Candy Buffet

My daughter's 18th birthday surprise - A candy buffet.  We love these and because my daughter doesn't eat chocolate but loves sweets it was the ideal surprise. (Please ignore my white walls, we are in the middle of decorating the dining room but unfortunately had a little setback with our eldest son taken into hospital - he is out now in time for the party which was brilliant.)

The pennants were made using the Cricut Sophisticated cartridge for the letters and the Sizzix pennant extra large 12 inch die.  

My daughter's cake made by the wonderful Louise from Louise's Cakes of Workington in Cumbria - this lady is brilliant and has a great website showcasing all of her wonderful creations which is definitely worth a visit.  Everything on this cake is fabulous, we just want to keep it for life and not eat it.

Thorntons Vanilla Fudge and Chocolate covered vanilla fudge, shortbread icing filled biscuits and Rachael made Tom and Jerry cakes as it has been half term and she was filling in some time.

Flying Saucers, marshmallows, vimto bonbons, raspberry bonbons, sour bottles, sweet necklaces and watches, strawberry cables.  All of the sweets were purchased from Humbugs, a little old fashioned sweet shop in Whitehaven owned by a friend, another place that is a must if you are out and about in our little town.

Sherbert filled test tubes, candy shrimps, alphabet letters, jelly hearts and white chocolate/strawberry pyramids with a selection of chupa chup lollies and Flumps marshmallows sticks.

The whole table looked fantastic, our daughter wasn't sure what we were upto but when she came in it was more than she had hoped for which was lovely to hear.

The shortbread was decorated with royal icing and then sprinkled with edible glitter or decorated with her initial.  They taste lovely.  The scoops I found on Amazon for the bargain price of £1.50 plus postage for four different sized scoops.

Second hand shops are a must when looking for glasses and vases of differing sizes and not wanting to pay too much.  This one is huge and cost £4.00 and is holding 350 flying saucers which we all love.

The small and large round jars with lids were off ebay for £9.95 including postage for five large and five small and hold 300g in the small and 400g in the large.

The love hearts were also from Amazon at £7.50 including postage for 100 small packs and fitted great into this square vase. in fact I probably could have filled it twice.

Handmade chocolate lollies using Candy Melts in white chocolate, milk chocolate and strawberry chocolate in three lots of Wilton moulds, the ones used for Fairytale, Animals and Birthday then wrapped in cellophane finished off with a neat grosgrain bow.

Favour boxes made using Sizzix french frie Box from the extra large die range then decorated with Stampin' Up stamp and punch outs.

A close-up of the knight and dragon on the cake.

Cake stands make great display pieces for lollipops if you don't have time to make lollipop trees.

I typed all of the names of the sweets onto the computer and printed them off, trimmed them and stuck them onto each of the vases/glassware with a topper so that everything co-ordinated.

I have often looked at these displays and would have loved to have just ordered one but the cheapest we could find was £250.00, a lot of money but they do everything, which would have been an easy option but you wouldn't have the sheer pleasure on the look on everyone's face when they saw this display knowing that you personally did all the work.  Without the cake the whole display cost me £60.00.  That includes the jars, test tubes, vases, sweets, lollies (I already had the moulds) and scoops.  That is one big difference and if you ever get the chance to do it, have a go, you will need about one month to get all the bits and pieces together so it can be done in a short time as well.