30th Birthday Celebrations!

For my big Three-Oh! I 'tried' to host an extravagant themed-birthday party without being too extravagant - if you know what I mean. My favourite colour is purple, and since purple is associated with royalty, I found it fitting to incorporate it throughout the party - the invitation, clothing, tablecloth and straws.

The welcome drinks were pineapple-flavoured jelly shots with sparkling wine. The twist? Guests had to drink the jelly shot through a purple polka dot paper straw, cut in half (yay, Earth!). Their reaction while taking the first sip was priceless! For the kids who attended the party, there were raspberry-flavoured jelly shots (non-alcoholic, of course).

As with most of my events, snacks were served before dinner. Guests enjoyed fried halloumi with sweet chili sauce, cheese pastry puffs and savoury snacks such as chips, popcorn and salty crackers with a dip.

I also made some mince pastries (or wasgoedbondeltjies in Afrikaans). The word loosely translates to 'little laundry bundles' and it looks exactly as it sounds - flavourful minced meat placed inside phyllo pastry squares and folded, held together with a whole clove, and baked in the oven for a few minutes. Indeed a little bundle of laundry!

For those with a sweet tooth, I baked mini chocolate eclairs, filled with cream and caramel, finished off with some melted chocolate on top. I like to combine milk and dark chocolate for the topping, to give a sweet, yet bitter taste to the treat.

The main course was pitas with a choice of beef or chicken strips (which my husband braaied), and various other toppings such as cheese, lettuce, tomato, gherkins, pineapple - you name it.

For dessert I made filled phyllo pastry cups (which is very quick and easy to make). There were two different fillings - dark chocolate mousse, and caramel topped with whipped cream. I underestimated how popular these would be, and there nearly weren't enough. (Tip: Always make more than you think will be needed!) The great thing about the phyllo pastry cups is that the filling can also be savoury, served as an appetiser.

Being a statistician by day, I painted a T-shirt with a mathematical formula, which 'calculated' my current age. The formula takes the sum of my date of birth, and with some mathematical manipulation, the answer concluded to 30. Some creative thinking was used to manipulate the formula to get to my current age.

Here is what I did: Add each number of the date to obtain an answer, e.g. 1987 will conclude to 1 + 9 + 8 + 7 = 25. After adding the month and day, an answer of 36 was obtained. Take the square root of 36 which is 6 and subtract the two answers (36 - 6) to obtain 30. This is, of-course, mathematically incorrect, but since I was the only mathematician present, let's say it was a real formula (wink wink).

The Invitation