Candy buffets and sweetie trollies are experiencing an enormous upsurge of popularity in the UK at the moment. For weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, anniversaries and even corporate events, a table of sweets will make people smile. As well as tasting great, the right sweets, well presented, can foster nostalgia, trigger conversations and unleash your inner child. 

And what better way of creating a playful atmosphere than allowing adults to stop ‘adulting’ for a little while?

So, if you have an event of some kind on the horizon, how can you make a sweet bar that will hit all of the right notes without eating away all of your budget?

4 Steps to Candy Buffet Perfection with Swizzels

The beautiful thing about sweet trollies and candy bars is that there are no hard and fast rules. But these step should help you to find the style you’re looking for.

1. Set your budget

It’s very, very easy to get carried away when creating a candy buffet. It literally brings out that ‘kid in a sweet shop’ mind set. And before you know it, you’ve spent hundreds of pounds having six of those and twelve of these and ‘oooh, I remember those!’ without actually fulfilling your plan, or buying anything other than things you’re secretly planning to set aside for private consumption at a later date! This is especially easy because sweets are so affordable, so ‘just a few more’ doesn’t seem like such a lot until you add everything up at the end. Having a fixed budget and a designated to pot to spend it from can prevent this. Bulk buying all of your sweets online from somewhere like Swizzels is also a great way of keeping tabs on your spending as you go. One big purchase is much easier to track than ten small ones.

2. Plan your theme

You don’t have to theme your candy buffet. But it does make planning easier. Some people go with a colour, some a particular type of confectionary – wrapped, boiled, loose, deluxe – while others work with the event, which is particularly easy for Halloween and Christmas. Retro sweets is also a popular choice because it can make the staging so simple and really works on people’s memories.

3. Buy your sweets

When buying your sweets, the important thing to remember is to select enough to create an impressive display. Unless you’re going small-scale and having mixed jars – in which case a couple of Swizzels party tubs could work well – choosing a small number of lots of different sweets isn’t a great idea. If you’re aiming for a real sweet shop feel, bulk purchasing is essential. So, choose volume over variety. You really don’t need more than a dozen different types of sweets. 

4. Work on your presentation

How you present your sweets is entirely down to you, but there are a few things that you can do for simple effectiveness.

1. Work in tiers. Having tall jars at the back, caddies in the middle and bowls towards the front can be immediately aesthetically pleasing. It can also make it look like you’ve got more than you actually have.
2. Keep it simple. Whether you’re using a trolley or a table, glass jars, paper bags and stainless steel scoops will create your own mini sweet shop. It’s what everyone remembers from childhood. And that’s the feeling that you’re trying to recreate.
3. … But not too simple. You don’t want your display to disappear into the background, so don’t just plonk your jars on a bare table and hope for the best. Use a tablecloth in line with your theme. Have some kind of background screen and include a banner celebrating the occasion – James and Sara’s Anniversary Sweet Shop. Add a bit of sparkle and colour.
4. Personalise it. A fabulous way to make your sweet bar stand out – and an affordable way to cover favours – is to create personalised sweets. How about a jar of Love Hearts with your name, your photo and your wedding date on as an outstanding centrepiece? Order enough to allow people to eat them, as well as keep them as a memento.

The lovely thing about having a sweet table at an event is that it can be a great focal point; a way to get people talking. We’ve all been at parties and weddings and work dos where we’ve simply felt that we’ve had nothing to say. A candy buffet gives everyone something to talk about… And if it doesn’t, then having a fizzy Stinger stuck between your teeth is a great excuse for not making conversation!