Part of me wishes I was that mom who made the time and effort to create beautiful party treats and eats, but either I'll outsource, or just skip, mostly because these things just look too hard. However, it was only while paging through More Easy Party Treats for Children by Janette Mocke, that I thought: "Hey, I can do some of that. And hey, I actually WANT to do some of that".

The book has different themes – trains, monsters, sheep, butterflies, bees, superheroes, ragdolls and dinosaurs – and all treats look quite manageable, and don't require sophisticated or complicated ingredients or methods. There is no baking required, so you can definitely save time.  

We're also in good hands with author Janette, who started out by baking cakes for family and friends. When she couldn’t find anyone to make her own wedding cake, it was such a success that she turned her hobby into a business. She now owns Supacakes agency, which produces cakes, cupcakes, treats and toppers for birthdays, weddings and special occasions.

See two of the recipes below to see how doable they are:

Wild flowers

• Green butter icing (recipe on page 8)
• 10 Marie biscuits
• Variety of small sweets

Spread the green butter icing over the Marie biscuits. Place a round sweet in the centre of each biscuit and arrange other sweets around the outside, to create flowers.

MAKES 10

Magic sugardust

• white sugar (enough to fill the bottles)
• pink gel food colouring
• edible gold glitter
• 10 small bottles

Place the sugar in a plastic container with a tight-sealing lid. Add a few drops of pink gel food colouring. Seal the container and shake well, until the sugar is evenly coloured.

Make sure the bottles are clean and dry. Use a small funnel to fill each bottle with alternate layers of pink sugar and gold glitter. Seal the bottle tightly with a cork.

MAKES 10

The book, published by Penguin Random House is available from bookstores for R200.