Life
17 Ridiculously Easy Dessert Ideas For Your Super Bowl Party
by Mia Mercado
Are you ready for some football... themed desserts? If you too see the Super Bowl as yet another eating holiday, these easy Super Bowl party desserts are the sports-adjacent gift you seek. Maybe the real Super Bowl is the delicious snacks we’ll eat along the way.
It will come as no surprise that the Super Bowl is as much about food as it is about football. According to the National Chicken Council (NCC) — a group I would love to envision as just a bunch of chickens in suits — Americans are estimated to eat a whopping 1.4 billion chicken wings during Super Bowl LIV weekend, per an emailed press release. For context, that many wings would circle the Earth’s circumference. Three times.
Salty, cheesy, savory snacks are certainly a go-to for Super Bowl watch parties. In fact, the latest U.S. Snack Index from Frito-Lay claims that chips (of both the potato and tortilla varieties) are the most sought-after snacks among Super Bowl watchers. However, sweet snacks are also a key part of any Super Bowl food spread. One-in-three people expect some form of cookie at a Super Bowl party, according to Frito-Lay.
If you’re looking to up your Super Bowl dessert game but don’t want to spend hours toiling away in the kitchen, here are 17 easy Super Bowl party desserts that will satiate any sweet tooth.
1
Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Footballs
They’re easy! They’re delicious! They’re even on-theme. Just dip some strawberries into milk or dark chocolate, let them dry, and pipe some melted white chocolate lace lines on top. Voila! A football you can eat. You can get the recipe on Domestic Fits food blog.
2
Football Cake Pops
If you’re feeling a little more creative but still want to keep things simple, football cake pops are the dessert you're looking for. Follow your favorite cake pop recipe — like this one from Bakerella — and mold your cake and frosting mixture into a more oblong, football-like shape. Dip in chocolate, decorate with white chocolate lace lines, and enjoy.
3
Red & Gold Rice Krispie Treats
In a blessing from the football and baking gods, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers have similar team colors. Use this to your advantage and mix some red and yellow M&Ms into your traditional Rice Krispie recipe. If you want to skip on the M&Ms but still want to abide by the color scheme, halve your mixture and add red food dye to one part and yellow food dye to the other.
4
A Red & Gold Sweets Board
If you’ve been anywhere near Instagram, you know extravagant cheese boards are a full-on Thing™. Accompany your cheese and cracker board with a dessert board. Bonus points if you make everything red/scarlet and gold. Thinks color-thematic fruit (strawberries, pineapple, banana, apples), color-thematic candy (Red Hots, red M&Ms, red Skittles, red and yellow Starbursts), and any other red or yellow goodies (licorice, red velvet Oreos, Swedish Fish). Pair it with your favorite fruit dip, some chocolate fondue, or perhaps a dessert hummus.
5
Funfetti Dip
Are you ready for the easiest dessert recipe? Take a box of Funfetti cake mix, an 8-oz. Tup of Cool Whip, some cream cheese, a splash of milk, and mix. Keep adding milk until it’s a dippable yet fluffy consistency. Top with sprinkles and serve with Nilla Wafers, graham crackers, and pretzels. It’s basically a DIY Dunkaroos which is to say delicious and nostalgic.
6
Chocolate Mint Star Brownies
If you intend to make Trader Joe’s your Super Bowl one-stop-shop make sure to pick up some of their Dark Chocolate Mini Star Cookies and your favorite TJ’s brownie mix. Make the brownies according to the package, but when there's a few minutes of baking left, top your sheet of almost-done brownies with the star cookies. It’s a simple yet memorable way to make your brownies even better.
7
Chocolate Covered Cookies
Want to level up your store-bought cookies? Melt some chocolate — bonus points if you use red or yellow candy melts — and dunk half of each cookie in some chocolate. Top with sprinkles if you’re feeling extra fancy.
8
Nutella Puppy Chow
This is the second-best thing to just setting out a jar of Nutella with a spoon. Melt some Nutella in a microwave-safe bowl. Add Rice Chex Cereal and stir. Add more Nutella or Rice Chex until your mixture is coated to your liking. Dump in a bag with powdered sugar and shake. Get out all your “I’m anxious for my team” energy. Add some almonds decorated with white lace lines to look like footballs if you want some other fiddly activity to do to distract yourself from the game. Check out Your Cup of Cake for the full Nutella Puppy Chow recipe.
9
No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Krispie Bars
If you want to satiate your sweet-salty-crunchy tooth, peanut butter and chocolate rice crisp cereal bars are the salve you need. Trader Joe’s has a no-bake rice crisp cereal bar recipe that requires little more than some mixing and waiting. Extra points if you use a football-shaped cookie cutter when cutting out the bars.
10
Ice Cream Sundae Bar
Not sure who wants what? Make your guests decide for themselves. Set up an ice cream sundae station with a few of your favorite flavors, toppings, and sauces. Use red and gold toppings only. Have football-themed sprinkles as an option. There is no wrong way to ice cream sundae.
11
Sprinkle-Coated Cheesecake Ball
The hardest part about making a cheesecake ball is not eating all of it before your guests arrive. Just combine a pack of cream cheese, a stick of butter, brown and white sugar, and a splash of vanilla. Mix and shape into a ball. Then, roll in red and gold sprinkles for the ultimate Super Bowl LIV dessert.
12
Strawberry Lemonade Sandwich Cookies
Looking for something fruity? Trader Joe’s strawberry lemonade sandwich cookie recipe is the simple, sweet, and fruit-based dessert for you. Just put a little bit of strawberry jam and cream cheese between two of TJ’s Meyer Lemon Cookie Thins. That’s it. That’s all the steps.
13
Chocolate-covered Potato Chips
Don’t make that face. Chocolate-covered potato chips are the sweet and salty combo you didn’t know you needed. Dip your favorite potato chips (the ruffled variety work really well) in a bowl of melted chocolate. Let them dry on a piece of parchment paper. Bring them out when everyone needs a mid-game pick-me-up.
14
Baked Brie
If your question is “how can I make even my Super Bowl desserts cheese-based,” the answer is baked brie. Get a wheel of brie and wrap it in a tube of your premade crescent roll dough of choice. If you want it on the sweet side, add raspberry preserves or maple syrup atop your brie before you wrap it. Serve it with apples, crackers, pretzels, or a fork and knife. Get a full recipe from Averie Cooks food blog.
15
Chocolate Pretzel Bites
If you have little hands helping you in the kitchen, chocolate pretzel bites are an easy recipe for the whole family. While typically a holiday treat, pretzels topped with chocolate make for an easy Super Bowl treat. Just lay out rows of pretzels on a parchment-lined baking sheet and top with a piece of chocolate candy like Rolos or Hershey’s Kisses. Let those bake in the oven on low, just until the chocolate candies start to get soft. Then, top each pretzel bite with an M&M or nut.
16
Sweet & Salty Popcorn
Want to make do with the goodies you’ve got? Chances are you have some microwave popcorn on hand. Perchance some chocolate chips and mixed nuts. Throw your freshly popped popcorn into a bowl with chocolate chips so the chocolate gets a little melty. Add whatever else your heart and stomach desire: chopped nuts, sprinkles, maybe some marshmallows. Tada! An easy, delicious dessert in minutes.
17
Jell-O Shots
Make your Jell-O according to the package instructions subbing in ½ cup of vodka for half of the cold water. Pour into shot cups and refrigerate. Coordinate them with your team’s colors or just go for blue Jell-O because, if we’re all being honest with ourselves, that’s the best flavor.
If all else fails, just stack three pizzas on top of each other and call it “pizza cake.” That’s a dessert that will please everyone.