My Birthday Party Pt. 2

Back in October I had the most special birthday party that I could have imagined. Being the bookish girl I am, it’s theme was the book series Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery. If you want to read more about the party in general, click here to the post I did on that. 😉

For this post, I’m going to be focusing on the foods I prepared for my party. You’ll read about which ones were the decided favorites, how I adjusted the foods for my preferences, and where I got the recipes from!

So, without further ado, let’s get started! 

The Cookbook

First of all, I have to share this wonderful cookbook. My mom ordered it for my birthday (she knew what theme I wanted for my party) and I honestly don’t think I could have pulled it off without this book. It was so nice and helpful to have most of the recipes in one place.

As you can see, it’s super cute. Not only is the cover pretty, but the pictures inside are very nice too. There are also quotes from the books from every recipe, which was such a lifesaver when I wanted to put a quote next to each dish.

But even more important than the looks, the recipes were really good! I bake on a regular basis, you understand. I have standards for flavor, texture, effort, etc. And this book is bursting with new favorite desserts!

Splendid Lettuce Salad

“ 'Oh, Anne, mayn’t I help you cook the dinner?” implored Diana. “You know I can make a splendid lettuce salad.' ”
-Anne of Avonlea, Chapter 16

There is a recipe in my cookbook for this, but it was pretty in depth, so I opted for a simpler version this time. For one thing, I purchased a thousand island dressing instead of making it myself (although it would be cool to try the recipe out sometime!). As for the salad, I left out some things (such as mushrooms) but mostly followed the recipe’s ingredient list. 

I think that the salad turned out very nice and added a dash of bright color to the table. It was also made even better by the croutons that my friends made to put on top. They found a recipe last minute and used up some leftover slices of bread.

Poetical Sandwiches

“ 'And we must have sandwiches too, though they’re not very poetical.' ”
-Anne of Avonlea, Chapter 13

I have to disagree with Anne here. Perhaps her sandwiches were unpoetical, but I don’t think ours were in the slightest. Instead, they were quite dainty, cut in little circles with a toothpick through the center.

Most recipes I’ve seen for Anne’s sandwiches (including the one in the cookbook) are for egg salad sandwiches, which I personally do not care for. So I chose to make cucumber sandwiches instead. I found a recipe in an old cookbook we have around the house, but you could find a recipe for either kind of sandwich easily.

Chicken Salad

"Marilla smiled across her chicken salad at Anne."
-Anne's House of Dreams, Chapter 4

If I was taking a page out of Anne’s book, I probably would have said, “And we must have chicken salad too, though it’s not very poetical.” That’s how I feel about it. Needed, but not desired.

All the same, we did need something nutritious (or else Marilla would likely disapprove, you see), so we had this dish. I like my chicken salad with lots of stuff in it, so I used a recipe full of grapes, celery, and other things. And because chicken salad alone would be even less poetical, it was served beside a plate of crackers.

I was surprised that there wasn’t a recipe for chicken salad in my cookbook (another thing missing from the book was plum puffs…), but that was fine. It’s one of those things that people can be picky about anyway (aka, me 😉 ).

Monkey Face Cookies

"Susan had whisked on a fire, got him a cup of milk, a slice of golden brown toast, and a big plateful of his favorite “monkey face” cookies, and then tucked him away with hot-water at his feet."
-Anne of Ingleside, Chapter 10

The best part about these cookies was that all of the girls made them together (remember, there were only five of us). It was a pretty simple recipe (it came from another Anne book that I don’t own called The Anne of Green Gables Treasury), and having lots of people to roll out the balls of cookie dough and place the raisins was very helpful. 

As a dessert, they weren’t my favorite type of sweet, and the recipe made a lot! We never ate them all, even though I sent a ton home with one of my friends. But they were small and cute, so I’m glad that we got to make them.

Coconut Macaroons

“ 'No, thank you, Kate, I won’t have any more tea… well, mebbe a macaroon. They won’t lie heavy on the stomach, but I’m afraid I’ve et far too much.' ”
-Anne of Windy Poplars, Chapter 8

So, I don’t think that I’d ever even eaten a macaroon before the party, so I didn’t really know what to expect. In fact, I still may have the wrong idea about what they are supposed to be like. The first batch (I had to cook them at different times because the oven wasn’t large enough to do them all at once) turned out pretty good, I think. They remained in nice little hills, and had crispy bottoms. The second batch sort of melted, but that was because I left them sitting out.

I was really excited to give these a try, but I actually didn’t like them that much. They were too chewy for me. It wasn’t until later (when they started to get old and crispy, hehe) that I found them good.

But everyone else seemed to really love them, especially my sister, so I guess it was a success? If you think I judged them quickly let me know! I’d love to give them a second chance!

Mrs. Irving’s Delicious Shortbread

" 'My mouth has been watering for some more of your grandma's delicious shortbread ever since I had tea here before.' "
-Anne of Avonlea, Chapter 19

Some people love shortbread, while others find it a tad bit boring. I personally fall into the category of liking it. Yes, shortbread is very basic, and often without icing or decoration. But I like the subtle, buttery flavor.

For the party, I baked a half recipe from my Anne of Green Gable Cookbook, cutting them out in the shapes of hearts. It was nice to have something so simple yet so pretty out on the table.

Strawberries and Cream

" ' Early strawberries for tea!' exclaimed Miss Lavender."
Anne of Avonlea, Chapter 27

By far, this was the easiest dish at the party. After all, all I had to do for it was slice few strawberries, and dish out the cool whip.

(Yes. I will admit that whipping my own cream was not top of my priorities. Deepest apologies.)

But just the same, I felt like the berries and cream were very much necessary. The berries were oh-so bright, and the cream oh-so clean and white. You couldn’t have a really complete tea party without them.

Butterscotch Pudding

" 'I wish people could live on pudding. Why can't they, Marilla? I want to know.' "
-Anne of Avonlea, Chapter 26

This dish was a very big hit. It had a lovely nutty flavor, and a smooth texture. While there were many cookies and other goodies left over, the pudding was gone quickly. It was one of our favorite recipes from the cookbook.

I had a tad bit of trouble with it sticking to the saucepan while cooking it, but nothing happened that messed with the finished product. It was also nice because I was able to make it ahead of time, and chill it in the fridge.

Chocolate Caramels

" 'I had one chocolate caramel once two years ago and it was simply delicious. I've often dreamed since then that I had a lot of chocolate caramels, but I always wake up just when I'm going to eat them.' "
-Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 3

Listen to me.

These are amazing.

If you like fudge, or caramel or chocolate you will LOVE these! They are the best of all three combined into one rich, melt-in-your-mouth piece of candy. Trust me.

Granted, they take over half an hour of standing over the stove to produce, but it was worth every minute. Besides, if you can recruit a little help from younger siblings, the stirring isn’t half so bad. 😉

Raspberry Cordial

"That's awfully nice raspberry cordial," she said. "I didn't know raspberry cordial could be so nice."
-Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 16

Of all the foods at my party, not one of them felt more Annish than this. After all, the infamous story where Diana accidentally drinks current wine instead of raspberry cordial is one of the most popular in the book!

Some people express dislike for this drink because it was too sticky and sweet. But I didn’t find the recipe in the cookbook to be like that at all! It was sweet, but also fresh and full of flavor. I highly suggest using this recipe if you are looking for one.

Liniment Cake

" 'Mercy on us, Anne, you've flavored that cake with Anodyne Liniment!' "
-Anne of Green Gables, Chapter 21

The recipe for liniment cake in the cookbook is very like any other cake. After all, you don’t really want to make it with liniment, but with vanilla! However, since I was already using this cookbook for everything else I decided against using a trusted recipe and gave this one a try.

I have no regrets! For such a basic recipe, this is a very yummy cake. It was also just small enough that there wasn’t too much left over. I baked it in three layers, and it was perfect!

The only thing I changed was to add some strawberry jelly in between layers. I saw that in a few other recipes for this cake and wanted to do it too. Jelly is a lot more slippery than I realized it would be, though! It tried to slide all over the place as I was icing it!

Final Thoughts

This party had some of the best recipes I’ve ever made. I wouldn’t have guessed that I would be able to have good food and it would all go along with my party theme, but I was!

If you enjoy all things Anne, being in the kitchen, or just book themed activities I highly suggest this book. I mean, this whole post is basically just me ranting about how awesome the recipes are!

Thank you so much for reading! Have a beautiful day!

This is just a reminder that if you missed the first post about my party, where I talk about decorations, activities, and setup, you can find that here.

Your Turn!

Which food do you think turned out the best? Have you baked any Anne themed recipes before? How did they turn out?