Dessert centerpiece ideas to arrange your party desserts on for an intimate home gala

You don’t need to break into a sweet and create a magnificent chocolate or cake sculpture for your home gala. Anything heartfelt will should go into making or choosing the celebration food for the event after the main course is all over and the guests are relaxed enough to dig into the sweet party desserts. Dessert centerpieces are perfect for buffets but it’s also good enough for small table arrangements for a small party that guests can easily choose what to eat.

Before going into the ideas, factor in these questions and elements:

Who all are coming?

Is it a kid’s party, an all adults party or a mixed one? If you haven’t decided on the dessert already, pick based on who all are coming.

What to serve?

Review your guest list. Are you going to serve liquor based unique desserts? Excellent choice, now arrange your dessert table based on who all are coming, keeping the adult treats out of reach of prying hands, maybe a cake stand to hold the tiramisu or boozy truffles away from little hands. Keep in mind the dietary restrictions of your guests as well and decide your arrangement of the kind of desserts you serve, wet, dry, or in tiny shot glasses.

What do I need?

Laying all of your desserts out is plain and simple but you can do better than boring. Upgrade the whole experience for your guests and turn the dessert table into a work of art. Plan ahead and invest in, borrow, or bring out your fine China, dessert stands, cake stands, and platters for the occasion, being mindful of kids and knobbly old hands.

Charcuterie Board It

Charcuterie boards are still hot and while the heat remains, turn it into an impeccable centerpiece for your intimate home gala. You can create a tower of macarons, or arrange cupcakes, or cookies. You can even arrange a whole fondue platter on the charcuterie board, the desserts will disappear if you’ve invited lovers of cakes and desserts, so messy or neat-freak the choice is yours. You can also go for a combination of fruits, stroopwafels and chocolate if you’re having “that” kind of a party.

Cake stand with desserts on matching serving platters

For this idea, either pick 1 cake stand or a trio and you can go three ways with this idea. One, you could place the start of the table, whichever cake you are serving. Two, a trio of cake with the odd color out in the center. Or three, fill all of them up with petit fours and nibble-worthy party desserts that will look cute. Understated is the go-to here, the more messy this one will be the more visual chaos will it cause, and also take more time away from conversations.

Bento Box it Up

Go all Japanese and bento box your selection of desserts. Display portion sizes of each sweets and desserts in wooden boxes lined with parchment or decorative wax paper with the desserts neatly lined up on them. This idea is fantastic for tartlets, mini pies, muffins, cupcakes, and also desserts like intricate sandwich cookies, mochi, and cookies with icing that are symbolic of the occasion. Get creative with the desserts here for the arrangement is quite simple, to let the desserts be the star of the party.

The classic tiered dessert stand

Remember the dessert stands you see at high tea? If you have been thinking of buying one or looking for an excuse to bring out the one you have, or you know someone from whom you can borrow, this is the time. Again, these can only hold little desserts like donuts, petit fours, and snacky desserts. Aim for small-sized desserts. If you’re baking a cake, reduce it to small, squares and come up with creative ways to serve it, perhaps in a muffin cup or small dish that would fit on these stands?

The Dessert Bar cum Tiki Stand

This works perfectly well with fun desserts like cake pops or the French croquembouche. The latter is a dessert centerpiece in itself as for the cake pops what you can do is get a sturdy DIY stand with multiple holes to make a stable lollipop stand of sorts and insert the cake pops into them that guests can pull out and help themselves to. The rest of the desserts in preferably shot glasses, like mousses, puddings, custards, parfaits, and trifles can go around the centerpiece, their respective serving platters.