Planning a party and need ideas for an unforgettable dessert? Forget the usual cake or brownies. Serve up some delicious dessert cups that your guests will love. These single-serving sweets are perfect for any occasion.
21+ Delicious Dessert Cups That’ll Steal the Show at Your Party
1. Biscoff Dessert Cups
A tasty cheesecake-like dessert with a Biscoff crust that’s delicious. The filling is super easy to make and is just a mix of heavy cream, cream cheese, powdered sugar and Biscoff cookie spread.
Fill your dessert cups with alternating layers of the crust and cheesecake filling. Top off with pieces of whole cookies and crust crumbles.
Just be forewarned – you’ll need a lot of Biscoff cookies and spread for this recipe.
2. Mini Chocolate Mousse Cups
Who doesn’t love chocolate mousse? And your guests will love these even more because you’ll make it lovingly from scratch with rich, decadent dark chocolate.
Making a mousse is easier than you think and will only take a few minutes.
Adding cookie crumbs into the mix makes this dessert extra-special. You can use graham crackers, Oreos or any kind of cookies you want. Even crushed pretzels would be tasty as an alternative.
Want to shake things up? Add some instant espresso or peppermint extract.
Related: 25+ Mouthwatering Finger Food Mini Desserts to WOW Your Guests
3. Strawberry Shortcake Pudding Cups
These pudding cups will bring you back to the days of getting strawberry bars from the ice cream man.
And guess what? They’re SO easy to make.
You’ll need Jell-O Cheesecake Pudding for the filling. Whipped cream and fresh strawberries add creaminess and sweetness. For the crumbly topping, you’ll mix freeze-dried strawberries with crushed golden vanilla Oreos.
I recommend using a blender to pulse the cookies and strawberries together to get that fine texture you want.
4. No-Bake Oreo Dessert Cups
These are dessert cups that everyone (especially the kids) will love. You only need a few ingredients to make this, and they look quite elegant when layered in your dessert cups.
Just grind up the Oreos in a blender to make the cookie crumble. Then blend heavy cream and cream cheese with powdered sugar, vanilla extract and cocoa powder to make the cream cheese filling.
5. Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait Cups
A perfect dessert for a summer party. The cheesecake filling is delicious and easy to make from scratch. Pair it with layers of freshly sliced strawberries and graham cracker crumbs.
I like to top these cups with whipped cream and a fresh, whole strawberry.
What’s great about this dessert is that you can serve it for any occasion.
6. Key Lime Pie Shooters
Refreshing and satisfying, these key lime pie shooters will be the star of your party. You won’t believe how easy it is to make these. You’ll need lime juice and sweetened condensed milk to make the filling. Butter and crushed graham crackers make the perfect “crust” for this dessert.
Garnish with lime zest, mint leaves, whipped cream and fresh lime slices.
7. Easy Lemon Parfait
Golden Oreos pair perfectly with the lemon flavor in this dish. The best part? You’ll use lemon creme pie filling for this, so it’s super easy to make.
Whipped topping is the perfect garnish, along with a whole Oreo.
Just alternate layers of crushed cookies and the pie filling, and you have the perfect dessert.
8. Double Chocolate Hawaiian Tiramisu
These dessert cups put a wild twist on the classic tiramisu, and they’re sure to impress everyone at your party.
Instead of regular coffee, you’ll need some strong Hawaiian coffee. This recipe also uses Hawaiian rolls instead of lady fingers and adds some interesting ingredients, like matcha tea powder, chocolate-covered coffee beans, coconut milk and Kahlua.
9. Lemon Blueberry Parfaits
The fresh flavors of blueberry and lemon are perfect for your dessert cups. You’ll start by simmering the blueberries and blending the cream and honey together to make the whipped cream.
Once the berries have cooled, it’s time to make your parfaits.
In your parfait cups, alternate layers of whipped cream, blueberries and lemon curd. Make sure the whipped cream is the top layer, and don’t forget to add some fresh lemon zest.
10. Peanut Butter Mousse Cups
These mousse cups have three parts: a thick chocolate ganache, creamy peanut butter mousse and homemade whipped cream.
The ganache is made with a semi-sweet chocolate.
The mousse has just a few ingredients: peanut butter, cream cheese, heavy cream and powdered sugar.
Top with crushed Reese’s peanut butter cups (or whatever candy you like).
Related: 15 Easy No Bake Desserts for Your Next Party
11. Raspberry Shooters
A tasty dessert that’s rich in raspberry flavor. I love the mix of crushed meringue cookies, Cool Whip and raspberries.
Just combine these three ingredients together, and fill up your dessert cups. Top with some more Cool Whip and a single raspberry.
12. Black Forest Trifle
I love this dessert cup because it tastes like my favorite cake. It’s a bit involved, but worth it. You’ll use chocolate cake mix to save time, but you’ll need to make the cherry compote from scratch, along with the whipped cream.
Once you have all the components, layer crumbles of cake, cherry compote and whipped cream. Top with chocolate chips and a cherry.
13. Nutella Mascarpone Cups
You’ll need over two hours before you can eat these cups, but they take all of 15 minutes prep time to make. Start with making a cookie crust out of chocolate creme cookies and unsalted butter.
For your cream, you’ll use your stand mixer to combine Mascarpone cheese, chocolate hazelnut spread, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and heavy cream.
14. Ferrero Rocher Dessert Cups
Dessert cups like these are truly sinful, with chocolate biscuits, Nutella, whipping cream, milk chocolate, hazelnuts, sugar, vanilla and Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
You can watch the YouTube video below to follow along with this recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa1iGwYcHM4
15. No-Bake Raspberry Chocolate Mousse Cups
Chocolate mousse and a raspberry jam topping sound amazing right about now. You’ll make a base layer out of almond flour, vanilla extract, almond butter, flax meal, cocoa powder, milk and medjool dates.
Your mousse will be made from heavy coconut cream, cocoa powder and dates.
Top with a raspberry jam made from frozen raspberries, water, cinnamon and chia seeds.
16. Chocolate Parfait
This parfait is easy to make. Put 16 Oreo cookies into a medium ziplock bag and crush. Microwave chocolate chips and heavy cream for 30 seconds to a minute until melted thoroughly. Mix vanilla extract, powdered sugar and heavy cream in a bowl.
Scoop out your whipped cream and then begin assembling your chocolate parfait.
17. Layered Chocolate Raspberry Dessert
Cake, whipped cream, raspberry cream cheese and chocolate curls are the main components of this recipe. You’ll start by prepping your cake in a 9-inch cake pan, baking and allowing to cool before crumbling into a bowl.
Next, make your whipped cream and transfer it to a piping bag.
Add your cream cheese to a mixing bowl, mash and mix well. Whip cream cheese and sugar together. Transfer your raspberry cream cheese to another piping bag and then the rest is layering your dessert cups and topping with your chocolate curls.
18. Caramel Apple Pie Jars
Apple pie in a jar? Sign me up. You’ll break this recipe down into three main components:
- Apple component with diced apples, unsalted butter, cinnamon, water and brown sugar.
- Graham cracker component made of graham cracker crumbles, sugar and unsalted butter.
- Cream cheese layer made of cream cheese, heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt.
Top with a homemade caramel sauce.
19. Mini Cookies and Cream Parfaits
Dessert cups are easy to make and look so fancy. Vanilla pudding, cream cheese, butter, milk, powdered sugar, Oreo cookies and Cool Whip are all you need.
And, I almost forgot, you do place a raspberry on top.
With Oreo crumbles on top, these mini dessert cups are bursting with flavor.
20. Salted Caramel Banana Pudding
Perfect for a picnic, these banana pudding desserts are divine. Instant vanilla pudding mix, sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, Nilla wafers, bananas, caramel sauce and sea salt flakes are all you need.
Like most recipes on the list, prep time is short but you need to cool for three hours.
It’s as simple as following the recipe for your pudding and covering and placing it in the refrigerator for two hours. Beat heavy cream in a medium bowl until it becomes fluffy and then fold into your pudding mixture.
Layer the bottom of a trifle bowl with your cookies, top with bananas and then spread a layer of pudding on top. Add your caramel sauce, sea salt and add a thin layer of pudding before serving.
21. Peach Mousse Trifle
Grab your hand mixer and blender for this delightful trifle. You’ll need to follow the author’s recipe for their small vanilla cake to make these, or you can use any recipe you have. Bake the cake and allow enough time to cool.
Cut cake rounds so that they fit in a serving glass or chop them up into cubes.
You’ll then make a simple peach mousse with fresh peaches, cold water, lemon juice, gelatin powder, heavy cream and pure maple syrup.
Related: 23 Mouthwatering Finger Food Desserts We Love the Most
22. No Bake S’mores Pudding Cup
No baking? That’s perfect for all you busy workers, moms, dads and anyone else who wants a sweet treat for their party. But there is a four-hour chill time, which you’ll need to consider.
Start by crushing your graham crackers into crumbles and coating the bottom of four plastic cups. Prepare your instant pudding. Whisk the pudding mix with milk and combine well and then use half of the pudding to layer on top of your crumbles. Once layered, add more of the crumbles on top.
Add whipped topping to the remaining pudding and whisk together. Layer on top of your crumbles. Combine your marshmallow fluff and whipped topping together well and spread on the top of each cup. Chill for four hours.
Serve with mini marshmallows, chocolate sprinkles and a mini chocolate bar.
