Unique Desserts to Try at Your Next Dinner Party
Craving something sweet? Think outside the donut box and make a dish your guests might not have tried before. With a world of ingredients and recipes from every country available online, you can prepare an after-dinner treat that’s sure to leave your guests asking for seconds. Here are ten unique desserts to try at your next dinner party.
1. Raindrop Cake
If you want an almost calorie-free dessert that looks as intriguing as it sounds, try making a raindrop cake. This clear, water- and agar-based dish has the appearance of a raindrop and it dissolves in your mouth as soon as you take a bite.
The cake is flavorless on its own. However, people usually serve it with soybean flour and sugary syrup on the side to sweeten it. Put an edible flower inside to really make the dish stand out.
2. Pista Kulfi
With a rich texture imparted by ground pistachios, pista kulfi is ice cream, elevated. Hailing from India, this creamy dessert flavored with saffron, almonds, and cardamom is usually served in the form of a popsicle, but you can also present it in a bowl.
It’s often green or a buttery yellow color. The smoothness of the ice cream base pairs perfectly with the small, crunchy dry roasted pistachios and almond flakes.
3. Spaghetti Squash Pie
You’d be forgiven for assuming this is a savory dish. Surprisingly, though, it’s a light, fluffy dessert that tastes and feels similar to coconut pie.
If your garden produced a bumper crop of spaghetti squash, you’re not relegated to making endless servings of soups or sautés. Shred it, combine it with sugar, eggs, vanilla, butter, and spices, then bake it in a pie shell for an airy but filling treat. Your guests will never even guess what the main ingredient is.
4. Cotton Candy Burrito
Ready for a sugar high? This relatively new dessert is something of an Instagram sensation, and it’s no wonder why it’s become so popular. A wrap made of brightly colored cotton candy hides an ice cream center nestled inside. Invented at an ice cream shop in Ontario, Canada, in 2017, several other dessert parlors have since created their own versions of the indulgently sweet treat.
Have a cotton candy machine? Why don’t you whip up your own cotton candy, infused with ingredients from companies like Colorwayz, to make the dinner party truly memorable? Imagine the delight on your guests’ faces when they learn that they can choose their own color and flavor of cotton candy! But don’t worry if this isn’t possible – you can simply buy a bag of cotton candy to serve as the base. From here, flatten it with a rolling pin, put some ice cream in the center, and then wrap it up. Your guests have probably never eaten that for dessert before!
5. Flan
A smooth, custard-like confection made with eggs and milk, flan has the consistency of gelatin but with a spongier mouthfeel. It’s very popular in Mexico and Brazil.
Serve flan with a layer of caramel on top to lend it an added element of sweetness. You can flavor it with cinnamon, lemon peel, or vanilla for an extra kick.
6. Dessert Pizza
Who says pizza has to be an entrée? One fun idea is to serve traditional pizza for the main course and dessert pizza afterward.
Delight your guests with a pie made from cinnamon roll dough or cookie dough as the crust, and cream cheese or frosting in place of sauce and fruit. Top it off with nuts, chocolate chips, marshmallows, or anything else you can think of that pairs well with the other ingredients.
7. Gelatina de Mosaico
This is one eye-catching dessert. With the appearance of broken rainbow shards of stained glass suspended in milk, gelatina de mosaico translates to “mosaic gelatin” and it’s a fitting name.
Combine condensed and evaporated milk with gelatin to form the base and add multiple colors of gelatin cubes – which you can even make into shapes, like hearts or flowers – to give it its technicolor appearance. It’s a sweet, creamy treat.
8. Mochi
A chewy, mildly sweet dough made by pounding rice grains, mochi is a popular dessert in Japan, especially during the Japanese New Year. Plain mochi is usually just made with rice, but you can also add sugar to the mix to sweeten it up.
You can flavor the dough with coffee or matcha. Stuff it with a complementary flavor of ice cream or red bean paste for a creamy filling, then form it into a ball and enjoy it in a single bite.
9. Qatayef
If you like pancakes, you’ll probably enjoy this Arab confection filled with cheese or nuts. People traditionally serve it during Ramadan. Make it by mixing flour, baking powder, yeast, water, and sometimes sugar, then pour the batter into a pan and fry it like a pancake on only one side.
You can stuff it with hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds, or other nuts, as well as raisins, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add some cinnamon and rose extract to turn up the flavor, then deep fry it and dunk it in syrup for a sweet, crunchy treat.
10. Fried Ice Cream
It’s unclear who invented this over-the-top dessert, but they sure had the right idea. By rolling a frozen ball of ice cream in raw egg or a thin sheet of batter, then quickly dipping it into a deep fryer, the result is a crispy shell with still-chilly ice cream tucked inside.
Almost anything can serve as the coating – tempura batter, cookie crumbs, nuts, and tortillas are just a few suggestions. You can serve it as-is or garnish it with cinnamon, honey, or whipped cream.
Exciting Flavors
This list of unique desserts to try at your next dinner party is by no means complete. There are so many incredible confections to eat from all around the world. In other words, you’re going to have to host a lot of dinner parties!
