I am throwing a surprise going away party for my best friend who is moving back to Hawaii (i just hate her haha) anyways I am going to do a tropical theme, go figure lol and it will be at 7 in the evening. I was thinking since it is going to be starting so late in the evening that most people will probably have already eaten dinner so instead of having food (which was my original thought) I was thinking of having just a bunch of really cool desserts. I am of course going to do a cake, which I have already decided on the design but I wanted to do a variety of other things to that would make the table just look really neat and colorful but I have no idea of what to do. So if you have any suggestions please throw them my way and if you happen to have pictures that is also appreciated thanks everyone

google hawaiian desserts. i just did and it looks like there are some good recipes on there.

HTH

sounds like a great idea, desert parties are fun and you can really go wild but in general just try to have a balance of textures and flavours. Also, miniatures work really well.
i like to do mini versions of lemon meringues/bakewell tarts/choc tarts/brownies etc.
another thing that everyone loves is chocolate fondue, but just using ganache in bowls with mounds of marshmallow/fresh fruits/nougat/turkish delight etc
also doing things like jellies/pannacotta/brulee/mouse in chinese spoons and shot glasses work a treat.
hope it gives you some inspiration! Good luck

yeah i like the idea of the mini things, that way I can get a lot of stuff out there and a big variety. keep the ideas coming

anyone else, please. would love to see some pictures

just trying to give myself a bump. anyone have some other cool ideas

another bump, I just thougth there would have been more people with ideas

We have a tropical party every year and last year we did a table top palm tree but the "trunk was eggplants stacked onto a thick wooden dowel screwed into a base. Then we took fruit on toothpicks and covered it. It was sooo cool looking and we got alot of great comments. I think we bought a cheap palm like plant from IKEA for the topper.

PM me if you want and I'll see if I can find a pic of it.

More labor intensive (and messy) but setting out sterno/other flame and letting guests dip fruit skewers (LOVE the above idea!!!) into brown sugar and caramelizing the fruit, then dipping into rum-laden whipped cream.

Tropical fruits with cool dips is fun also.

You could do some tropical flavored cookies with icing flowers like plumeria on them, very pretty.

I like Jess' idea of a pannacotta or similar, you can make a huge batch and flavor portions differently and put in cute dishes.

Doing any cool or jellied dessert in fruit cups is neat also, like the halves of citrus, or serving the dips/fondue etc. in the bottoms of pineapple or coconuts etc.

*This is not for eating, but as a fun game for your party since it is Hawaii-style, is a Spam carving contest! We did that and had a BALL! Pick a design and let everyone have a can and a paring knife, and 5 minutes etc. Really hilarious.

I bet the party will be great!

what is pannacotta?

what about fruit kebobs, that's pretty tropical looking

and mini pineapple upside down cakes, using muffin tins.

little mini cheesecakes are good too, allrecipes dot com, mini cheesecakes I is a good recipe.

ooh, I love the mini pineapple upside down cakes I think I will definately do some of those

Panna cotta is a cream, milk and sugar mix with gelatin and flavors of choice. Cool, delicate and very versatile. Can be made sort of plian and topped with berries, fruits, chocolate etc. or flavored and left to stand alone. Yum. Takes well to molding in cute molds/flowerpots etc.

I recently did a fruit bouquet for a baby shower. Here are the directions. http://www.plan-the-perfect-baby-shower.com/fruit-bouquet.html

hi, if you pm me your email, i can send some pics, did try to attatch some but didnt work.