Earlier this year, my very lovely friend Natalie asked me, along with two eager accomplices, to plan her hen.  My thoughts immediately turned to how we would cater the event – no surprises there then!
My co-planners, Laura & Tash, kindly allowed me to hijack Saturday’s lunch, which – since Nat is a keen politico – we decided would have a Conservative Party theme.  Of course, this didn’t involve a pow-wow with David Cameron, more like a peppering of blue decorations (read blue & white gingham napkins sitting alongside DIY Kraft menus) & aptly named games; ‘Prime Minister’s questions’ & such like.
I planned a summer lunch of spinach, feta & pine nut filo pastry pie accompanied by salads galore. As usual, I wildly overcatered & much to the delight of our hen attendees, everyone got to go home with leftovers for a post-hen pick me up.
A beautiful Victorian house in Tooting, London (click here for details) provided the backdrop for our meal & the only additions required were my mandatory run of jam jar vases down the centre of the table.
The whole weekend went swimmingly & was topped only by the wedding.  For those interested, lunch was closely followed by a 90’s dance class, (in which we only managed to learn about 6 seconds of the routine, much to our teacher’s disdain) an obligatory night-out in Tooting & a ‘choux pastry’ lesson the next morning.

See above for the lunch menu & some snaps taken by Tash (who you can find over at www.cakesnobs.wordpress.com)