Back in October my family was given the Tiny Treats book published by American Girl. The book was $9.95. My mother-in-law paid for it however I would have bought it regardless. Tiny Treats allows the reader to make miniature versions of grown up items with the idea that people can gather their American Girl dolls together and have differently themed parties.
Most of the creations are cute and clever. Almost none of them are actually good for you but they are pint sized so you can theoretically limit their consumption. Naturally the book was assembled by someone who has had a lot of experience decorating cookie sized cakes and manufacturing Tootsie Roll sausages so the finished versions of your products may not look exactly like the photos in the book. Since we purchased the book we haven't had an opportunity to try any of the treats until now. My oldest daughter wishes her birthday was in winter, her half-birthday is in November, user yannmatin suggested celebrating with a picnic so that's what we did.
Mini-Sub Sandwich:
The book suggests using a large breadstick. I substituted a whole wheat hot dog bun. Wrapping a slice of deli ham inside of a piece of hard salami seemed to work well. I lined the bun with spinach leaves and sliced a roma tomato for color.
Fruit Kebabs:
Not in the book but I liked the idea. One grape, one half of a of strawberry, and a banana slice, fit nicely on a standard sized toothpick.
Veggie stacks:
Also not in the book. I cut small cucumbers into triangles and carrots into matchsticks. After cutting the mini-sub in half I put three cucumbers on each plate and topped the cucumber wedges with the carrot pieces.
Micro S'mores:
These turned out perfectly. Golden Grahams cereal forms the base of each S'more. When the miniature marshmallows were placed on top I thought they looked unbalanced so we tried cutting them in half. The regular recipe calls for standard sized chocolate chips, all we had were the Enjoy Life mini-chips but no one complained. By placing the marshmallow cut side up we were able to put a mini-chip in the center of each marshmallow. The book recommends microwaving the s'mores but I think microwaved marshmallows are terrible and they don't get toasty brown either. My solution was to broil the s'mores. We didn't time the operation but once you start smelling graham and your marshmallows are puffy it's time to remove your s'mores.
Working quickly my daughter placed another piece of cereal on top of the melted chocolate piece. The marshmallows were satisfactorily toated, allowed to cool and proclaimed delicious. My daughter made six and didn't ask for more after those were gone. All in all I thought that the book recommended simple, fairly easy to make recipes that children would find fun. Some of the recipes sound like you'd have to be fairly ambitious or very crafty but others such as fair popcorn and pizza could be easily assembled. What I liked about this book is it encourages children to be creative and crafty with food items. Since there are different themes items can be prepared at different times and depending on the age of the children some things could be done in advance. I give Tiny Treats 3.5 out of 5 stars.