How to Throw a FruitTastic Summer Party!

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Don’t you agree that everything tastes better with chocolate!?

That was my thinking when I started brainstorming our fruit-themed summer party.

I wanted to host an afternoon soiree with drinks & desserts for a few of our friends to hang out/cool off in our backyard but I wasn’t sure how to incorporate one of my favorite things in life (chocolate) without distracting from my fruit-theme.

First, I started thinking of unique ways to showcase summer fruit. Then it occurred to me that a fun and easy way to bring chocolate into the equation was to decorate and embellish my fruit-themed desserts with none other than M&M's®!

I imagined a Papaya-shaped cake with brown M&M's®.

And a strawberry-shaped watermelon slice with yellow M&M's®. 

I wanted a Kiwi-shaped Gelatin dessert with brown M&M's®.

And I also thought about a rice cereal and marshmallow pie shaped like a watermelon slice with brown M&M's®.

Before I knew it, my fruit-themed desserts, featuring yummy bites of chocolate M&M's® started coming together, one by one.
What’s awesome is that Sam’s Club sells bigger XXL bags of M&M's®, available in three varieties: M&M's® Original,  M&M's® Crispy and M&M's® Peanut…yay!

You can find the XXL bags of M&M's® in all three varieties in the candy aisle at Sam's Club.

So let’s get started!

For the party theme, I wanted something bright & cheery that matched a particular color palette. In other words, I didn’t want a rainbow of colors all over the place so I chose metallic green and bright yellow as the base colors: Table cover and balloons were bright yellow, frames and personalized labels were green.

I created word document printouts using the font, “Rockwell Condensed” (to match the ‘FruitTastic’ letters). My printouts read: “Kool as a Kiwi”; “Party like a Pineapple” and “Chill like a Cherry”. All three received an extra element of cuteness when I inserted fruit images from Clipart. I also made a fourth printout with horizontal fruit lines. Here are my downloadable fruit printables in case you want to use them!

I purchased plastic frames from the dollar store and painted them green before framing my printouts.

For the fruit-themed dessert table: It came together gracefully thanks to several apothecary jars I own, including vintage silver and gold stands, vases and plates. The key to displaying treats on a dessert table is to add height. I did this with different sized cake stands and even candle holders.

I put together a dessert table mockup the night before... I spy my hubby peeking through my pineapple stands!

 Also, I filled two glass apothecary jars with miniature plastic green apples and made a bite-sized lemon cake tower with M&M's® Peanut as the individual cake toppers.  (You see the yellow and green colors everywhere?)

To add extra touches of colorful ‘funshine’ to my table, I separated the three types of M&M's®—

M&M's® Original,  M&M's® Crispy and M&M's® Peanut, by color and placed them in small clear containers throughout the table!

As for the desserts—

Here’s how to make a “papaya cake” without ever having to use the actual fruit—

Bake an orange cake in a deep pan. Once it’s out and cooled off, carve it so it takes on the shape of a papaya and add the brown chocolate M&M's® in the hollow center to look like papaya seeds. 

For the Kiwi-shaped gelatin dessert—

Make the green gelatin, as indicated on the package instructions. Pour into an oval-shaped container. Once it’s ready to be served, cut out an inverted cloud from the center and scoop out the gelatin (this is necessary so the center looks white). Place brown M&M's® Crispy along the inner edge to assimilate kiwi seeds. M&M's® Crispy are perfect for this dessert because they're a tad smaller than the M&M's® Original, which makes it perfect since Kiwi seeds are so tiny.

Strawberries made out of watermelon—

Slice a watermelon into about 1" slices. Cut out heart shapes  (try to make it look like a strawberry by making the tip round instead of pointy). Place on your display plates and tray and decorate with watermelon shell to look like the strawberry leaves and yellow M&M's® to look like seeds.

Rice cereal marshmallow pie that looks like a watermelon slice—

Here’s what you will need:

1. Red Color Mist (edible food spray paint)

2. Green Cake frosting

2. A round rice krispy treat pie

3. Brown M&M's®

Start by making a Rice cereal marshmallow pie. Ingredients: 1.5 TBSP butter, 2 cups miniature marshmallows, 3 cups Rice cereal. In large saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat. Add rice cereal and stir until well coated. Evenly press mixture on cake pan, coated with butter or cooking spray. Cool.

Using the red edible color mist, spray paint the center of the rice cereal marshmallow dessert. Once it dries, you can pull out and place on a flat surface.

Using green cake frosting, decorate the outside of the round rice cereal marshmallow treat to look like the watermelon shell.

Add brown M&M's® Crispy to the dessert, These will give it a 'watermelon seed' effect.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas & inspiration to throw your own FruitTastic Summer Party. If you decide to host a similar event, make sure you incorporate M&M's® (they make everything more fun & colorful) and don’t forget to share… I want to see your summer parties too!