Arkansas Razorback Dessert Table

Girls.

It’s officially THAT time of year.

You know, where you fall asleep on the couch at like 9 pm while your husband sits in the recliner talking to football players on the television?

Doesn’t that happen at your house too?

Most of you know that I live in Arkansas, where Hog fans reign supreme (win or LOSE…sigh…), and this year Jon David’s 8th birthday happened to fall on the same afternoon as a big Razorback game.

So when my husband complained to me about the game being at the same time as my son’s birthday, I read his mind and took care of the situation — by inviting a bunch of screaming kids over during the game and setting up a fancy Razorback themed dessert table!!

He was so thrilled, he was speechless.  It was truly something.

Of course, I’ve been seeing adorable dessert tables on various blogs and Pinterest for ages, and I’m always all, “Ah mah gah, who DOES all that I mean seriously, it’s TOO much”….

But between you and me, I’ve been dying to give one a whirl.

A few things I learned:

Plan ahead — you can’t whip up enough desserts to fill an entire table in an afternoon

Choose your table size carefully — we just happened to have a small accent table that was perfect, and didn’t require a ton of food to fill up.  You want your table to be nice and full, so the bigger the table, the more you have to make

Keep it simple — everything doesn’t have to be elaborate.  Make good use of store bought candies and simple treats — once they’re arranged on the table, it will be impressive enough

Go cheap — my dishes, table cloth, and cupcake stand are all Walmart.  The white square bowls and brownie/cookie platters are the Canopy oven to table collection, which I LOVE because they are cheap, sturdy, and I can use them over and over.  The cupcake stand is Better Home and Garden brand, and I picked it up a few months back while I was grocery shopping.  Don’t spend a ton of money on dishes you won’t be using again.

You want to be sure to put your taller items at the back of the table, and the shorter items in front, so everything is easy to see.

I filled hurricane vases (you can buy these at the Dollar Tree or craft stores very inexpensively) with Razorback wrapped butter mints and jelly cherry slice candy that I bought at Walmart.  I stuck a Razorback sign in each candy vase to give it a bit more height.

(P.S.  I use the same hurricane vases over Christmas — just fill with small shiny ornaments and place on end tables for a cheap and easy decoration)

I filled my cupcake stand with Razorback cupcakes.

I made these myself, but you could just as easily buy your own cupcakes at a bakery — no one would even know.

Well, I guess they WOULD know, if you’re normally a horrible baker, but who cares?

I filled my square bowls with individual bags of White Chocolate Cranberry Popcorn.

I made the popcorn the day before and it was so easy and cheap.  A great way to fill up your dessert table and add something fun and yummy for guests to take home.

Platters of decorated sugar cookies and brownies flanked the ends of the table.

Again — I decorated my own cookies, but you could easily buy some at the store and arrange them on a plate.

The brownies are from my FAVORITE recipe — they’re so easy and I always get tons of compliments on them!!

The key to making your dessert table clean and neat looking is to make sure everything is balanced and portioned evenly.  To make the brownies look uniform, I cut them with a square biscuit cutter (this ensures that all are the same size), then cut the squares on a diagonal.

Make sure to have some small bags (I just use brown paper lunch sacks with the kid’s names written on them…cheaper and bigger than plastic goodie bags) so your guests can take some of the cookies and candies home with them.  A bag full of treats is much more likely to be appreciated than a bag full of plastic kazoos and junk, so this doubles as your goodie bags!!

I’ll share the brownie and popcorn recipes later this week, I know you’ll love the recipes as much as I do!!

Also, the Razorbacks lost the game.  It might be my fault, for inviting all the kids over — it made it hard for the players to hear what my husband was screaming at the television.

And also also, Jon David was a very happy Birthday Boy, as evidenced by the manic look on his face here:

I love how everyone in my family is so normal, don’t you?

Have a happy Tuesday!!

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