The one time of year you buy Copha (that packaging really builds the hype) always means chocolate crackles are on the cards. Bonus points if there’s shredded coconut or sprinkles on top.

Arguably the greatest party food of all time, honey joys are the perfect blend of crunchy cornflakes, sticky caramel and a slight herbaceous warmth of honey. We’ll take 10.

No matter what you call them, tiny red hot dogs absolutely take your party from good to great. Bounced around a communal pot of tomato sauce, footy franks are great when piping hot from the pot and hours later when they’re cold – don’t judge us.

While a closely guarded secret for decades onshore, the rest of the world is finally catching up with fairy bread. We want it on the whitest bread possible, margarine, and 100s & 1000s. Accept no substitutes.

Served scalding hot, a family pack of party pies is the smell of childhood parties. If you haven’t received at least second degree burns on your chin from an innocent looking little pastry, have you even been to a party?

Another delicious hazard, cloying dry pastry wrapped around mysterious grey meat paste is as synonymous with a kids party as popped balloons and hysterical tears. You’ve just gotta have them.

Almost always forgotten in the oven, once served chicken nuggets make a great mess of the aforementioned bowl of tomato sauce.

The perfect way to ruin two perfectly good treats, frogs in a pond AKA a smiling Freddo Frog suspended in lime green jelly was a brilliant denouement to any sugar crash.

When we say ice cream cake, we’re not talking about a beautiful semifreddo or even a fancy Viennetta. It absolutely had to be the neapolitan chocolate, vanilla and strawberry cake with soggy sprinkles’ and piping.

God bless the mums who thought a platter of veggies would go down a treat. Presumably the carrot and celery sticks made an appearance to stave the judgement of the other parents, by the end of the party the carrots had curls and the celery become a limp mess. Yet it wouldn’t be the same without them.