The 15 Most Outrageous, Over-the-Top Desserts in America

When in Idaho, you’d be forgiven for wanting potatoes with every meal, and that includes dessert. Good thing the folks at Westside Drive-In have a sweet potato up their diner sleeves. No, not the starchy root vegetable, but a ‘potato’ made entirely of ice cream. It’s coated in cocoa powder and topped with whipped cream (disguised as sour cream) and chocolate bites for a quintessentially Idaho look. Portioned big enough to share, the $6.69 price tag is an absolute steal.

An Uptown Minneapolis institution for nearly a decade, Milkjam was born out of local chef Sameh Wadi’s passionate love for ice cream. There are both permanent and rotating flavors, spanning mint chip to sweet cereal, and 16 are available each day in the brick-and-mortar store. Indecisive types, you’re in luck, the team offers an “All of Them” box. It’s a lush spread containing one scoop of each flavor of the day, drizzled with all the sauces, marshmallows, and crushed waffle cones for the ultimate dessert treat.

This ain’t no simple sip. With a Kolossal Milkshake, you’ll need utensils and a bib (or lots of napkins)! The giant treats from K&J’s Elegant Pastries have put the independent bakery on the national stage, featuring on news outlets across America. Folks come far and wide for sky-high concoctions such as the Salted Caramel Crunch and the Candy Bar Express, topped with cream and entire slices of cake. Be quick, before it all melts down the sides.

Fried ice cream isn’t a new concept, but at Drop & Fry, it’s more than just a golden ball of hot ‘n’ cold. The team takes a frozen hard scoop of ice cream, flash deep-fries it, then lathers on a variety of toppings and sauces. Creations on the menu include Oreo Explosion (Oreo ice cream, filled with hot fudge, deep fried, and topped with more fudge, biscuit pieces, and powdered sugar) and That Rocky Road (chocolate ice cream and marshmallow fluff deep-fried and topped with powdered sugar, whipped cream, hot fudge, and mini marshmallows). And you thought all the best deep-fried desserts were in the South!

Those well-versed in Hungarian Chimney Cakes consider your lives changed. House of Chimney Cakes takes the humble Kürtőskalács and spins it into a modern delight. Each ‘chimney’ is handcrafted and baked to perfection, containing a crisp exterior and fluffy interior that is then filled with soft serve ice cream and a variety of toppings. Menu items include the Matcha Monster, which is topped with matcha Kit Kats, and the Everyday Birthday Cake, topped with sprinkles and a mini cupcake. Handspun milkshakes and build-your-own options are also available.

Serving the Wayne community since 1976, Brother Bruno’s bakes more than just cheese pizzas; they do dessert varieties, too. Pie fans can get their fix of sweet on the restaurant’s signature stuffed crust, with a slew of topping options that span Chocolate Chip Raspberry Cheesecake, Fruity Pebble, and Thin Mint. Guests can customize their dessert pies with four of the options available, though if that all sounds a little heavy on carbs, there’s always a more manageable, small Nutella calzone to end with instead.

Genital shaped items come hand in hand with bachelor and bachelorette parties, and if you’re in San Francisco, there’s no need to add more plastic to the planet. No sir! Your anatomically themed accessories are edible at Hot Cookie. The popular Castro bakery offers a variety of naughties with a hard crunch, no matter what your orientation, and you can even have your lover’s name written on them to declare your love while painting town in rainbow colors. Booty cookies are available too for those who prefer a taste of that sweet, sweet a**. See, it’s totally inclusive.

We get it, when in Vegas, indulge. But while LAVO is a swanky Italian restaurant, you’ll still need loose-fitting pants if you want to try their signature chocolate cake. Why? It’s a staggering 20 layers high! The Devil’s food cake comes with an addictive peanut butter mascarpone that customers have raved about, and it’s proven so popular that the cake is now available in its Los Angeles and London locations too.

Ice cream sandwiches have been all the rage for over a century, traditionally made with sweet crackers, wafers, or soft cookies, but Blackbird has upped the ante, sandwiching it with their decadent donuts instead. Simply select any donut from their menu, which includes Ube & Boba and Strawberry Sprinkle, and the team will slice it in half for you and fill it with vanilla or chocolate soft serve. Seasonal special donuts are also included in the offer.

Step into The Inventing Room for a bonkers candy experience, where a team of sugar-science wizards freeze, zap, and spin a variety of ‘electrifying’ desserts before your very eyes. The shop sells tickets to watch these demonstrations, and up to 16 guests at a time are invited to the 45-minute experiment. During the sessions, there are six tastings, including Glow-in-the-Dark Cotton Candy, served within their dark room. Made using fluorophore powder added to the mixture, the powder absorbs and re-emits light into the room.

With pastry chefs trained in Paris, you know that the macarons at Sweet Caribou in Anchorage aren’t just good, they’re France good (aka incredible). Here, you’ll find the whole spectrum of flavors and even macaron ice cream sandwiches, but what we can’t get over is how stunning their macaron towers look. These are made to order, and it’s a minimum of 33 macarons to a maximum of 170 macarons per tower (at $2 a macaron). They’re most commonly ordered for events, such as weddings and baby showers, but we’re all thinking, ‘How many macarons is too many macarons for one person?’ Hmm…