Miranda Party!

The hilarious Miranda Hart!

So as you may or may not be aware, I'm totally obsessed with Miranda (the TV show and the comedian!) If you haven't seen the sitcom, you simply must! Funniest show ever! I love how she's just naturally a funny person, I love the slapstick and the self-deprecating humour, I love the Britishness of it! And of course, the fart jokes! (Heheheheheh). It's not lost on me that Miranda is a female comedian, a female comedian who created, writes and stars in her own sitcom, a wildly successful mainstream one, no less. Totes amazeballs! But mainly I just love her because she is absolutely hilarious.

We've gotten heaps of our friends onto the show (including my cousin, who in turn, spread the Miranda love far and wide when she travelled through Europe last year), and I must have seen the first episode at least a dozen times! I just can't get sick of it.

We were so excited when the third series started in December, and there was a point earlier this year when we literally had two nights a week dedicated to the viewing of Miranda with friends. (Tuesday nights were mini-Miranda marathons for a friend who was catching up on the series, and Wednesday nights we'd have everyone gather at our place to watch the latest episode). Sometimes it became three nights, as I'd have to re-watch certain episodes to pick up things I'd missed because we were laughing too hard.

The logical conclusion of all this? A Miranda party! Essentially this was an excuse for our fellow Miranda-obsessed friends to sit around one afternoon, watching Miranda and eating cake.

Having watched the series so many times, I've started to notice things in the background of the show - like how Miranda (the character) always seems to have a cake or two in her flat, or at least at tin of biscuits or a plate of sweets! And you know, her flat is surprisingly stylish for someone whose shtick is that she's not very chic. My cousin and I often seem to have long discussions about the Miranda world, the characters, the quotes, the storylines. (Like, why didn't Clive know that Gary was back? And what happened to Clive anyway?) I know this is extremely dorky, but I suppose it's too late to be shy now!

At first I had thought I could try to recreate some of the cakes featured in the show, but they all seemed to be big, multi-layered affairs like Victoria sponges with whipped cream and berries, coffee sponge cakes etc. (And yes, I did make a list). Whilst I'm sure they would have tasted heavenly, I didn't want to make so much food that we wouldn't be able to eat it. In the end, I decided to make a selection of Miranda-inspired food, in generous quantities, but in bite sized pieces so we could keep picking at them all afternoon long.

My friends brought savouries and other snacky bits and pieces: cheese, grapes, chocolate Digestives (so very British!), crackers, crisps and so on. (I bloody love crisps!)

The snack table

The party definitely felt like a success - for the first few hours no-one even asked if we could watch TV, but kept hovering around the snack table, or as I like to call it: my "nibble and mingle zone". Some of us even had savoury, moved to sweet... then switched back to savoury! Wild and crazy, I kid you not!

I only made one hot item: a big plate of sausage rolls. (Hehe, "sausage").

Sausage rolls

My sausage rolls are super easy: I just use my favourite pork sausages, cut off and discard the skins, then wrap them up in store-bought puff pastry. I glaze them with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds, then bake them at 200C for 30 minutes. Super yum!

I also made some mini Malteaser muffins (i.e. Nigella's malteaser cake, baked as mini-muffins), which I felt were like a bite-sized version of the many multi-layered cakes in the show.

Malteaser Mini Muffins

No savoury muffins here!

Malteaser Mini Muffin

I also thought Miranda (the character) would appreciate how nipple-tastic they are! Hehehehe. (Ooh! Naughty!)

Malteaser Mini Muffin

I made a batch of coconut macaroons too - not that these have ever been on the show, but I wanted something gluten free for one of my friends who is a coeliac, and having British biscuits in a tin felt very "Miranda". (I also had egg whites in the freezer and coconut in the pantry - winning all around!)

Macaroons

Very tasty, moist little coconut treats. Oh good lord, that's moist! It's a Nigella recipe, definitely worth giving it a go!

Macaroons

The pièce de résistance was a pavlova, (Miranda eats pavlova before partying with Tamara in the episode: "A New Low"), which again, was a gluten free treat we could all enjoy! And even though I said I didn't want a bunch of huge cakes, I thought it would be nice to have one central, large cake. I made it on the morning of the party, and decorated it just before my friends arrived.

Meringue!

I was impressed with how stiff (Ooh.. naughty!) the meringue mixture turned out. Check it out!

Meringue Tower!

I was almost tempted to bake it in the tower shape, but thought a normal cake shape would be more sensible.

Cake-shaped

Pavlova

Pavlova!

Normally I'd slice up the pavlova and serve it on individual plates... but eh, I didn't want to do any more dishes, and we were all friends, and everyone was looking at the pavlova with hungry eyes... we plonked the pavlova on the coffee table, sat around, grabbed a spoon each and dug right in! Communal pavlova!

Digging into the communal pavlova

Miranda: "There's no need to cut that!"

Pavlova!

Finally, sugar-satiated and full, we moved the remaining snacks to the coffee table, put another pot of tea on and started watching Miranda. Such fun!

Snack table

Now that I think about it, this party seems to be like a really low-key version of my Mad Men-themed birthday party of 2011!

Do you watch Miranda? Do you have a favourite episode? Favourite character? What's your favourite Miranda moment? Are you team Gary or team Mike? What are your thoughts on themed parties?

The hilarious Miranda Hart!

So as you may or may not be aware, I'm totally obsessed with Miranda (the TV show and the comedian!) If you haven't seen the sitcom, you simply must! Funniest show ever! I love how she's just naturally a funny person, I love the slapstick and the self-deprecating humour, I love the Britishness of it! And of course, the fart jokes! (Heheheheheh). It's not lost on me that Miranda is a female comedian, a female comedian who created, writes and stars in her own sitcom, a wildly successful mainstream one, no less. Totes amazeballs! But mainly I just love her because she is absolutely hilarious.

We've gotten heaps of our friends onto the show (including my cousin, who in turn, spread the Miranda love far and wide when she travelled through Europe last year), and I must have seen the first episode at least a dozen times! I just can't get sick of it.

We were so excited when the third series started in December, and there was a point earlier this year when we literally had two nights a week dedicated to the viewing of Miranda with friends. (Tuesday nights were mini-Miranda marathons for a friend who was catching up on the series, and Wednesday nights we'd have everyone gather at our place to watch the latest episode). Sometimes it became three nights, as I'd have to re-watch certain episodes to pick up things I'd missed because we were laughing too hard.

The logical conclusion of all this? A Miranda party! Essentially this was an excuse for our fellow Miranda-obsessed friends to sit around one afternoon, watching Miranda and eating cake.

Having watched the series so many times, I've started to notice things in the background of the show - like how Miranda (the character) always seems to have a cake or two in her flat, or at least at tin of biscuits or a plate of sweets! And you know, her flat is surprisingly stylish for someone whose shtick is that she's not very chic. My cousin and I often seem to have long discussions about the Miranda world, the characters, the quotes, the storylines. (Like, why didn't Clive know that Gary was back? And what happened to Clive anyway?) I know this is extremely dorky, but I suppose it's too late to be shy now!

At first I had thought I could try to recreate some of the cakes featured in the show, but they all seemed to be big, multi-layered affairs like Victoria sponges with whipped cream and berries, coffee sponge cakes etc. (And yes, I did make a list). Whilst I'm sure they would have tasted heavenly, I didn't want to make so much food that we wouldn't be able to eat it. In the end, I decided to make a selection of Miranda-inspired food, in generous quantities, but in bite sized pieces so we could keep picking at them all afternoon long.

My friends brought savouries and other snacky bits and pieces: cheese, grapes, chocolate Digestives (so very British!), crackers, crisps and so on. (I bloody love crisps!)

The snack table

The party definitely felt like a success - for the first few hours no-one even asked if we could watch TV, but kept hovering around the snack table, or as I like to call it: my "nibble and mingle zone". Some of us even had savoury, moved to sweet... then switched back to savoury! Wild and crazy, I kid you not!

I only made one hot item: a big plate of sausage rolls. (Hehe, "sausage").

Sausage rolls

My sausage rolls are super easy: I just use my favourite pork sausages, cut off and discard the skins, then wrap them up in store-bought puff pastry. I glaze them with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds, then bake them at 200C for 30 minutes. Super yum!

I also made some mini Malteaser muffins (i.e. Nigella's malteaser cake, baked as mini-muffins), which I felt were like a bite-sized version of the many multi-layered cakes in the show.

Malteaser Mini Muffins

No savoury muffins here!

Malteaser Mini Muffin

I also thought Miranda (the character) would appreciate how nipple-tastic they are! Hehehehe. (Ooh! Naughty!)

Malteaser Mini Muffin

I made a batch of coconut macaroons too - not that these have ever been on the show, but I wanted something gluten free for one of my friends who is a coeliac, and having British biscuits in a tin felt very "Miranda". (I also had egg whites in the freezer and coconut in the pantry - winning all around!)

Macaroons

Very tasty, moist little coconut treats. Oh good lord, that's moist! It's a Nigella recipe, definitely worth giving it a go!

Macaroons

The pièce de résistance was a pavlova, (Miranda eats pavlova before partying with Tamara in the episode: "A New Low"), which again, was a gluten free treat we could all enjoy! And even though I said I didn't want a bunch of huge cakes, I thought it would be nice to have one central, large cake. I made it on the morning of the party, and decorated it just before my friends arrived.

Meringue!

I was impressed with how stiff (Ooh.. naughty!) the meringue mixture turned out. Check it out!

Meringue Tower!

I was almost tempted to bake it in the tower shape, but thought a normal cake shape would be more sensible.

Cake-shaped

Pavlova

Pavlova!

Normally I'd slice up the pavlova and serve it on individual plates... but eh, I didn't want to do any more dishes, and we were all friends, and everyone was looking at the pavlova with hungry eyes... we plonked the pavlova on the coffee table, sat around, grabbed a spoon each and dug right in! Communal pavlova!

Digging into the communal pavlova

Miranda: "There's no need to cut that!"

Pavlova!

Finally, sugar-satiated and full, we moved the remaining snacks to the coffee table, put another pot of tea on and started watching Miranda. Such fun!

Snack table

Now that I think about it, this party seems to be like a really low-key version of my Mad Men-themed birthday party of 2011!

Do you watch Miranda? Do you have a favourite episode? Favourite character? What's your favourite Miranda moment? Are you team Gary or team Mike? What are your thoughts on themed parties?