Celebrate the future chefs, bakers, and other culinary artists in your family with a cooking party! Our Cooking Party Ideas include suggestions for everything from decorations to recipe choices that will get your son or daughter and their friends excited to show off their skills.
Invitations
Decorations
Recipes
Party Favors
Games & Activities
Planning & Invitations
One of your first decisions will be where to host your Cooking Party. Hosting a party in your own kitchen is a great option, if you have the space to accommodate your son or daughter and their guests. If your own home is not an option, there are kitchens you can rent for food preparation (see Make and Take Gourmet, as an example), or you may want to check in with your local community college for culinary classes you could attend with children. For additional ideas, see our article on When and Where to Have the Party.
What do I need for the Party?
Basic party supplies include paper tableware, such as plates, napkins, cups, and cutlery; a tablecloth, streamers, and balloons.
You may also want to rent or purchase other items to fit your theme, such as:
- Various Kitchen Gadgets (blender, mixer, cookie sheets, food processor, etc.)
- Aprons and Chef Hats
- Cake Pans
- Mixing Spoons
- Cookie Cutters
To help you with your shopping, take a look at our Suggested Party Supply List. You may not need everything on the list, but you can use it as a guide.
Cooking & Baking Party Invitations
Invite your child’s friends to your kids cooking party with unique and fun invitations. If you have the time to make your own, here are a few ideas to consider:
- Cut the shape of a chef hat out of white fabric and write the party details on the front with black permanent marker.
- Cut a circle out of a white piece of cardstock. Use stickers to decorate the circle like a dining room table. Include plates, silverware, napkins, and dishes of food. Write your party details on the back.
- Design your invitation to look like a recipe card. Start with a 3”x5” card with lines on one side. Bullet out your party details to look like ingredients. Include a section for “Directions” that includes either directions to the party location, or additional information about the party (i.e. if your guests need to bring anything).
- Punch a hole in the corner of a card-style invitation and attach it to a mixing spoon. Tell your guests they will need their spoon during the party, so they need to bring it along! Mail these invitations in padded envelopes.
- Include creative wording for your party details, such as:
Calling all gourmet chefs!
You are invited to the [child’s last name] Academy of Culinary Arts
For the Annual Gourmet Cooking and Baking Competition
Bring your favorite apron and best recipe to join in on the fun!
If you would rather not make your own invitations, but would still like a personalized touch, consider our Personalized Invitations, which include your child’s name and all the party details for you! We also offer blank invitations that you can fill in yourself.
Whichever invitation option you choose, seal your envelopes with fun stickers for a final, festive touch!
Decorating & Food Ideas
Cooking & Baking Party Decorations
Another great way to keep the theme alive during a party is through decorations. For a cooking theme, the kitchen gadgets and flour smears on your guests’ faces will tell the story in full! But for a few additional suggestions, see below:
- Make a banner to hang above the entrance to the party that reads: “Welcome to The [child’s last name] Academy of Culinary Arts”.
- Balloons are a must at any party! Group three helium balloons together and anchor them with balloon weights around the party area. You may want to add a shaped Mylar balloon to each group as well.
- Set the table with personalized placemats, silverware in fun colors, glasses with silly straws, cloth napkins, and plastic or paper plates.
- Make a centerpiece for the food table by placing several kids cookbooks between two bookends.
- Set out fresh fruit, such as bunches of grapes, apples, pears, and kiwi in brightly colored colanders.
- If you want to get really creative, hang cooking utensils (mixing spoons, spatulas, whisks, etc.) and recipe cards from the ceiling.
Cooking Party Recipes
You will need a few easy and yummy recipes to make during the party. You could ask each guest to send you his or her favorite recipe, or use a few of your own tested and approved family recipes. Or, you could try something new and pick one of our favorites listed below:
- Homemade Pretzels - These can be shaped in a variety of different ways, so let your guests be creative! Maybe they want to shape them into the first letter of their first name, or their favorite number, or if they are really creative, their favorite animal! Set out different toppings and dips that everyone can try once they come out of the oven.
- Sugar Cut-Out Cookies - Have some cookie cutters on hand to make fun shapes out of the dough, as well as frosting, sprinkles, small candies, and other items for decorating.
- Deviled Eggs - This traditional picnic dish is not only easy, but inexpensive too! Hard boil the eggs before the party and let them cool before your guests arrive.
- Mexican Hot Chocolate - Whip up this twist on the traditional drink and warm your guests up in style.
- Fruit Punch - Serve this cool and refreshing drink with fun silly straws.
- Shaped Cakes - From daisies to dinosaurs, we have a cake pan that will bring out the baker in all your guests.
Cooking Party Favors
Once you close down the kitchen and all the flour has been wiped from happy faces, send everyone home with fun goodie bags that fit your cooking theme. Give one large favor such as a recipe book, or combine smaller favors such as cookie cutters, decorator icing, stickers, a wooden spoon, and candy in a nice favor bag.
To save time, you may want to consider giving out our complete Cooking Kits as favors, which include all the main ingredients for more cooking fun at home. Or, consider our popular personalized favors. Our personalized placemats would be perfect for this theme!
Cooking Party Games & Activities
This theme revolves around the activity of cooking, so additional party games most likely won’t be necessary. If you find yourself with extra time after all the recipes have been tried, you may want to consider traditional games that center around food – like Hot Potato. For additional ideas, see the Games & Activities section below.
For additional party planning tips, our Party Planning 101 Guide includes cake ideas, party etiquette tips, a printable guest list, and more.
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