New Year's Eve Finger Desserts: 6 Party-Ready Ideas (and How to Make Them Ahead)

Six kinds of dessert are easiest to eat by hand: brownie squares, chocolate truffles and balls, mini tartlets, mini cupcakes, marshmallows and cookies. What they all have in common is a firm structure, a dry surface, and a size that's gone in one or two bites.

• Brownies cut into 3x3 cm (roughly 1x1 inch) squares. Dense, fudgy, they don't fall apart, and they hold up better than any other dessert here. Try our fudgy brownies with sprinkles — the sprinkles alone set the party mood.

• Chocolate truffles and balls. No baking required, you can make them up to three days ahead, and each one weighs around 15g. For the grown-ups, try Baileys truffles with white chocolate and sponge fingers; for everyone, go with chocolate peanut butter truffles.

• Mini tartlets. The crisp shell holds the filling together, making this the most elegant hand-held dessert of the bunch. For New Year's Eve, caramel pecan tartlets are a great fit, since the caramel sets firm and won't run.

• Mini cupcakes. Bake them in small cases (about 3cm/1.2 inches across) and keep the frosting to a modest swirl, so each one goes in two bites. Chocolate cupcakes with caramel frosting hit the right note. The caramel frosting is made with butter and cream, so it needs to stay in the fridge and come out onto the table in batches (see below).

• Marshmallows. Light, non-sticky once rolled in a cornstarch-and-icing-sugar mix, and they last the longest of all. Here's a recipe for homemade mango marshmallows.

• Cookies and crisp bites. The easiest option, and one you can bake up to a week ahead: try chocolate cookies with fleur de sel or no-bake Snowflake Crisps with marshmallow.

Plan on 3-4 pieces per guest if dessert comes after a sit-down dinner or canapés, and 4-6 pieces if sweets are the main event of the evening. Catering guides tend to use a similar range and suggest building in roughly a 10-15% buffer.

Examples with that buffer already included:

• 10 guests, dessert after dinner: 35-45 pieces total.

• 10 guests, sweet buffet running until midnight: 45-70 pieces total.

• Number of varieties: 3 is plenty. More varieties don't mean more gets eaten — just more work for you. Mix one chocolate option, one fruity or caramel option, and one lighter option (marshmallows, cookies).

If you're also putting together a savoury table, you'll find ideas and a prep timeline in our article on New Year's Eve canapés: 15 ideas and how to prep ahead.

A good hand-held dessert needs to tick five boxes: a 1-2 bite size, a firm shape, a dry surface, the ability to hold up at room temperature, and no icing sugar dusted on top. Miss even one, and it ends up on the napkins instead of in someone's mouth.

1. Size: 3-4 cm (1-1.5 inches). Anything bigger gets bitten in half, and there's nowhere to put the other half down.

2. Firm shape. Nothing that oozes or collapses when bitten into — that rules out whipped cream toppings, runny frostings, and airy sponge with nothing to hold it up.

3. Dry, set surface. Chocolate, a set glaze, caramel, or a cocoa coating. Sticky icing ends up on your fingers.

4. Holds up for 3-4 hours at 20-24°C (68-75°F). That's roughly how long dessert needs to survive on a New Year's Eve table. Brownies, cookies, marshmallows and caramel tartlets manage it fine. Buttercream, cream-based frostings and ganache soften over time, so bring those out from the fridge in small batches.

5. No icing sugar on top. It dusts onto clothes and gets absorbed into the dessert within the hour anyway. If you want that look, use sprinkles instead. The one exception is the dry cornstarch-and-icing-sugar coating on marshmallows — just shake off the excess through a sieve.

Most New Year's Eve desserts can be made two to ten days ahead. On the day itself, you're just filling, decorating and arranging the platter.

• 7-10 days ahead: cookies into a tin; marshmallows into a lidded container, rolled in the cornstarch-and-icing-sugar mix. Shake off any excess coating through a sieve before serving.

• 3 days ahead: truffles and balls into the fridge, in a sealed container, so they don't pick up other smells.

• 2 days ahead: bake brownies whole, wrap in plastic wrap, and slice only on the day — the cut edges stay fudgy that way. You can also bake tartlet shells now, but keep them in a dry container, not the fridge.

• The day before: bake mini cupcakes and make the frosting or caramel.

• On New Year's Eve, 2-3 hours before serving: fill the tartlets, pipe frosting onto the cupcakes, slice and decorate the brownies. Tartlets filled too early lose their crispness, as the shell soaks up moisture from the filling. Put the finished frosted cupcakes back in the fridge and bring them out 8-10 pieces at a time, topping up as the platter empties.

Tip for slicing brownies: once chilled, cut them with a knife dipped in hot water, wiping it clean after each cut. You'll get sharp edges and squares that don't stick together.

Decorate onto a surface that's tacky but not wet: freshly dipped chocolate, set frosting, or caramel. Sprinkles stick properly then, instead of falling off or bleeding colour.

• Add sugar sprinkles to chocolate while it's still fresh — within about a minute of dipping, while it's still glossy. Once it dulls, sprinkles won't stick anymore. Metallic, black-and-gold or bright confetti-style sprinkles all suit a New Year's Eve platter — pick from our sugar sprinkles range depending on the look you're after.

• Add sprinkles to frosting only on the day itself. Coloured sprinkles left overnight on damp frosting in the fridge bleed colour and smear.

• Edible gold leaf should go on with a dry brush or tweezers, not your fingers — it'll stick to your skin before it sticks to the dessert. One small piece is enough per truffle.

• Popping candy should go on just before serving, and only on chocolate, never on frosting. Moisture dissolves it, so by midnight it won't pop anymore.

• Coat truffles in cocoa only once chilled, and bring them straight from the fridge to the platter — cocoa turns damp and grey on a warm surface.

Set up your dessert table so every piece can be picked up with one hand. Five small things help: paper cases, spacing between pieces, a tiered stand, a separate plate for anything with nuts or alcohol, and napkins right next to the platter.

• Paper cases under tartlets, truffles and brownie squares — guests pick up the case, not the dessert itself.

• 1-2 cm (half-inch) gaps between pieces, so glazes and sprinkles don't stick together.

• A tiered stand, or several smaller plates instead of one big one: the table looks tidier, and you can top up in stages.

• Keep anything with nuts or alcohol on its own plate and mention it to guests — parents and anyone with allergies will especially appreciate the heads-up with peanut truffles, pecan tartlets and Baileys truffles.

• Napkins right by the platter, not at the other end of the table.