Dessert Charcuterie Board

Updated Jan 7, 2025

Kids and adults alike will be wowed by this fun and easy Dessert Charcuterie Board. Perfect to serve at your next birthday party, game night, book club, or any get together!

Fun and Easy Dessert Charcuterie Board

Considering that my son’s birthday dinner request when he turned 8 years old was sushi, I shouldn’t have been surprised when he asked me to make him a Dessert Charcuterie Board for his 11th.

Me: what do you want as your dessert this year? Some type of cake? Oreo parfaits? Something else?
Trevor: you know that charcuterie board you made? (And yes, he DID actually say “charcuterie”)
Me: um, ya. ???
Trevor: can you make one of those, but with ALL dessert stuff?
Me: Lol. Really?
Trevor: please.
Me: Well, sure!
Trevor: and NOTHING healthy. No fruit or nuts, ok?
Me: copy that, little man.

I was immediately excited. It never crossed my mind to do another charcuterie board. But a dessert themed one? HOW FUN!

Charcuterie boards are technically made up of cured meats, so this is really “just” a dessert board, but in a charcuterie style, let’s say. Packed with tasty sweet treats, it was super easy and fun to map out and assemble, it practically made itself.

Basics to building an awesome Dessert Board

The key to a great Dessert Charcuterie Board is all about variety and balance, and includes ingredients that contrast and complement each other. Visually appealing boards have different textures, flavors, shapes, and colors.

Suggestions for your Dessert Board

The combinations are endless, mixing and matching cookies, chocolates, and candies. You could use different types of cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, M&Ms, fun size candy bars, chocolate truffles, mints, Hershey’s kisses, marshmallows, gummy worms, or Starbursts. Nuts and fruits are also a great way to balance out the sweets. It depends who you’ll be serving it to.

Here’s what I put on this dessert board:

1. Regular and Golden Oreos
2. Frosted animal circus cookies
3. Pretzel M&Ms
4. Dark Chocolate Hershey’s Kisses
5. Ghirardelli squares – caramel, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate
6. Chocolate truffles – dark chocolate and caramel
7. Starburst gummies
8. Sour patch strawberries

How to serve a dessert board

There are so many dessert trays available online at Amazon or Etsy, or in stores like Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. You can find them made of wood, marble, and bamboo. But if you don’t have a tray, that’s ok! You can easily serve your goodies on a cookie sheet or holiday serving platter.

Bonus, this can be made in advance, and depending on what’s on your tray, cover and store it in the refrigerator until shortly before serving.

Dessert Boards are such a creative way to serve your guests something sweet, offering them variety and small bites. There’s something for everyone and guaranteed to please!