Entertaining:Tropical Fruit Shortcake for a preteen bday party

One of my favorite girls, my second niece celebrated her birthday a couple of days ago. Last week, she had called us up asking for permission to use grandma's house for her birthday get-together. Well of course, lola immediately agreed since she happens to be a favorite. Our house is spacious and has a lot of equipment and supplies- an ideal place for entertaining. Besides who can refuse a request when she has already thought our her party through. "Oh well," says the events planning aunt.

I bring my nieces with me to work - when I go about preparing and executing parties for other people. They sort of get hired as junior helpers. When the kids were younger, I liked planning their birthday parties and would even bake the cakes and cookies . My siblings were too busy to plan and just liked giving me a budget to play around with.

Considering that my niece will be turning twelve she definitely said nono to those cutesy celebrations. She wanted an all girl hangout- they would be going swimming if it did not rain, come back to the house for snacks and to change , then being true girls would be spending the rest of the afternoon at the mall.

She said she would take care of the invitations herself. For the food she will serve, she still has to decide on the main pasta dish- whether it would be an Asian noodle or a taco sort of casserole. Of course she has to have auntie's standard dips, no party would be complete without chips now would it. I will be serving raita, a light indian dip for the veggies and a cheese loaded sour cream dip for all those chips .

To celebrate youth and vitality and the fact that we live in the tropics, she was going to have her guests come in their favorite summer attires in vibrant tropical colors. Mostly teenagers and pubescent girls can get away with the neon colors she suggested - lime green, mango yellow, orange, violet colored shirts will be the standard attire.

She wasn't going to serve much since the party was highly informal. She however emphasized that she will be serving homemade bubble tea. Now gotta remember to bring out the blenders now. I told her that it would be a good idea to be limiting her flavors to three choices, so she chose mango bango, lychee coconut and a four fruit combo- all in keeping with her tropical theme.

She was insistent that I make her a onelayer shortcake. This was what she wanted to eat for the party and did go well with the whole party theme. Since I would be unable to place candles on it, she added a personal touch to replace the blowing -the -cake ceremony. She asked that a few balloons in her chosen colors be available to decorate her party corner. After singing happy birthday to her, she would ask her guest to pop the balloons after they had said their wishes or prayers out loud. " Nice touch ", I said .

In lieu of giveaways she said she would ask her guests to decorate their own mini shortcakes to be brought home as a souvenir from her party. Of course, her guests would also have lots of picture souvenirs to remember the party by- she has already bought more film for her polaroid camera. Preteens are so trigger happy when it comes to taking their own pictures.

Great planning ideas coming from a twelve year old to be right? Now I pity the unpaid help that has to go about ensuring that the party goes smoothly as planned. Of course the party will be fun and memorable , we happen to be professionals and are good at what we do.

Fresh Fruit Shortcake

¼ lb. (110 g) butter or margarine (I prefer using half butter and half shortening so that the crust is not too crumbly)

¼ cup (60 ml) sugar

4 egg yolks

1 ½ cups (375 ml.) all-purpose flour , sifted

Topping:

2 ½ cups (625 ml. ) whipping cream, whipped

2 cups (500 ml.) chopped fruits

Western fruits: apples, plums, apricots, peaches,
nectarines, strawberries

Tropical fruits: ripe mangoes, lychees, kiwi, papaya,
nata de kaong or nata de coco

2 nectarines, halved and seeded and thinly sliced

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggyolks one at a time . Beat well after each addition. Mix in flour until well combined.

Knead dough on a lightly floured working surface. Place on greased pizza pan using your knuckles or fingers to press out to fit pan.

Bake Blind at 350 F (180 C) or until lightly browned. Remove from oven.

When cold, gently lift shortcake onto serving dish.

To prepare topping:

Combine whipped cream and fruit. Spoon onto shortcake base.

Arrange nectarine slices or fruit you will use for décor on cream . Make sure skin side is showing. Serve slightly chilled.

Serves 10 -12.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Cook's Notes:

Baking blind involves lining pastry with aluminum foil and filling it with dried beans or uncooked rice. Bake at 400 F (200 C) for five minutes. Remove foil and beans and bake pastry for an additional five minutes. Allow to cool before adding filling.

Lychees go well with coconut gel (nata de coco or nata de kaong). These gelatinous cube shaped or cylindrical sweets that are made out of coconut. They come in bottles packed in sugar syrup. The nata de kaong comes in red, white or green colors which adds a festive color to desserts or to fruit salads. These can be bought from an asian or filipino foodstore. If unavailable,it is okay. Just use the fruits that you like to include.

If one is using lychees a good addition to the filling will be almonds. You may also use fresh shredded coconut strips for the topping. Lychees, fresh coconut strips and almond flavored gelatin cubes (different from nata de kaong) make a festive tropical fruit salad when combined.