10+ Mini Desserts for Wedding Receptions

Wedding menu planning, although fun, can be a doozy if you don’t already know what all you’d like to offer. So many different directions to go when it comes to pulling off a wedding menu that’s a huge hit – all of which can put a dent in your budget in varying ways too. 

Serving a wide spread of delectable desserts opposed to just the traditional wedding cake can be the perfect way to complete the meal at wedding receptions. This is a trend that more couples are opting for — offering non-cake desserts for guests. You can serve small, handheld desserts to make it easy for guests to try out and sample a little bit of everything that’s on the table (if they so desire) without so much of the guilt! 

Today, I’m sharing a roundup of mini dessert ideas that you can serve at the wedding reception.

10+ Mini Desserts for Wedding Receptions

Cake Pops

Have your cake and eat it too —on a stick. Cake pops offer the best of both worlds. Enjoy a delectable bite of an ooey gooey cake without the need for utensils or high wedding cake price tag. Cake pops offer the perfect for a bite sized sweet treat your guests will love on the dance floor or while mingling among the crowd!

Blondies

Serve up some soft, rich, dense, and fudgy blondies at your next wedding soirée. Yeah, guests we love taking a bite of the chewy and buttery treat. These are mini desserts to satisfy your guests’ sweet tooth – especially the white chocolate or brownie lovers.

Churros

Get a mouthful of these sweet cinnamon sugar pastries. This spanish dessert offers the perfect bite size of goodness. Pre-portion them as individually wrapped treats or display them on their own serving platter on your dessert table.

Dessert shooters

What I like about dessert shooters is the fact that these individual servings work out perfect for special occasions and they also add an elegant touch. You can do strawberry shortcake, banana pudding, ice cream, the sky’s the limit. The premise is to present them in mini dessert shooter dishes with a serving spoon. You can do so many different types of dessert options for weddings in this format.

Mini cheesecakes or pies

Another bite size delectable your guests will love is taking a bite out of mini cheesecake or seasonal pie. Imagine a dessert table with a spread of your miniature apple pie bites in the summer or pumpkin pie for fall weddings. There are so many ways you can go with cake or pie for your wedding dessert ideas!

Candy Bar

There’s no way we can mention dessert table without naming the obvious—- candy bar! Everyone has their favorite candy they love so it’s never a bad idea to opt for a candy bar at your dessert table for the adults and kids alike. You can go with chocolate, taffy, hard candy, gum, the sky really is the limit here. You can even opt to go with candy that matches the wedding color palette.

Blueberry Chocolate Bites

This bite size sweet treat is perfect for a spring or summer garden wedding!

Ingredients

• ⅛ cup Blueberries, fresh - 9 calories

• 4 Tbsp Chocolate chips, semisweet, Tbsp - 240 calories

• ¼ tsp Salt - 0 calories

Directions

• Melt chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave for ~60 seconds, mix with a spoon and keep heating in 30 second intervals until smooth

• Fill muffin tin with chocolate. Either use a silicone muffin tin, or line a small baking sheet with wax paper and make small circle shapes without a muffin tin.

• Makes 4 “mini muffin” bites; or 2 regular sized “muffin” bites. The picture is using a mini muffin silicone muffin tin.

• Top with fruit and salt.

• Let chill in freezer for at least 10 minutes

• Note: Pomegranate seeds are also shown in the picture – use 1/2 pomegranate seeds and 1/2 blueberries if you like, but sticking with just blueberries is absolutely fine – and cheaper!

Banana Split Pops

Ingredients

½ Banana - 53 calories

1 Maraschino cherry - 8 calories

4 Tbsp Regular whipped cream - 30 calories

1 tsp Sprinkles - 20 calories

1 Tbsp Chocolate chips, semisweet, Tbsp - 60 calories

Instructions

1. This recipe works best when making 2+ servings at a time

2. Stick banana with a popsicle stick

3. Melt chocolate in microwave

4. Roll banana in chocolate, top with sprinkles

5. Freeze overnight

6. Top with whipped cream & cherry

7. No dairy? You can often find dairy-free whipped creamy at most stores.

Festive Strawberries with Cool Whip

Not a fan of cool whip? Serve up some chocolate covered strawberries!

Ingredients

• 1 cup Strawberries, fresh - 50 calories

• 8 Tbsp Cool whip - 88 calories

• 2 tsp Sprinkles - 40 calories

Directions

1. Dip strawberries into cool whip

2. Top with sprinkles

3. No dairy? Use a dairy-free yogurt

Cookies

When you’re looking for traditional wedding desserts to serve up at your wedding that aren't the traditional wedding cake, you can almost always count on cookies! Cookies are the perfect mini desserts for weddings that can be customized to suit a wide range of wedding colors and flavor preferences.

You can opt for classic sugar cookies with frosting, macaroons, or a wide range of other options. We rounded up a few different ways you can go with several cookie recipes below.

Peanut Butter Cookie

Ingredients

2 Tbsp Peanut butter, unsweetened (Tbsp) - 188 calories

1 Tbsp Maple syrup (Tbsp) - 50 calories

Instructions

• Note: It’s important to only use natural peanut butter in this recipe made from only peanuts and salt, e.g. Smuckers brand

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

• Mix together maple syrup and peanut butter in a bowl until a thick consistency forms

• Create 2 balls of “dough” and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

• Press down with a fork in a cross-cross fashion to flatten the cookies & create the pattern as shown in the picture

• Bake for 9 minutes

• Let cool & harden before eating (it’s ok when they come out of the oven for them to be soft)

• No nuts? Use natural sunflower seed butter

Italian Wedding Cookies

Photo by Tommy Payton

Not sure how to whip up some traditional Italian wedding cookies? You’ll love this easy recipe. 

Ingredients

• Unsalted Butter (1 ½ cups)

• Powdered Sugar (¾ cup)

• Salt (¾ tsp)

• Ground Almonds, finely (1 ½ cups)

• Vanilla Extract (4 ½ tsp)

• All-Purpose Flour, sifted (3 cups)

• Powdered Sugar, for rolling (1/3 cup)

Instructions 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Place butter, 3/4 cup powdered or confectioners sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl; beat the butter, sugar, and salt with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in ground almonds and vanilla extract. You can also use almond flavor extract. Gradually add in flour to the blend until well-combined.

3. Shape into dough balls (or crescents) using about 1 teaspoon for each cookie; place 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. It’s better to use parchment paper, although that’s optional.

4. Bake in the preheated oven until just browned, 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Let sit until slightly cooled to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Roll cookies in remaining powdered sugar.

If you need to make any substitutions, feel free to swap out the ingredients for these close seconds.

Unsalted Butter

1 cup butter but reduce the salt called for in the recipe by 1/2 teaspoon

All-Purpose Flour

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch, potato starch, rice starch, or arrowroot starch or 1 tablespoon granular tapioca or 2 teaspoon quick-cooking tapioca.

3 Ingredient Banana Cookies

Ingredients

0.3 Tbsp Cacao powder - 6 calories

1 Banana - 105 calories

½ cup Oatmeal, dry oats (uncooked) - 150 calories

2 tsp Sugar - 32 calories

Instructions

1. Mash banana with a fork.

2. Combine all ingredients and mix evenly.

3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

4. Spoon mixture evenly onto tray and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

American Flag Grahams with Cool Whip

4th of July wedding? Serve up these American flag graham crackers with fresh berries and a cool whip.

Ingredients

• 2 Graham crackers - 118 calories

• 4 Tbsp Cool whip - 44 calories

• ¼ cup Pomegranate seeds - 44 calories

• ¼ cup Blueberries, fresh - 18 calories

Directions

• Spread cool whip evenly over graham crackers.

• Top with blueberries and pomegranate seeds in American flag pattern.

• You can also use yogurt here instead of cool whip

• No dairy? Use a dairy-free yogurt

How To Set Up A Dessert Table For A Wedding

Choose a theme

Whether you want to go monochromatic color scheme or embody a rustic, contemporary, beachy, or jungle vibes, elevate the ambiance of your dessert table by choosing a theme that matches your wedding colors and vibe. Your theme can also help you craft a dessert menu that will perfectly suit the occasion and take your attention to detail up a notch. 

Add height

Presentation is everything! Add height to your display with food risers, dessert towers, and various serving trays and decor. You can also use stack crates or small containers underneath a tablecloth to add an additional layer of height and elevation to your display. 

Use a backdrop

Want to know the secret to a beautiful display? The backdrop holds the true power! You can feature your venue’s natural elements of beauty or take things up a notch with drapery, brick, water features, balloons, greenery, or a floral display that help set off your wedding theme or color palette.

Signage

For weddings, a simple sign of the bride and groom’s initials or wedding anniversary date is an elegant way to tie in the theme for the occasion and add a visually interesting piece to your dessert displays. You may also add signage to display what’s on the menu or feature any dietary distinctions amongst the dessert options for example pointing to gluten free or vegan options.

Got anymore wedding dessert table ideas? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below!

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