30 Decadent New Year's Eve Desserts Worth Celebrating

2015-06-09
30 Decadent New Year's Eve Desserts Worth Celebrating

A toast to welcome in the new year isn't half as fun without delicious New Year's Eve desserts. With cakes, creamy and rich truffles, cheesecakes, bars, and cookies—and even champagne dessert recipes—you're guaranteed to end your New Year's Eve menu on a high (and sweet) note.

01 of 30

Confetti Cookies

A tray of colorful cookies is the perfect sweet treat to ring in the New Year! This festive party dessert is all about easy. With just four ingredients (including the sprinkles!), it's ready in a snap!

Test Kitchen Tip: Store the finished cookies at room temperature for up to three days.

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Tres Leches Strawberry Shortcake

Like a classic tres leches cake, you'll need to allow this dessert to sit in the fridge overnight to soak up all the buttermilk, cream, and condensed milk. While we love the finished almond-infused cake, it's the piles of fresh whipped cream and marinated strawberries that make this a truly epic New Year's dessert.

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Old Fashioned Mini Bundt Cakes

This year, pair your New Year's Eve cocktail with a drink-inspired dessert. These mini bundt cakes have all the classic flavors of an Old Fashioned, including bourbon, bitters, orange, and cherry. Cheers!

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Coffee Cone Affogato

These tiny sweets pack a caffeinated punch. Affogato is a classic dessert that stars hot coffee and ice cream. Set out the prepped cones with the ice cream and freshly brewed espresso and let each person assemble their own New Year's Eve dessert.

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Peaches & Cream Prosecco Cake

This creamy cake is filled with layers of juicy peaches and creamy frosting. It's the perfect decadent New Year's Eve dessert to serve if you're craving a taste of summer.

Test Kitchen Tip: If using frozen peaches, thaw before adding to the filling.

06 of 30

Sparkling Grapefruit Sorbet Floats

What better way to start the new year than with a sweet New Year's Eve dessert? Serve up bowls of grapefruit sorbet and vanilla ice cream just before midnight. At toasting time, add a big splash of bubbly champagne.

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Warm Skillet Cookie

Loaded with bittersweet chocolate chips and chopped walnuts, this truly decadent cookie is served up straight from the oven to the table in a cast-iron skillet. The result is a warm, gooey dessert that's even better when topped with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.

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Hot Chocolate Marshmallow Bundt Cake

As the clock strikes midnight, cut into this decadent chocolate bundt cake. This indulgent dessert mimics a steaming mug of hot cocoa (a perfect treat for a booze-free New Year's Eve celebration!) and is topped with a hearty helping of homemade marshmallow meringue.

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Lemon Verbena Ice Cream Pie

Make this creamy lemon pie ahead and stash it in your freezer. Come party time, simply top it with edible flowers and serve. No one needs to know how easy this New Year's dessert truly was!

Test Kitchen Tip: Look for edible flowers like lemon verbena, phlox, or rose petals in the fresh herb section of your grocery store. Make sure they're meant for consumption.

10 of 30

Decadent Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cheesecake

This is basically a giant peanut butter cup, in cake form. Go ahead—have a second slice of this New Year's Eve dessert! Your diet doesn't start until tomorrow, anyway.

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Champagne Cake with Fresh Strawberries

Two cheers to the New Year! By two cheers, we mean hold a glass of bubbly in one hand and a slice of this champagne cake in the other. The classic favorites—champagne and strawberries—give this gorgeous cake some flair. It's so elegant that nobody will ever guess this champagne dessert recipe starts with a mix.

12 of 30

Creme Brulee Cheesecake Bars

Creme brulee and cheesecake? Now that's a crowd-pleaser if we've ever seen one! This dessert looks sophisticated, but the steps are simple and easy to make.

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Honey Hazelnut Pear Galettes

These tasty galettes can be served as a dessert at your New Year's Eve party, or save them for your New Year's Day breakfast. Filled with sliced pears, cream cheese, hazelnut filling, and drizzled with honey, these galettes are sure to please your holiday guests.

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Wine-Poached Pear Trifle

Expect your family to be incredibly impressed by this stunning dessert at the end of your New Year's menu. Fortunately, it's not as difficult as it looks to make but it is every ounce as delicious. Assemble it in a clear glass trifle dish for a dessert that looks as good as it tastes.

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Champagne Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes are anything but boring once you spike them with champagne. If you're looking for the quintessential champagne dessert recipe, you've found it. Top the finished cupcakes with edible pink sugar pearls.

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Gold Chiffon Cake

This golden New Year's cake is filled with lemon and coconut flavors. A fluffy seven-minute frosting and shaved coconut make the perfect party-ready topping.

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Cranberry-Orange Bundt Cake

When even the cake is laced with champagne, you know it's going to be a great start to the New Year. Dried cranberries, orange zest, and a boozy glaze combine to make this a perfect champagne dessert recipe for New Year's Eve.

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Dessert Fruit Pizza

Pizza on a sugar cookie crust? We'll take two slices, please! Making dessert pizza is also a great way to pass the time while counting down until midnight.

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Cherry-Walnut Balls

This dessert is the cherry on top of a great night (but actually, the maraschino cherry is hidden inside). Use edible glitter or crushed hard candies to give your cookies some celebratory sparkle.

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White Chocolate and Cranberry Pot de Creme

Tart cranberries balance the sweetness of white chocolate in this elegant mini dessert. A finishing sprinkle of edible glitter puts this squarely in the New Year's Eve dessert category. If your New Year's Eve menu is a little on the decadent and filling side, these mini desserts will be just the right amount of a sweet finale.

21 of 30

White Chocolate-Cherry Shortbread

Maraschino cherries and white chocolate help shortbread get all dressed up for the New Year's Eve celebration. Roll the edges of each cookie in colorful sprinkles for an extra festive touch.

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Dark Chocolate-Raspberry Cakes

These delectable mini cakes are an irresistible treat; don't skimp on the chocolate truffle icing. Their miniature size means they're prime for a New Year's buffet—plate them together for a sweet ending to your spread.

23 of 30

New Year's Almond Log Cake

This rich dessert sweetly celebrates the French custom of burning a Yule log, which prevents bad spirits from flowing down the chimney into the New Year. Plus, it's delicious.

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Vanilla-Sparkling Wine Pound Cake

Pick up an extra bottle of sparkling wine and put it to good use in this complete New Year's Eve-approved dessert. Finish the cooled pound cake with a boozy wine glaze.

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Honey-Rosé Plum Cobbler

You might not think to use goat cheese in a dessert recipe, but when it joins forces with rosé and honey, you'll be won over. Serve it with fresh mint and whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

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Chocolate-Filled Orange Meringues

Mascarpone is a buttery-rich cream cheese with a mild flavor, and it works well in both savory and sweet dessert recipes. For this New Year's Eve dessert, it's used to enhance a filling of cocoa powder and vanilla.

27 of 30

Bread & Butter Pudding with Salted Caramel Whiskey Butter Sauce

If the weather outside is frightful, break out this comforting and warm New Year's Eve dessert recipe. We've topped this decadent bread pudding with a rich caramel sauce spiked with whiskey.

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Burnt-Sugar Cake

This nostalgic recipe is perfect for the reminiscing that often comes with saying farewell to one year and ringing in the new one. And don't hesitant to put it on your New Year's Eve menu because of the name—"burnt," in this case, is a very delectable thing.

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Peppermint Dream Cake

If you can't quit Christmas peppermint flavors just yet, break out this candy cane-inspired cake for your New Year's Eve dessert lineup. Bonus: The cake layers can be baked and frozen up to four months in advance.

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Cookies and Cream Silk Pie

Give classic silk pie the holiday treatment with a cookies-and-cream twist. In this decadent dessert recipe, chocolate pie filling is topped with a cookies-and-cream layer and crowned with a white chocolate cream layer. Triple the chocolate, triple the goodness.

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