Bug party

The natural bush of Auckland’s Waitakere ranges was the perfect backdrop to an afternoon’s celebration of all things creepy crawly. The kids ran off their energy with bug hunts through the garden before getting up close and personal withsome other specially invited guests.

A Pinterest search provides a wealth of inspiration for bug-inspired party food. We made caterpillar grape kebabs, ladybird strawberries and cookies, snail pastry roll-ups, doughnut and pretzel spiders, butterfly shaped sandwiches and centipede hotdogs. Pretzel sticks covered in chocolate sprinkles served as ‘ants on a log’, while worm lollies sitting in jelly-filled petri dishes provided a suitably gooey treat.

The food was laid out on a table covered with linen fabric and decorated with a tassel garland and paper spiders stuck on the wall. 

The pièce de résistence, however, had to be the dirt cake. In fact it was less a cake and more a decadent chocolate dessert. The idea is to create layers of chocolate ‘dirt’ in a glass trifle dish. To make the layers, bake your favourite chocolate cake and crush it up, then remove the white centre from a packet of Oreo cookies and crush the biscuits up, finally create a thick, scrumptious chocolate mousse. 
A handy tip is to place the jelly worms in between the cake and cookie layers so they don’t dissolve in the mousse. The cookie layer also helps protect the cake from absorbing too much moisture from the mousse.
After the birthday candles are blown out, use a cheap (unused) gardening trowel to scoop and serve.

A wood round was a great pedestal for our ‘dirt cake’ and a collection of plastic bugs completed the scene.

The goodie bags were an easy craft activity we spied from chicsite.com. We bought bags in blue and green, and simply cut the green bags to resemble blades of grass. The blue bag was placed inside the green and a plastic bug stuck on with a hot-glue gun. Inside we popped a few insect inspired treats from Seedling – a butterfly ring, a bug in slime and a furry spider.

Some home-made terrariums were a fun activity to do ahead of time. We used plastic jars and painted the lids black. We squashed play dough inside the lids and covered it in a layer of moss scavenged from the garden. Next, we stuck a twig in the play dough, and used a hot-glue gun to stick plastic bugs on. Screw the jar down and voilà!

The highlight of the party was a visit from Brian Lawton of ‘Hands on Creatures’. Brian arrived with a menagerie of insects, reptiles and other creatures. Our brave guests were able to hold an assortment of creepy crawlies including an Avondale spider, a blue-tongued lizard, and even a tarantula!

• Insects, reptiles and other creepy crawlies courtesy of Brian Lawton, at handsoncreatures.co.nz. Brian also hosts parties at his property in Auckland’s Titirangi.
• Green baroque plastic bottles, striped paper straws, eco chic cones and tray from poprocparties.co.nz.
• Chalkboard sign, tassel garland and spider silhouettes from dotsnspots.co.nz.
• Butterfly wings from The Fairy Shop, Auckland.
• Goodie bag treats from Seedling, goodthingsforkids.com.
• Cookie cutters from kiwicakes.co.nz.
• Plastic bugs, paper bags and butterfly nets from a discount store.