ends of each heart. Press down slightly to shape the dough into one piece.
With the tip of a knife, cut out oval-shaped circles in center of each heart for the eyes.
Bake cookies for 12 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool.
Decorate.
Or serve Mystical Moon Pies...
1 (7 ounce) jar marshmallow creme
Assorted food coloring
24 chocolate wafer cookies, non-filled
Assorted candy decorations and sprinkles
(Makes 12 pies)
Directions
Put 1/2 cup marshmallow creme in each of three different bowls. Add a different food coloring to each bowl and stir to blend.
Take a wafer cookie and place about 1/2 teaspoon marshmallow creme on top. Place another matching wafer on top. Repeat and top with a third wafer.
Place a dollop of marshmallow creme on top cookie. Decorate as desired.
For these ideas and more, look for the following cookbook:
Barbara Beery
Gibbs Smith, 2007
Fairies Cookbook brings a bit of fantasy and magic to everyday snacks and treats, while teaching valuable cooking skills and encouraging kids to develop a love for creating their own food. Fairies Cookbook transforms everyday fare into mystical treats for birthday parties, sleepovers, and special occasions-and these recipes are easy enough to use everyday! Fairies Cookbook offers recipes such as Cookie Fairie Masks, Fairie Fruit Wands, Sugar Cone Fairie Hats, Fruity Fairie Castles, Raindrop Punch, and many more. Children's cooking expert Beery also includes dozens of tips and ideas for creating a variety of enchanting fairie-themed parties.
Or have kids make these fun snacks...
These are super easy to prepare. Provide pre-made tartlet shells (Kroger sells shortbread tartlet shells in a box) and allow kids to fill them with a fruit flavored yogurt. Then they can top each one with their favorite berries and grapes. A perfect treat for all young fairies.
Here's another easy one with a big impact.
Separate marzipan into two bowls. Color one red with food coloring and leave the other one plain. Then allow children to shape their own toadstools. Add white speckles on top like the mushrooms from Alice in Wonderland to complete the mushroom. You can prepare these ahead of time by placing bits of marzipan in plastic ziplock bags so kids can make these while drinking their tea!
Two ideas using pretzel sticks:
Candy-Coated Dragonflies...
8-10 squares vanilla coating or almond bark
Food coloring (powdered)
8 (8-inch) pretzel rodes
16 large pretzel twists
Assorted decorating sugars or sprinkles
(Makes 8 dragonflies)
Directions:
Melt candy according to package directions. Remove from heat and pour into two or three small bowls. You may add 2-4 drops of food coloring to each bowl. Stir to blend.
Place pretzel rods on a foil-lined cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, about 3" apart. (These are the dragonflies' long bodies)
Carefully spoon the warm melted candy coating over each pretzel rod to cover completely.
Dip each pretzel twist in the candy coating and place one on each side of the upper half of the pretzel rods. The pretzel twists should rest on top of the pretzel rods and just barely touch one another. These form the dragonflies' wings.
Sprinkle each dragonfly pretzel with decorating sugars or sprinkles.
Place cookie sheet in freezer for 5-10 minutes to allow candy to harden.
Remove from freezer and carefully take each dragonfly off cookie sheet to serve.
...and Magic Fairy Wands
4 ounces vanilla candy coating or almond bark
Food coloring (powdered)
8 large pretzel rods
Assorted colored sugars, sprinkles, and sugar candy decorations
(Makes 8 wands)
Directions:
Melt candy coating according to package directions. Add food coloring if desired. Stir to blend.
Dip or drizzle pretzel rods with candy coating. Place coated pretzel rods on a foil-lined sheet pan that has been sprayed lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Decorate with sugars, sprinkles, or candies while candy coating is still warm.
Place sheet pan in freezer for 10 minutes to harden candy coating.
Remove and eat immediately, or store in an air-tight container for several days.
**I used a Wilton pretzel mold with butterfly garden designs, and filled those with the melted candy and a pretzel rod to make them even fancier.
For these ideas and more, look for the following cookbook:
Barbara Beery
Gibbs Smith, 2006
Expert cooking instructor and cookbook author Barbara Beery has created a book that will delight girls around the world! Perfect for tea parties, rainy days, themed birthday parties and other celebrations, or any creative afternoon playtime, the Pink Princess Cookbook features treats such as the signature Pink Princess Cake, Chocolate Chip-Peppermint Scones,Enchanted Unicorn Horns, and Fairy Berry Tea. These recipes are simple to make, have just a few ingredients, and teach children valuable kitchen skills while engaging their imaginations.
Build a Fairy Garden
Make Flower Fairies for your Garden...
I used the website above to make the bodies for both boy and girl fairies (see picture below on right). Both boy and girl fairies received a large bead head. Then, I left the boy bodies as they were and added flower petals to the girls to make dresses. All variations of colors of yarn and pipe cleaners and beads provided a fairy that suited each program participant. The fairy doll on the left is a variation, using a cork for the head.
Humorous Fairy Books Worth Reading:
by J.T. Petty
This is the first book in a new series that I absolutely fell in love with! 10-year-old Clemency Pogue accidentally kills seven fairies as she fights off the Fairy of Frequent and Painful Pointless Antagonism (Fairies are only known by their position since names are highly guarded) as she proclaims her disbelief of fairies in the manner of Peter Pan. The Hobgoblin who appears calling her a murderer reveals that she must learn their names in order to bring them back to life. She inadvertently learns his name, Chaphesmeeso, binding him to her, and together they find each murdered fairy around the world in an attempt to reanimate them all. Very clever wordplay is used throughout, along with some difficult vocabulary making this more appropriate for older readers grades 4 - 6. Adults may enjoy reading this aloud to children though. Black and white illustrations also accompany the text.
by J.T. Petty
This is the second book in the Clemency Pogue series. When Clemency calls Chaphesmeeso back, he brings along with him a 7-year-old boy named Kennethurchin. They are on a quest to find the proxy, the clay-baby exchanged at birth by Goblins. A tiny glass jar filled with purple black liquid called Leviathan Ink had been placed inside the changeling before he was exchanged and is needed by Kennethurchin, now a half-hob, in order for him to sign his name in the Forgetting Book and ultimately become a full Hobgoblin. This continues to be very clever and entertaining suitable for children in grades 4-6.