An Ice Cream Party with a beachy spin? Yes, please! Sundae bars are so trendy right now, and I love seeing all the creativity that this classic dessert inspires! Monique of Darling Details used casual coastal style, an ocean inspired color palette (with fun pops of yellow + coral) and modern serving containers for 11-year-old Maya’s Cool & Beachy Ice Cream Birthday Party!

PARTY HIGHLIGHTS to look out for:

• Yellow stripe dessert table ice cream “cart” with ice cream & plent of toppings!
• Pink sorbet served in lemon peel bowls + sprinkle covered ice cream cones
• Beachy, pastel tiered cake with extra long, blue candles

PARTY DETAILS, as told by Monique…

With only 10 days to create, organise and manage my client’s daughter’s 11th birthday party it was a challenge, but one that I conquered!

Theme

My amazing client lives across the road to one of Australia’s most iconic Adelaide beachside towns, Henley Beach. Their beachside home features breathtaking ocean views with a gorgeous balcony that spans the whole view. In keeping with the relaxed vibe one gets from the balcony, I suggested an ice-cream theme with a very fresh and modern palette. The birthday girl, Maya who was turning 11 was thrilled with my ideas but adamant that she have chocolate ice cream with LOTS of toppings to choose from.

Decorations

I have had my stripey, yellow umbrella sitting in my studio for months just waiting for the perfect launch so when my client decided on an ice-cream party I knew the perfect prop. Beach umbrellas can be seen on every Australian beach and only seemed fitting to form a part of the ice-cream theme. To keep with the relaxed and fresh vibe off the Australian beaches I wanted to create a cart, but couldn’t find one I liked. Thinking of a DIY option I purchased foam from my local craft store and cut it into panels. I painted the panels yellow and white to match the umbrella. I stuck the panels onto the trestle table using blue tack and this worked really well. To complete my cart inspiration I borrowed a wheel from my sons bike (shhh, he didn’t know). Perfect, I was thrilled with the end result.

On the table I only used the pops of colour from the food items and added a few decor sea life starfish in tones of coral. The balcony was the perfect spot to add some cafe tables and adorn them with the yellow and white stripe fabric and cute napkin dispensers, just like a real ice-cream parlour. I also purchased cute white stools from IKEA and placed them around each table. The party guests loved it and felt like they were in a beachside ice-cream parlour!

Food & Drinks

No ice-cream party would be complete without a cake to sing “happy birthday” to.  Luckily my lovely friend Janet from The Cupcake Lady was able to squeeze in a yummy naked cake with lashings of buttercream in coral, mint and lemoncello – yummy!! I also found these amazing 15″ candles that were the perfect prop to the cake as they looked like a mass of surf-life saving flags on top off the cake.

The cart featured 3 ice-cream flavours, chocolate, vanilla and rainbow (which proved to be very popular!). As assortment of popular ice-cream toppings included, mini marshmallows, mini m&m’s, coconut, crushed peanuts, wafers, 100’s & 1000’s, chocolate flakes, strawberry sauce, and chocolate sauce.

Activities

The lucky party guests were treated to an Adelaide based caricature who created funny hand drawn portraits of each guest. The caricatures were each presented in a white frame.