An Ice Cream Sundae Dessert Buffet is a quick and easy way to throw together an instant party or put the finishing touches on a holiday event. Since I’m always looking for easier ways to put together a party for a crowd, planning make-ahead ice cream sundaes for our family Christmas Dinner made my toot sweet day a little easier.
With 17 coming for dinner, I’d planned as simple a meal as possible, but even so, cooking for 17 people is still quite a job! Also, because we were having a big meal, I decided that little ice cream sundaes were perfect for those who’d left little or no room for dessert!
I apologize that the above cover photo is a little dark! But, it was late afternoon over the Christmas holiday and my family was standing by, ready to attack this display! I held them at bay, by promising “wait just another minute! Just one more picture from another angle!”
Even with planning, when you are photographing a party or food with the intent of eating it, no amount of planning will give you a “contingency plan” for guests clamoring to dismantle your table! For example, I didn’t take one picture, not one picture, of anyone eating their ice cream! I was too busy eating my own!
With the help of family, I set up this buffet on our kitchen table after dinner. The 17 of us ate our Christmas dinner in our dining room, which left our kitchen table free. But, before eating Christmas dinner, the kitchen table was full of appetizers, nibbles and bits! So, my elves had to clear the appetizers from the kitchen table and then swoop in with all these treats, which were located in our laundry room. Except, of course, for the ice cream, which was in the freezer!
The day before, I scooped ice cream into cupcake cups. I placed the cupcake papers into two 12-cup cupcake pans. For 17 people, I made 24 cupcake-size scoops of ice cream (this turned out to be a gallon and a half of ice cream). I wanted to make sure that I had extra for anyone who wanted two! I’m glad I did, because my sister, Gail (Tiffany’s mother and the Princesses P’s grandmother) ate three! That would be disgusting to admit on our blog, except that she is a skinny little thing and you would never guess that she could eat 3 of anything!
Here’s what we (me and my Christmas elves) did:
We laid out the dessert buffet adding cookies, candy, caramel corn, hot fudge and caramel sauce, whipped cream, etc. The idea is that everyone take a plate, add their scoop of ice cream on the plate and then laden it with treats for the top of the ice cream ball or to eat along-side the ice cream ball.
At the last minute, we added the frozen ice cream balls in the cupcake papers. I stuck with only one flavor, vanilla, which made it easy on me. Plus, the guests had lots of fun add-ons to choose from!
Not only were there Christmas red and green candy-coated M&M’s, mini peppermint candies, Christmas candy corn (yep; they make Christmas candy corn – not just Halloween candy corn!), mini chocolate chips, sprinkle-covered chocolate wafers, mint and peppermint-flavored chocolate chips, little miniature Snickers bars (Charlie’s favorite), reindeer mix, reindeer-shaped and Christmas tree-shaped mini graham crackers, candied nuts such as walnuts and pecans, but lots of different cookies to choose from plus caramel corn and chocolate-covered pretzel rods. Something for everyone!
A fun and easy way to have dessert in a flash for a crowd! Although I have included this as a “recipe” in our Recipes index, there is no “recipe” to print! Just use your imagination and choose toppings that fit your theme! Because…
“I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ice Cream”, right?
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other posts about Christmas)
- 42 Christmas Decorations and Holiday Items for Your Home
- 42 Items for Your Holiday Table
- 42 People to Add to Your Christmas Gift List
- 42 Things to do when Planning Your Next Party
- 42 Things to do with The Elf On The Shelf
- A Deep Thought from The Grinch
- Christmas Apples
- Christmas Caramel Apples
- Christmas Gift Suggestions
- FREE Holiday eCookbook from PicMonkey
- Glorious Messes
- Honor Christmas
- One Christmas
- Peppermint Peeps
- Pinky Swear
- Potato Chip Cookies
- Sally Snowflake: 20 Things to do with The Elf On The Shelf
- Samantha’s Christmas Table
- The Christmas Feeling
- The Gift
- Yes, Virginia
This is so beautiful, I can imagine how much work. I always think of the pictures I should have taken after the fact. Well the ones you got were wonderful.
Thanks, Candi. It was a bright, sunny afternoon and the sun streaming in the window caused unattractive back-lighting! Most of the pictures (I always take way too many) weren’t good because of the back-lighting. These were the best of the bunch and even so, I tried to light them through photo editing. I still have much to learn, but I appreciate your comments that you think they are worthy!