Funeral receptions typically have a dessert table full of miniature sized desserts for guests to choose from.
It’s best to plan for an array of desserts, 4-5 different types to give a variety of choices to guests.
Each person will likely have 2-4 desserts, therefore you can adjust your numbers accordingly when making your mini desserts.
Brownies
Brownies are full of chocolate, and chewy goodness.
It’s best if you cut them into small squares so they are individually portioned to be eaten in 1-2 bites.
Sugar Cookies
Sugar cookies are soft and buttery cookies.
Sugar cookies can be decorated with buttercream or royal icing on top of them.
You can decorate them with flowers, hearts, or writing to commemorate a loved one.
You can write on top of royal icing using an edible marker , or simply write using icing.
- “always in our hearts”
- “forever in our memory”
- “in loving memory”
Lemon Bars
Lemon bars are citrusy and tart bars with a buttery shortbread crust on the bottom.
Lemon bars are lightly dusted with powdered sugar.
Cut them into 1-2″ squares for your dessert table.
Mini Cupcakes
Mini cupcakes are a delicious mini version of a cupcake that gives people 1 bite of cake with icing.
Instead of having a large cake for a celebration of life, it’s easier for serving purposes to have cupcakes or mini cupcakes for guests.
Tarts
You can serve tarts, or tartlets for guests so that they are bite sized, or small enough to be eaten in a couple of bites.
Tarts have a buttery crust that melt in your mouth, and are filled with lemon cream, chocolate ganache, and more for a sweet treat for your guests!
Mousse Cups
Mousse cups are a light, creamy dessert.
You can make chocolate mousse (milk, dark, white) or a fruity mousse like raspberry.
Mousse can be piped into small glass containers for a dessert table.
You can decorate your mini mousse cups by adding white chocolate scrolls, whipped cream, or a couple of fresh raspberries for a beautiful finish to the dessert.
Loaves
You can make a full sized loaf, and cut them into smaller pieces so people can take a small pieces of loaf as a dessert.
You can cut them so they can fit into a cupcake liner, or arrange them lying spaced out.
Mini loaves are a good option to have for people that don’t exactly want a cupcake, it offers them a variety to choose from.
Macarons
Macarons are chewy and melt in your mouth cookies.
Macarons are small cookies filled with buttercream, jam, ganache, custard, or curd.
Macarons can be filled with fruit flavors, dessert flavors, tea and coffee flavors.
They can be shaped into hearts for a celebration of life, or have special writing on top of them to commemorate a loved one.
Macarons can displayed as a macaron tower, or simply laid flat on a plate.
Mini Cheesecakes
Mini cheesecakes are a creamy and rich dessert. They need to be served with a fork for guests to enjoy them.
There are a variety of flavors you can make that work well for a dessert table including:
Mini Scones
Mini scones are a buttery dessert with a sweet glaze on top of them.
They can be made so that they are about 2 bites in size.
Scones go well with tea for a funeral reception that takes place in the afternoon.
Biscotti
Biscotti is a dry, crunchy, and hard cookie that is usually flavored with almonds.
Biscotti is a lovely cookie to serve at a celebration of life reception that takes place in the early afternoon since it goes well with tea or coffee.
Shortbread
Shortbread is a buttery cookie that you can shape into a heart for a celebration of life reception.
You can shape shortbread cookies simply using a cookie cutter.
Vol au Vent
Vol au vent is a dessert made with puff pastry, and has creamy fillings inside of them.
Custard, curd, ganache, jam, and more can fill the center of a freshly baked vol au vent.
Vol au vent is best served on a plate with a fork for guests to enjoy.
Tuile Cookies
Tuile cookies are crunchy cookies you can shape into cones, logs, or simply flat.
You can dip cookies in chocolate, and fill them with mousse, or drizzle them with caramel sauce for a specialty dessert.
