In a fantasy life, nonstopmama rises at 5.30 each morning to do pilates, drinks nothing but green tea and packs a school lunchbox that would score a perfect 10 with Annabel Karmel. The bestselling author and authority on baby and child nutrition just released her latest book, Princess Party Cookbook.

What was the inspiration behind your new book?

My own Princesses Lara and Scarlett – they are teenagers now but have always loved to dress up, spend time in the kitchen with me and plan their birthday parties. Much of the food in the book is recipes they like to eat, not just party food but proper meals like my special meatloaf and delicious pumpkin risotto.

The perfect ‘princess party’ is every little girl’s dream! Do you have any tips for flap-prone nonstopmamas on how to minimise preparation stress?

Part of the fun is in the planning, so quite a lot can be done in advance. You can decide on a theme and make your own original invitations with your child, buy the paper tableware and also have fun making your own decorations like some of the place cards in the book. Some of the food like cupcakes, cookies etc. can be made in advance and frozen. The day before the party, you can prepare jellies and any other food that is fine prepared the day ahead, decorate the house and table and prepare games if you are having games. Also, don’t forget to charge your camera …

On the morning of the party, prepare any fresh food like sandwiches, blow up balloons and tie some to the front door, put a sign on the loo door and lock rooms that are out of bounds. Set the table and lay out the food.

It’s great that Princess Party Cookbook has ideas for slightly older girls, too, e.g. the Hollywood party theme. Was it important to you to offer creative inspiration for them, too?

Yes, all children like to be involved . For example, for the Hollywood party, older children would enjoy making the clapperboard invitations, the crunchy caramel popcorn and could help decorate the Red Carpet Hollywood Star Cake. For the Princess Soda Fountain Party, they would enjoy the Ice-Cream Sundae Bar and they could print out and design the menus for the diner.

Do you have any favourite recipes or ideas from the book?

I love the Make Up and Jewellery Party theme with the home made mirror invitation, place cards with the lipstick kisses and friendship bracelets. The Jewelled Cupcakes look fabulous with the cupcake wrappers. I also love the Valentine’s Party with the Heart Shaped Little Red Velvet Cakes, Heart shaped Shortbread Cookies with a window of raspberry jam and the Rice Krispie Heart Shaped Lollipops (read the recipes here).

On a different note, as it’s getting colder, do you have any suggestions for great nursery/school lunchboxes?

On my website, annabelkarmel.com, you will see some recipe ideas for lunchboxes and I have written a book called Lunchboxes. If you buy a small thermos flask, you can give your child something hot in their lunchbox like a chicken and sweetcorn soup, tomato soup or minestrone soup.

Lastly, now you’ve done princess party book, could a party book for the boys be in the pipeline?!

I have another party book called the Complete Party Planner and this is for boys and girls. There are some fun recipes like a Football Boot Baguette, Tractor Sandwich and Chocolate Swiss Roll Aliens. All my books are available on Amazon or in most good bookshops.

* Snag it, mama! We have 3 copies of  the Princess Party Cookbook by Annabel Karmel to give away.

New interviews every Monday and Thursday. Coming soon: Ruby Hammer, Tess Daly, Saira Khan, The Primrose Bakery founders, Martha Swift & Lisa Thomas, Antonia Chitty and more.

This entry was posted by Jen on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 and is filed under food, interviews. You can read other posts in food, interviews here. You can follow any responses to this particular entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Alternatively, you can always read other posts in food, interviews, beauty, fashion, health, homes, family, travel and interviews.