Ice Cream Bar Ideas

Ice Cream Bar Ideas – How to prepare a quick and easy DIY ice cream sundae buffet table for a kids or adults party with inspiration for the best toppings ideas.

These Ice Cream Bar Ideas are an easy DIY and budget friendly dessert option to serve to a crowd at a fun ice cream party, your next party or ice cream social.

An ice cream buffet is an overwhelming crowd favorite – welcomed by both kids and adults, alike.

An ice cream buffet can be a really cheap dessert option. You can spend as little or as much as your budget allows and still create a table full of sweet options and your own personal favorite toppings, perfect for a birthday party of summer gathering.

As for the ice cream itself, you can choose to serve a range of your favorite ice cream flavors or just stick to a classic vanilla ice cream, with each ice cream scoop smothered in your choice of toppings. You could of course make homemade no churn ice cream or use your ice cream maker to create any variety of ice cream flavors you’d like, to be enjoyed in these ice cream bowls.

Ice Cream Buffet Toppings Ideas

Here are loads of ideas for a variety of toppings for your own ice cream sundae bar, that are so much fun to construct and a great way to get the whole family involved:

Chocolate – you could chop a chocolate bar, offer chocolate chips, candy bars, peanut butter cups or even M&M’s.

Cookies – crushed or chopped cookies, or even cookie dough, make a crunchy topping to add to your sweet treat.

Nuts – chopped nuts make a nutty topping option.

Pretzels – for a crunchy, savory option.

Coconut – offer shredded or dessicated coconut for a tropical option.

Marshmallows – you could chop large marshmallow or offer mini marshmallows.

Meringues – for a light, crunchy topping option.

Homemade ice cream sundae bowl with easy toppings

Gummies – sweet gummies of all varieties from jelly snakes, gummy bears, gummy worms to sour worms are always a hit with kids. (Of all ages!)

Sauce – this could be store bought chocolate sauce, hot fudge sauce, strawberry or caramel sauce/syrup or you can home make a sauce like lemon curd.

Whipped Cream – for a creamy topping for your ice cream. A good idea is that you could also offer marshmallow fluff or a dairy free whipped cream alternative.

Granola – a healthier option is to offer a crunchy granola.

Chia Seeds – another healthier option are nutritious chia seeds.

Fresh Fruit – chopped strawberries, or other fresh berries such as fresh blueberries, banana or in season fruit makes a naturally sweet topping, especially when in season at a summer party.

You could also offer chopped dried fruit, canned fruit of maraschino cherries – for the ultimate finish to any DIY sundae bar.

Sprinkles – an attractive sweet topping that can be found in a rainbow or colours and range of textures, shapes and sizes. We love rainbow sprinkles for the ultimate sundae that’s full of color.

Constructing DIY Ice Cream Sundaes

The best part is that it’s up to you whether to offer ice cream cones or waffle cones to serve the ice cream sundaes in or you could use cups, small bowls, mason jars or even waffle bowls. (Which I prefer with kids as it means less mess, or at least more contained mess!)

Pop all of the variety of different toppings out, either in the packaging they come in or dished out into a large bowl or two, with labels if needed.

Then, it’s the fun part – each person can construct their own ice cream sundaes, starting with as much ice cream as they want and then selecting from all of the toppings on offer.