Spring means colors — lots of bright, pretty colors that never go out of style. And when you’re lucky enough to score a sweet catering gig this time of year, no matter the occasion, you’ll want to take advantage of the opportunity to splash your dessert trays with all the gorgeous spring colors you can find.
Your guests will be impressed with the beauty of your table, somehow uplifted just by looking at it, and they’ll savor the sweetness of every morsel.
When it comes to colorful desserts, here are some ideas that we always reach for:
Here are our top 5 spring desserts for caterers:
Rainbow Heart Cookies
Who doesn’t love rainbows? Or cookies? No. One. So, let’s put these two trusty smile-inducers together into one beautiful dessert and watch your guests dash to your dessert plate!
While there is a bit of time involved in this recipe from Eugenie Kitchen, the results are amazing. These cookies are a dream for confectioners who enjoy working with fine details and showing off their meticulous work.
Start with choosing your colors. Instead of the traditional ROYGBIV rainbow, you can go all pastels for an eye-catching “spring-bow”. Knead your colors into portions of cookie dough and then roll them out to the same exact height. Stack the colored layers, then knife-cut to the depth of your heart-shaped cutter. Cut out, then stack the heart shapes to make the cookies’ core. Wrap the core in a cylinder of cookie dough and roll on a healthy coating of pastel-colored nonpareils. Slice, bake and — voila! — spring-time yummy-ness!
M&M Pretzel Flowers
These little treats will make your platters look like mid-May flower beds — and they taste delicious! With three simple ingredients, pastel M&Ms, waffle pretzels and vanilla discs (plus a little bit of practice) you will create an array of color that instantly make your guests think “SPRING!”.
The steps to make these dazzling delectables are simple too. Just line a baking sheet with individual waffle pretzels (be sure to leave a bit of space between them) and place 1 vanilla disc on each pretzel. Heat in a 250-degree oven for about 2 — 3 minutes, just enough to get the discs to soften, then pull them out and place your M&Ms.
The best part about preparing these little wonders is that you can get creative with your color choices, or customize the colors to your catering event. You can do trays of identical flowers, or keep the same center with different colored pedals, or you can mix them up and randomize them. You do you!
Banana Cream Fudge with Sprinkles
Although fudge may conjure images of dense, heavy, brown chocolate, don’t write it off of your spring-time dessert menu until you’ve had a gander — and a taste — at this recipe. Sweet, smooth, creamy and beautiful, this dessert will be an absolute hit with your guests at any catered spring affair.
Banana cream fudge is super-simple to make: just add dry banana pudding mix to melted white chocolate, butter and sweetened condensed milk and stir for two minutes. That’s all there is it. Then pour the pudding onto your prepared cookie crust.
As with other of our selections today, you can have some fun with the colors you choose for this dessert. For the crust you can use Oreo cookies, as shown, or you can go with ‘Nilla Wafers to lighten the look of your dessert tray. You can also experiment and add color to your banana fudge pudding. This recipe from Inside Bru Crew Life suggests a top layer of vanilla fudge that can give you even more creative coloring options.
And, of course, a pinch of pastel candy sprinkles on top won’t hurt anyone either.
Rainbow Crepes with Key Lime Whipped Cream
Okay, gotta admit, this is our favorite on this list. Anytime we hear “key lime” we think of sunshine, beaches and deliciousness. Then when you throw in whipped cream you definitely have our attention.
Plus, this is the dessert where you can have as much fun with colors as you want! You can do any colors you like to build a dessert display suited to your catering event — you can even do just one color, we suppose — but for a gorgeous spring-time display we recommend classic pastels. Then how about colored whipped cream? The possibilities are endless!
For this idea you’ll need nothing more than standard ingredients like eggs, milk, flour, salt and vanilla to make the crepe batter. Then separate your batter into sections and color to your desires. About 1/4 cup of batter, about two minutes on the griddle and you have a crepe. Whatever you do, don’t forget the key lime flavor in your whipped cream!
Crepes are a lot of fun to make, and not complicated. You can even set up a crepe making station at your catering event for an engaging, fun, made-to-order experience that your guests will be sure to remember.
Stained-Glass Jell-O Squares
If you’re catering a more “artistic” spring event, like a gallery opening, these stained-glass art Jell-O squares are a great, easy way to dress up your dessert tray and garner maximum “Oooh, look at these!”s from your guests.
First, pick your colors. Lime, Berry Blue, Lemon and Grape flavors of the popular gelatin brand will give you the basics you need for simple spring-y colors. But, if you’re already a gelatin master you can go to town mixing food coloring and your own gelatin into the rainbow that you like. You can even match the colors to the wedding party or theme for your catering event.
All you have to do is prepare your Jell-O as directed, with each color separated, then cut the set Jell-O into cubes. Here, too, you can be creative with your sizes and shapes. Once all the colors are cubed, mix the cubes together into a large, flat baking dish.
Prepare one last batch of plain gelatin, this time adding sweetened condensed milk, and pour into your dish of colored cubes. Mix it to allow the colors to mingle and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, cut your creation into bite-sized bars and you’re set to impress!
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