How to Host a Dessert Buffet
If you want to entertain a large group of people by serving something everyone likes and without spending a fortune, host a dessert buffet. The choices for the buffet are endless, but there are quite a few tried and true possibilities that are easily prepared and are fairly inexpensive. Read on to learn how to host a dessert buffet. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Plates
- Napkins
- Cups
- Glasses
- Forks and spoons
- Creamer pitcher
- Two coffee pots
- Two sugar bowls (one for artificial sweetener)
- Small plate for lemon slices
- Pitcher
- Ice bucket and tongs
- Ice cream scoop
- Lemonade mix
- Sliced lemons
- Maraschino cherries
- Coffee--regular and decaffeinated
- Cream
- Sugar and artificial sweetener
- Ice
- Desserts
Instructions
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Purchase or borrow all the necessary non-food items. Depending on the number of guests, you might decide to use china/ glass plates (they don’t have to all match) or paper/plastic ones. Clear plastic ones are a good choice because they can be washed and re-used. You can buy attractive Styrofoam cups which can serve as either hot or cold cups. If you can assemble enough metal forks, they are better than plastic for eating items like pie. Cloth napkins are nice if you have them, and again, they don’t have to match. In fact, a variety of them rolled up and piled in a basket is an attractive addition to a buffet table.
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Plan your menu. Here is a simple formula: something chocolate, something with fruit, something with nuts, something cold, something warm. Here is a sample menu: brownies, angel food cake with strawberry topping, pecan pie bars and warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream.
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Prepare the brownies. Use your own recipe or a mix. Bake in long pans, and, for variety, cut into diamond shapes.
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Prepare the angel food cake with strawberry topping. Buy a ready-made angel food cake. Slice fresh strawberries, sprinkle with sugar, and let sit for about an hour before serving. If fresh strawberries aren’t available, frozen ones will do nicely.
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5
Prepare the pecan pie bars. A good recipe can be found on the Epicurious website.
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Buy rolls of pie crust dough in the refrigerated section of the supermarket and a can of apple filling for a quick and inexpensive pie. Buy vanilla ice cream and pre-scoop it into balls for easy serving.
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Set up your drink table (or counter space). Place both coffee pots at one end with a little hand printed label on each so guests will no which is the decaf. Next to these put the filled sugar bowls (one with artificial sweetener) and the creamer. Arrange the coffee cups. Also set out a little row of spoons. On the other end of the table set out the pitchers of lemonade, a small dish with slices of lemonade, a small bowl of cherries, and the filled ice bucket and tongs.
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Set up your dessert table arranging the desserts attractively. At one end of the table set out the plates, napkins and forks.
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