Both JD and Miss J absolutely adore cats, so much so that when we go to visit their grandma, they’re usually calling out her kitty’s names before they’ve even taken their coats off.

As such fans of all things feline, I’m delighted to be working with Lionsgate to celebrate the release of cat-escapade movie, Nine Lives on DVD, Blue Ray and Digital Download. It’s available to order now!

What better way to mark the occasion, we decided, than to throw a cat-themed party, with food as cute as it is delicious. The treats include a smiling cat pizza with breadstick whiskers, adorable kitty rice cakes, and wonderful little chocolate kitty cake pops to finish.

It’s a great mix of treats to tuck into while watching the film’s hero, a human turned feline, attempt to return to his own body.

Nine Lives stars acting legend Kevin Spacey as Tom Brand, a real estate billionaire who’s so focussed on his business that he’s neglected his family life. That is until he needs to find a birthday gift for Rebecca, his 10 year old daughter.

After years of pleading for a cat for her birthday, and with Tom out of ideas, he finally relents and purchases Mr. Fuzzypants from a mysterious pet shop owner (played by the always fantastic Christopher Walken).

However, shortly after buying Mr. Fuzzypants, an accident leaves Tom’s body in a coma while Tom himself becomes trapped in the body of Mr. Fuzzypants. While desperate to communicate with his family and return to his body, Tom learns he has a week to reconnect with his family and become a better father and husband.

There’s plenty of hijinks along the way as Tom learns to become less of a sourpuss (see what I did there?). It’s a sweet film for younger children, with Tom learning what’s really important in his life by the end.

The effects are great, so if anyone if your family is a cat lover this one is a good choice to snuggle up with on a chilly afternoon.

So let’s get started with the treats!

Healthy kitty rice cakes

What’s not to love about these crunchy little kitten faces?! Made with rice cakes, cream cheese and veg, they’re a healthy, yummy option that all kids should enjoy. They can even help make them if they want to.

Ingredients

• 1 pack mini rice cakes (we used tomato and carrot flavoured ones)
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• Small bunch fresh chives
• 3 piece of thinly sliced cucumber
• 2 fresh spinach leaves
• 1 radish
• 1/4 of a yellow pepper

Instructions

Gather together the ingredients together, cutting all the chives down to the same length.

Spread the rice crackers with cream cheese.

Place six chives onto a cracker to form whiskers.

Then place another rice cake on top to form a sandwich.

Cut the cumber into slices, then cut into eight sections, the same way you would with a cake or pizza.

Push two into the cream cheese layer of the sandwich to form ears.

Use a straw to cut out small circles from the spinach leaves to make eyes. If you’re having trouble fishing the circles out you can blow from the other end.

Fix them to the top of the rice cake sandwich using small dabs of cream cheese.

Take fine slices of radish skin and trim into a triangle for the nose.

Again, fix in place with cream cheese.

Slice the pepper into very fine strands about 1/2 inch long (scissors work well for this) and use these to form the cat’s mouth.

Stick to the rice cake to make the mouth, again fixed with cream cheese.

Repeat with the remaining rice cakes and enjoy!

Aren’t they cute?

If you want to make your own kitty rice cakes here’s the recipe again in a helpful, printable format. Just use the grey ‘PRINT’ button in the recipe card below.

Kitty pizza with breadstick whiskers

It doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or an adult, pizza is always a party favourite. It’s the perfect for sharing and goes well with a variety of other foods. It also still tastes great even after cooling down, which comes in handy during a cat-themed party where it could be five minutes in between slices due to an impromptu ‘who can make the best cat sound’ competition.

In terms of flavours, it’s hard to top the classic combination of a tomato base and mozzarella, but in when it comes to toppings, there’s really no limit to what you can create. We opted for veggies to keep the pizza on the healthy side. The whiskers taste great on their own, but anything that allows JD access to more tomato dipping sauce is always going to be a winner.

Ingredients

• 300g (10.5 oz) strong bread flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 jar for pizza sauce or tomato purée
• 125g (4.5 oz) grated mozzarella
• Black olives
• Green and orange peppers

Instructions

Add the flour, yeast and salt into bowl and mix together.

Add 200ml of lukewarm water and bring together in the bowl with a wooden spoon or by hand.

Turn the dough out on to a floured work surface and knead for a few minutes until smooth and return to the bowl.

Cover with a wet tea towel or cling film for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F (180C/360F fan), turn the dough out and divide into two equal parts.

On floured work surface roll the dough out until just larger than the kitty template (which can be downloaded cut out as pdf or image).

Place the template over the dough.

Cut around the template with a sharp knife to form the head.

With the leftover dough roll out six breadsticks around 4 inches long for the whiskers.

Cut the green peppers into two circles (I used a very tiny biscuit cutter), and add a slither of olive for the pupils. Make the nose and mouth out of the orange pepper.

Add the pizza sauce, mozzarella and vegetables to make a face. Lay the breadsticks on top of the pizza for whiskers.

Bake for 12 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Transfer to a plate or board and server with any dipping sauces of your choice for the breadsticks.

If you want to make your own kitty pizza here’s the recipe again in a helpful, printable format. Just use the grey ‘PRINT’ button in the recipe card below.

Free standing chocolate kitty cake pops with legs and tails

I think these cake pops are so cute, and the perfect size for little hands. Cakes aren’t for everyday, of course, but if you’re keen to enjoy a treat on a special occasion, these are just the ticket.

Miss J spent a minute meowing conversations between her own cake pop and the others on the plate before ruthlessly devouring it – much hilarity!

I found the peppermint sticks add a nice extra crunch, and drawing on the faces is something that kids should definitely find fun, especially if they get to eat their own creations. If you’re having a party why not bring them out blank and let the kids go wild with icing pens?

We also made a few of the pops with just a tail to make them look like they were sitting down (see the one in the background top left in the image above), which worked really well, and looked adorable.

Here’s how to make them…

Ingredients

• 150g (5 oz) butter or margarine, softened
• 200g (7 oz) caster sugar
• 3 medium free range eggs
• 1 tsp (7 oz) vanilla essence
• 200g (7 oz) self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• Cake tin
• Approx 8 tbsp chocolate frosting (we used a tub of Chocolate Fudge Icing)
• Approx 20 cake pop sticks
• 30g (1 oz) milk chocolate, for securing the sticks
• Approx 350g (12.5 oz) chocolate or candy melts
• A bag of chocolate covered peppermint sticks (straight pretzels will also work)
• Something to stand your pops up in, such as a polystyrene block, or a box lid with holes punched into it

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 170C/240F (150C/300F fan). Add the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla essence to a bowl and beat. Fold in the flour, baking powder and cocoa.

Spread evenly in a cake tin and bake for around 25 minutes until springy on top. You can use one cake tin, but spreading the mixture out over two will make it cook and cool more quickly. If you’re in a hurry you can also buy a chocolate sponge.

Wait for the cakes to completely cool.

Cut the cake into large chunks and place in a large bowl. Crumble the cake with your hands gently until it resembles coarse bread crumbs, then use your hands to work in the frosting, adding spoonful by spoonful until it just starts to come together as a crumbly but mouldable mixture.

If you have an ice scream scoop handy it’s a great way of making sure all the balls will be of an even size, if not you can just do it by eye.

Once you have your portions ready you can begin to roll.

Try to get them as round as possible but don’t squash them too much – you don’t want them to be too dense.

Take your melted chocolate and dip each cake pop stick about 1/2 a cm into it, then push it half way into the cake ball. Repeat until you’ve pushed all the sticks in to an equal depth, then put them all in the fridge to chill for at least an hour, preferably two or more.

Melt the chocolate / colour melts as directed. Make sure everything is ready before you take the cake pops out of the fridge so that they stay as cold as possible.

Dip each cake in turn to cover the whole pop, then twist a few times over the tub to get rid of the drips.

Before it dries, carefully push the legs and tail 1 cm into the cake pop, and place in a piece of polystyrene or box lid so that the pops stand up while they set.

Once the cake pops are fully set you can remove the sticks and start to add the faces using the icing pens.

If you want to make your own kitty cake pops here’s the recipe again in a helpful, printable format. Just use the grey ‘PRINT’ button in the recipe card below.

So, do you fancy trying a kitty themed party of your own. Which of the cat themed treats would you most like to make to enjoy while watching Nine Live and why?

Win a copy of Nine Lives on DVD (3 to be won)

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Good luck!

This is a commissioned post for Nine Lives / Lionsgate.