Entertaining Friends

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever!

What’s a party without ice cream? Not a party. According to my family, ice cream is a major must for pretty much Every. Single. Celebration. Especially according to my daughter Nicole who looooves ice cream.

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

As you know, we celebrated Nicole’s college graduation earlier this summer. Yea! That is child number three that has now graduated college. Child number four is on track to graduate next spring – another loud cheer! Yahoo! So of course we had to celebrate. Not only did we host a graduation brunch in Boulder, we also invited family and friends on over for a hometown graduation barbecue.

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

Nicole’s graduation barbecue was actually held at her father’s home. We tend to flip flop the hosting as we both love to entertain. For this party I was in charge of bringing a large fruit salad, a Summer Orzo Salad, and the ice cream bar that Nicole had requested for the dessert.

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

In planning the dessert I had a few more constraints than normal to think about – one being that I needed to transport the goods and keep them frozen until serving time. I also love to make desserts easy for guests to pick up and eat. I love bite sized finger desserts. I find that the easier you  make it for guests to indulge in a sweet treat the more likely they will. Soooooo – this got me to thinking.

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

When Alyssa graduated she wanted to have carrot cake cupcakes served in mini mason jars. The guests loved them! One, they were absolutely delicious! The next time you make carrot cake, you have to try this recipe! Seriously. So good! And two, they were cute. What’s not to love about dessert in a jar? People picked them up and ate them up. Yum! Having made those two years ago, I still had a number of mini mason jars on hand.

Carrot-Cake-in-a-jar

In the past when I have set up an Ice Cream Sundae Bar, I have pre-scooped ice cream into cupcake liners and froze them scooped and ready to serve. This has worked well when I served them directly from my freezer. But this time I also needed to transport them and keep them frozen. Something the pre-scooped ice cream in cupcake liners would most likely not hold up to. Again – I have a lot of mini mason jars on hand.

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

So, there it was! My answer. I decided to scoop the ice cream into the mini mason jars. I could completely scoop them up ahead of time and have them ready to go on the day of the party. I simply filled an ice chest with ice and laid the jars on top of the ice. Ice does work best sitting on top of what needs to be kept frozen, but I was afraid that the moisture of the melting ice would smear the ink on my homemade labels. So the jars sat on the ice instead. Not to worry though – it worked perfectly!

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

It was easy to pack everything up and transport it to my ex’s home. He had the table set up in the shade and I brought the rest. After everyone ate – I set up the table and put out the ice cream and toppings. I nestled everything into the ice. The ice is in a table top inflatable buffet serving bar. I had this buffet from two years ago as well. I used it then to keep food chilled. I have used it at non-grad parties, and I simply cover the buffet with a colored plastic table covering, fill it with the ice, and tuck the table covering in under the buffet. Works perfectly.

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

Let me just say – everyone loved the ice cream. I included a few “adult only” toppings. I love Chambord and Baileys – I think they are perfect ice cream toppers 🙂

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

I think one of the reasons these were such a huge hit is because they were small. Really, there was not a lot of ice cream in the jars. The jars were small, and I had to leave room for the toppings. Since they were small bites of dessert, more people than usual picked one up to enjoy. They were also such a huge hit because everyone had fun picking and choosing their very own toppings.

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

Not only was this the easiest ice cream sundae bar ever – it was delicious. A huge hit!

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

Parties are always fun, and this one hosted at my ex-husband’s house, started with an Evite, Yes, you know I love Evite! This one included a graduation picture of of my daughter. Her school colors are black and gold. Go Buffs! And this Evite was a perfect complement to her grad picture!

Nicole Evite Graduation Party

Ice cream is not limited to graduation celebrations – ice cream is perfect for any time!. If you are planning an End of Summer gathering check out this Evite:

The Last of Summer Evite

Or if you just want to have a sweet ice cream party – here is an Evite for that event as well.

Ice Cream Social

You can see why Evite is my go-to invitations when I plan my get togethers. There are so many great ones to choose from.

This ice cream sundae bar is really the best! What toppings would you include?

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever

This post is in collaboration with Evite.com and their Evite Influencer Program. #BeThere #Evite

Easiest Ice Cream Sundae Bar Ever!

 

(38) Comments

  1. Janie says:

    Great idea! Do you happen to have a link to your mason jar stickers?

    1. Stacey says:

      I simply buy Avery stickers at Staples. You can find them here as well: https://www.avery.com/custom-printing/labels/ I print them at home using the Avery templates.

  2. I love this idea for a party. The easiest way to make it happen for a large group.

  3. Wow I never thought of this. This is such a cool idea, thanks for sharing

  4. these look AMAZING! such a cute, clever & delicious idea! will have to do this for my girlies soon.

  5. Teresa says:

    This is such a great idea! This would definitely be a hit at one of my family’s parties. So creative. Now I’m craving ice cream – haha!

  6. This is awesome. My daughter is a senior and she wants a sundae bar at her graduation party. Now I have ideas to start with planning. Thanks!

  7. Omg… this is way too cute and such a good idea for a party! I absolutely love this!

  8. Omg what a great ice cream bar!!! I’m loving that you also included chambord since it is a favorite of mine 😉

  9. Koninika says:

    I was checking out your blog and I love the themed posts and the variety in them. I particularly like this because it has such beautiful pictures. Also, I love the ideas you presented! I’d love to do something like this when my kids are slightly older, though I don’t think this is age specific. We could even do ice cream socials and just invite friends and have a gathering of like minded people. Thanks for sharing your life with us!

  10. What a cute idea! This would be great for birthday parties as well. Congratulations to your daughter!

  11. I’m so stealing the ice cream in mason jars idea. I love a mason jar and we are known for our ice cream bars at sleepovers and backyard parties!

  12. That looks really yummy! And on a hot summer day, it would be totally magnificent. I love the jars of ice cream.

  13. What a great graduation party. This would be awesome for end of the summer celebrations as well. Ice cream pretty much cures all!

  14. This is such a fun idea that kids and adults both will love! There are just so many great uses for mason jars.

  15. I love this idea! I may have to use this for my blog at some point. Thanks for the idea.

  16. I love this idea! I have tons of jars – because I do a ton of canning – but this would be perfect before canning season gets started! How fun!

  17. No party is complete without some delicious ice cream and if it is a sundae that is even better . Congrats to her for graduating too!

  18. You did a great job with the ice cream bar! I love the entire setup and that inflatable bar is brilliant, perfect for keeping any kind of food chilled, from ice cream to salads! This is one of the best ideas I’ve seen so far! Totally keeping this as reference.

  19. I love the idea of the mason jars! It is absolutely brilliant and a way to keep things clean!

  20. Prepackaging the ice cream out in mason jars is such a smart idea. I love the idea of the ice cream bar. It reminds of this place from my childhood that hosted parties with movies, cartoons and ice cream.

  21. Terri says:

    You are very very clever. Love it and it saves all the mess of scooping on site. Sticky hands and all.

  22. What a great idea! Those little ice cream sundaes are ADORABLE! I pinned this idea for my own boys in a few years.

  23. Reesa Lewandowski says:

    Congratulations to her! She looks like she is having such a great time. That ice cream sundae bar is definitely the best one that I have ever seen.

  24. Robin Rue says:

    This is such a cute idea! My kids would love to do something like this with their friends.

  25. This is such a fun party idea! My 5 year old LOVES ice cream. Seriously he would eat it every day if we would let him. I am sure he would have a blast having a sundae bar at his birthday party. I am really going to consider this for his birthday next year!

  26. Your daughter and I must be kindred spirits! Ice cream is the best! What a great idea for the sundae bar – you did a fantastic job!

  27. Such a cute idea! I have a ton of little mason jars here at the house too so this would be perfect for a back to school party idea. I love how easy this would be to pull off too…who needs more work than they need?!?

  28. Wow – what a clever idea! Its so chic and efficient and easy to prep. I love the entire look of it and the ease of it makes it all that much more impressive!

  29. Kimberly says:

    I love your “here’s the scoop” sign. The mason jars are a very clever and cute idea too! It looks like so much fun.

    1. Stacey says:

      We had a great time! Thanks – the jars definitely made it easy.

  30. I love the idea of an ice cream social. You took an old classic and made it modern. I looks like everyone had a lot of fun.

    1. Stacey says:

      Thanks! Yes, everyone had a great time.

  31. Congratulations to the graduate! What a great idea for the party. The mason jars are genius!!!! The problem with ice cream is that I have to scoop it out. Love the toppings bar. Actually, I love everything about this!!

    1. Stacey says:

      Thanks! The mason jars made it so easy!

  32. So cute, but where did you get everything? Such a good idea to use what I think is a kiddie pool? Love it!

    1. Stacey says:

      Sarah, it is actually an inflatable table top cooler. I choose to buy the graduation one two years ago to keep food chilled during a grad party. T hey come in a variety of patterns, but I have just covered with a plastic table cloth when I have wanted a solid color. I’ve added a link above. I made the labels and the jars came from the grocery store. It was easy!

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