someday, yummy sundae

April 21, 2014 1:31 PM

we are having a sundae bar at our wedding. what is the best (cheapest) way to get very large quantities of candies and chocolates for a sundae bar for 175 people? We're willing to spend money on delicious, but not on packaging. We are willing to ship stuff, but not to pay extravagant fees to do so. We are willing to buy at Costco, but it seems like cheaper should exist somewhere? Also, what are your favourite sundae toppings that you would be excited to see at a sundae bar? Also, if you have any tips about how we should lay it out in a cute way, please feel free to inspire us. thank you!
posted by andreapandrea to Food & Drink (20 answers total)

What city is the wedding taking place in?
posted by jbickers at 1:33 PM on April 21, 2014

Unless you've got an in with a restaurant and can buy from one of their suppliers, I think Costco/Sam's will probably be the easiest. The wholesale places seem to deal in...large quantities.

As for toppings, I can only recommend bits of Heath bar or Skor bars, brownie chunks and depending on the ice cream (chocolate?), Nutter Butter pieces.

And sprinkles, because everyone loves sprinkles.

and hats off for the title
posted by jquinby at 1:43 PM on April 21, 2014

The last wedding I went to with a sundae bar was pretty simple:
Vanilla and Chocolate ice cream
Fresh whipped cream
Chocolate Sauce
Caramel Sauce
Strawberry Sauce
mini marshmallows
chocolate chips
crushed mini peanutbutter cups
chopped walnuts
maraschino cherries

However, a couple of my friends ended up dripping sauce / melted ice cream on themselves, so while delicious, it can be a fairly messy undertaking.

I've also been to weddings with candy bars (where you pack up a bag of assorted candies to take home with you), so your question sort of confused me at first.
posted by FreezBoy at 1:43 PM on April 21, 2014

For inspiration on how to lay it out, have you been to a Marble Slab Creamery or Cold Stone Creamery? Scroll down to "catering" here to get an idea.
posted by Bentobox Humperdinck at 1:47 PM on April 21, 2014

Best answer: Check Oriental Trading, they have some good candy in bulk. FWIW, we did a candy bar, followed the suggestions online to have, like, 1/2 lb per guest, and ended up with a ton of candy leftover. If I did it again, I wouldn't buy so much. We had a lot of elderly guests, though, YMMV.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:51 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: the wedding is outside of montreal. at a summer camp, so if people spill ice cream on themselves they can just go jump in the lake.

we can ship stuff to US addresses though and bring them across the border; we travel there pretty regularly.

also, don't want to threadsit here, but that wholesale place looks awesome, and exactly what we are looking for -- just in smaller quantities! anyone?
posted by andreapandrea at 1:52 PM on April 21, 2014

I'm not sure if chocolate jimmies are a standard sundae topping but that's my favorite ice cream accompaniment.

For cute display ideas I guess searching Pinterest for sundae bars is a good first step.
posted by Room 641-A at 1:52 PM on April 21, 2014

Best answer: And sprinkles, because everyone loves sprinkles.

Unless you're from the Boston area and then everyone loves jimmies.

I asked Kinetic 3, ice-cream scooper and he said:

whipped cream duh
fudge sauce
butterscotch sauce
caramel sauce
marshmallow sauce or mini marshmallows
strawberries
blueberries
bananas
Reese's Pieces
Gummi bears
coconut
raisins
M&Ms
teeny chocolate chips
cinnamon chips
chocolate mint chips
butterscotch chips
smooshed hydrox cookies (he says Oreos are a rookie mistake)
smooshed gingersnaps
smooshed pretzels
smooshed chocolate-covered/peanut-butter fllled pretzels
smooshed Thin Mint cookies
smooshed pieces of cake WITH frosting
Nerds
Pop Rocks
Rolos
Sno Caps
Swedish fish
Andes mints
Milky Ways
Kit Kats
all the nuts

and duh cherries on top.

Most ice cream places will be happy to sell you five-gallons tubs of ice cream.
posted by kinetic at 1:53 PM on April 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

I just had a sundae bar at my recent wedding, although the caterer just made it happen, so no advice for shopping. However, we did have coconut ice cream for the 9/60 people who couldn't have dairy, including me. Also, I saw an idea on pinterest where they served the ice cream pre-scooped into Mason jars which then could be set on ice or in a cooler.
posted by carolr at 2:05 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

At one point in my life (many years ago) I worked at a TCBY yogurt shop as a manager and we would regularly sell large bags of toppings and cans of syrups to individuals/churches/companies that were doing ice cream social type things. The cost probably wasn't much less than buying it yourself, but everything was pre-cut/crumbled and we did need several weeks advance notice so that we could tack it onto our regular order. So I would suggest contacting a local ice cream/yogurt parlor and see if they would be willing to work with you.

As an aside, we always suggested cutting up fruit toppings yourself because they go bad so quickly...but sliced bananas, cherries, berries etc are so so so good as toppings.

Congrats!
posted by AnneShirley at 2:19 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, I want to add that if you have a way of keeping it warm (double broiler style...with a sterno keeping the water warm) warm peanut butter is the best topping ever.
posted by AnneShirley at 2:22 PM on April 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

I don't have any suggestions for sourcing the toppings, but for display, if you want to go fancy, Save-On-Crafts has a lovely selection of Apothecary Jars and glass vases, along with cute metal scoops.

However, your "jump in the lake" comment makes me think you want less fancy. How about an assortment of thrift store vases/glass bowls, or just the candy toppings in mason jars with spoons?
posted by sarajane at 2:49 PM on April 21, 2014

While a huge array of candy and cookie crumbs and fruit and so on is fun, I think if it were me, I'd go for a narrower, more traditional set of toppings, but use higher quality ingredients, and really nail the presentation. Fewer toppings is less work, takes up less space, will be cheaper, and makes it easier to estimate quantities so you have less left-overs. More variety will make the sundae line move slower.

I'd mostly stick to the classics. Whipped cream, two or three sauces (hot fudge, butterscotch, strawberry), a few fruits (cherries, bananas, etc), some crushed nuts, and one or two candies/cookie type things (maybe mini m&ms, nilla wafers). A few flavors of ice cream, and a dairy-free sorbet and/or dairy-substitute ice cream. You don't need to nail everybody's favorite sundae ever, you just need to make sure everyone can find something they like.

If you really do want more variety, I'd get it from ice cream flavors. Aside from vanilla, chocolate, and a dairy-free option, they wouldn't all need to be out the whole time. The mint chocolate chip can wait in a freezer until the cookie dough ice cream is gone.

Whichever way you go with it, this sounds delicious and fun!

(Root beer: great idea, or unnecessary complexity?)
posted by aubilenon at 2:51 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I'd go against gummy bears, they get hard and weird in the ice cream.
posted by radioamy at 3:17 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Froot Loops! Also pretzel Goldfish.
posted by nkknkk at 3:22 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I get that sort of stuff from Bulk Barn; it's way cheaper than grocery store prices. Should be a store near you.
posted by angiep at 3:29 PM on April 21, 2014

Seconding the Bulk Barn. WAY cheaper and you can get exactly the amount that you want, of whatever you want, without paying for shipping or packaging.
posted by VioletU at 3:41 PM on April 21, 2014

I've done candy and dessert bars with tons of clear glass - you can see what's in it, and you likely have things hanging around or available for cheap to use. Vases, glasses, clear bowls, pitchers - the trick is to do varying heights on your table so it doesn't look like a flat expanse of sugar. I've used cake stands, bricks wrapped in paper or foil, upside down bowls, cutting boards, stuff like that. Long iced tea spoons are good for tall containers to fish things out. You haven't lived until you've built yourself a giant flower vase full of lollipops :)
posted by ersatzkat at 3:56 PM on April 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

Nuts.com has lots of great toppings available in 1 pound bags. You can search by color, so you could choose things like gummy bears and M&M to match the color theme of your wedding. The prices are great too!
posted by dangerbird at 7:32 AM on April 22, 2014

Yeah, I would compare Bulk Barn and Costco (it's what we're doing for ours!). We aren't doing a sundae bar, but we are doing a potluck, so looking at some amount of self-catering as well.

I would be wary about getting WAY MORE than you need - remember that not everyone is going to go for every topping! (This is definitely a mistake I've made before for other smaller events)

As for cute presentation - try going to Value Village/Salvation Army and getting cool looking glassware. My mum (the crazy person) has spent the last few months Craigslisting like a fiend, and has about 150+ plates/bowls/glasses/serving dishes for less than the cost of renting. (I think she not-so-secretly wanted to own an enormous amount of vintage dishware).
posted by aggyface at 5:14 AM on April 23, 2014