Jungle party food ideas

To stop the herd becoming too wild at your Animal or Jungle Themed Party, make sure you cater for all tastes; cheeky monkeys, ravenous lions and tigers, as well as those with elephant-sized appetites. Here are a few party food ideas to make your jungle VIPs roar with delight.

This is a theme when kids’ favourites can be relied upon and given a Jungle twist. Always check for food allergies when you send out party invitations.

Savoury snack ideas

• Peanuts in their shells and pretzel sticks
• Vegetable sticks and dips
• Sandwiches cut into animal shapes with a cookie cutter, snail sandwich pinwheels (fill with Marmite or Nutella for zebra-stripe effect. Peanut butter and banana also makes a great filling)
• "Ants on a log". Spread the ends of celery sticks with either peanut butter or cream cheese and stud with raisins
• Popcorn mixed with nuts, raisins, jelly beans and Smarties for a special party trail mix

Sweet things

• Banana chocolate dips: cut bananas in half across and insert a lollystick into the flat base of each side. Wrap in foil and freeze for a few hours until solid. Dip into melted chocolate – which will harden very quickly around the outside – wrap and refreeze until needed.
• Make a tray of chocolate-biscuit ‘leopard cake’, trail-mix flapjacks or coconut slices
• Tropical fruit skewers or a watermelon fruit salad
• Jellies set inside bowls or orange halves
• Chocolate cereal bird’s nests
• Animal biscuits and jelly sweet insects

Jungle Juice
Mix up a blend of tropical fruit juices or make a smoothie with yogurt or ice-cream
Accessorise with squiggly straws, flamingo picks and small skewers of fruit
Serve in Jungle-themed party cups or coconut cups, which everyone will love and can be used again
Use green party jugs with lids to minimise spillages
Animal cups with handles can be kept by each child and taken home (though they make great party-bag containers as well)

Jungle Party Cakes
Decorate your homemade cake to look like their favourite animal – perhaps a crocodile, a monkey, or a ‘snake’ made from a line of fairy cakes iced with chocolate and smarties
Present plain iced fairy cakes on a jungle cupcake stand and stud with animal cake picks
Order a personalised Jungle-themed birthday cake, complete with their name on it

Jungle Presentation
Label your Jungle -themed party dishes with homemade signs and stick  Jungle food picks into sandwiches
Present things on big bright platters and party plates! If you are taking the party into the wilds of your garden, serve the feast using palm leaf-themed party pieces!