12 Days of Christmas Ideas – Day 12

Well here we are – Day 12 of ’12 Days of Christmas Ideas’.  So many ideas to choose from yet somehow I managed to whittle it down to 12 of my favourites.  Today’s idea is not only a favourite of mine, but a favourite with everyone whenever I set one up.  It is the Sundae Buffet.  Plus with today’s idea we are offering a free download of Christmas tags and buffet labels.

I have done Sundae Buffets for a few years now and whether its for children or adults they always prove to be popular.  Being that Christmas Day can often be a hot one here in New Zealand I thought it would be great to create one that is very Christmassy and will go well along side Christmas Dinner.  A simple solution to dessert – they are fairly easy to set up and most of the prep-work can be done well in advance.  Not only that they look incredible!

For this Sundae Buffet I have used dishes that I have collected over the years (mostly from my grandmothers when they cleaned out their china cabinets), but you can use anything to hold your toppings.  It doesn’t need to be a great expense. I’ve seen people use paper bags and terracotta pots.  I suggest you look around your home and see what you have available.  If you decide you do need to buy some dishes try the second hand shops, they often will have a variety of suitable dishes.

It’s so easy to get carried away with the number of toppings you add to a Sundae Buffet.  Keep in mind that a little can go a long way. I always like to start with either Vanilla or French Vanilla Ice cream, that way it keeps the toppings as the main feature and flavour.  I then work at having a selection of toppings from the following categories: Sprinkles; Sauces; Fruit (Fresh or Frozen) and Sweet Treats.  Depending on the occasion I might add a few extras – for example being that this Sundae Buffet was a Christmas theme, I added the little Gingerbread Men.

For the sprinkles I started with the chocolate drops, then chopped up some shortbread biscuits and walnuts.  I also decided I just had to have some Christmas coloured candies and 100s and 1000s.  I found an online candy store (based in NZ) called Crazy Candies.  Their candies are sorted by colour which meant I could easily find what I wanted. I ended up buying one pack of their red chocolate gems and one pack of their green chocolate gems.  I was very impressed with their service and how quickly they delivered.  To get the mix of 100s and 1000s that I wanted I ended up buying one packet of each colour and mixing them myself.  I got mine from an awesome little cake decorating shop in New Lynn, Auckland called Miss Bon Bon.  If you do plan to visit, try and go on a Friday as it is cupcake day and they are just divine.  You can place orders with them over the phone if you live further afield. Alternatively Pretty Baker have a good online store that also supply these.

For the sweet treats you can have anything you fancy.  I like to keep them bite size since it’s it really just about having a taste and you don’t want them to take up the entire sundae cup.  For this Christmas theme I went for mini Christmas mince tarts, Christmas cake and mini chocolate éclairs.  For the Sauces I always feel that 3 is a good number – in this case I choose Maple Syrup,  Homemade Mixed Berry Sauce and Homemade Chocolate Sauce.  Lastly I added in the fresh Strawberries.

Once you have your toppings all sorted it’s just a matter of setting it up, putting out the sundae dishes ( I suggest using small ones – people can always come back for seconds) and adding the buffet labels.  You can either make your own our download our editable designs.

Download Christmas 2013 Tags & Buffet Labels

So that brings us to the end of our ’12 Days of Christmas Ideas’.  We’d love to hear your feedback about any of the ideas and if you decide to try out any for yourself we’d love to hear how you got on.

Merry Christmas, may your countdown to Christmas 2013 be creative, low-stress and most of all enjoyable.