Menus & Cuisines
Dessert Catering in Medellín
Medellin Elite Catering creates dessert tables, celebration cakes and plated desserts for events across Medellín and the Aburrá Valley. Our pastry section bakes tartlets, mousses and Colombian classics in the same kitchen as the rest of your menu, so the last course is planned with the first.
We make desserts for weddings, quinceañeras, baby showers, company anniversaries and holiday parties, and for hosts who simply want a sweet bar at a birthday. Foreign guests discover tres leches, obleas and brevas con arequipe, while Colombian families get the sweets they remember, made with care.
Since 2019, we have learned that desserts face a quiet enemy in Medellín: warm, humid afternoons. Buttercream slumps, meringue weeps and chocolate blooms, so our recipes and setup timing are built for the local climate.
- Itemized quotes available
- Bilingual English and Spanish coordinators
Plan your event
Our Dessert Catering
We offer desserts in three formats: a styled dessert table with miniatures and a centerpiece cake, plated desserts served at a seated dinner, and drop-off trays for offices and home parties. You can order desserts on their own or as the final course of a full menu from us.
Dessert tables are the centerpiece at many quinceañeras, often planned with our quinceañera catering team so the colors match the decor and the cake cutting fits the program. At corporate events, a plated dessert or a short sweet bar closes the evening without slowing the speeches.
Dessert Tables
A dessert table is a styled display of 5 to 8 sweets in miniature, usually around a cake, where guests help themselves through the evening. We bring the stands, trays, labels and linens, and we style the table in your colors or theme. For a wedding of 120 guests that also serves a 3-tier cake, we plan 2 to 3 minis per guest, about 240 to 360 pieces on the table.
A balanced table mixes textures and flavors: something chocolate, something fruity, something creamy, something crunchy and one Colombian sweet. Our most ordered miniatures are French macarons, chocolate ganache tartlets, lemon meringue tartlets, maracuyá mousse cups, mini cheesecakes with uchuva compote, brownies and cake pops for children.
We set the table 30 to 45 minutes before it opens, never earlier, and keep mousse cups and cream-filled pieces in coolers until the last moment. In a garden or terrace, the table goes in shade with no direct afternoon sun, because a 26 °C afternoon in the sun is enough to soften ganache in 20 minutes.
Colombian Sweets
Colombian sweets are built on milk, sugarcane, fruit and arequipe, the caramel-like milk spread known elsewhere as dulce de leche. Every dessert table we style can include a Colombian corner, and many hosts choose an entirely local table.
| Sweet | What it is | Region or season |
|---|---|---|
| Tres leches | Sponge cake soaked in three milks, topped with meringue or cream | Served all over Colombia |
| Arroz con leche | Rice slowly cooked in milk with cinnamon, clove and raisins | Every family's recipe |
| Obleas | Thin wafers filled with arequipe, jam, cheese or cream | Street favorite, best assembled on site |
| Brevas con arequipe | Candied green figs filled with arequipe | Classic Antioquian dessert |
| Cocadas | Chewy coconut sweets | Caribbean coast |
| Natilla | Set custard of milk, panela and cinnamon | December, with buñuelos |
| Postre de natas | Creamy milk skin dessert with raisins | Bogotá and the Andes |
| Merengón | Crisp meringue layered with cream and guanábana or strawberry | Bogotá street classic |
Merengón is the most difficult of these in our climate, because meringue absorbs moisture and softens, especially during the rainy seasons of April to May and October to November. We bake the meringue dry, store it airtight and assemble it on site within 30 minutes of serving.
Obleas get the same treatment: wafers and fillings travel separately and are filled at the table, so the wafer still snaps. For December events, our natilla and buñuelos station fits naturally into Christmas party catering and novenas de aguinaldos.
Wedding and Celebration Cakes
Most of our celebration cakes, up to three tiers, are baked and decorated in our own pastry section. For tall or sculpted cakes beyond that, we work with partner cake studios in Medellín that we trust, and we coordinate delivery and setup so you deal with one supplier.
Popular flavors include vanilla with passion fruit curd, chocolate with arequipe, carrot with cream cheese, and a traditional Colombian torta negra, a dark fruit cake soaked in wine that keeps for weeks. For outdoor weddings we fill and cover cakes with ganache or Swiss meringue buttercream, which hold up far better in warm weather than whipped cream.
Cakes travel in our refrigerated van at 4 to 6 °C, upright in fitted boxes, to venues across the valley, from fincas in Llanogrande to salones sociales for catering in Sabaneta. They are assembled and checked at the venue. Wedding cake tastings are part of our standard wedding tasting for two at our kitchen, credited when you book.
Questions and answers
Dessert FAQs
How many dessert pieces per guest?
Plan on 3 to 4 dessert pieces per guest when a dessert table follows dinner, and 5 to 6 when desserts are the main attraction of an afternoon party. If a cake is also served, count each slice as two pieces and reduce the table to 2 or 3 minis per guest. Children usually take one piece more than adults.
Do you make sugar-free desserts?
Yes, we make desserts without added sugar, sweetened with erythritol, stevia or fruit, such as panna cotta with mango, almond flour brownies and fresh fruit tartlets. They are labeled and placed on a separate stand so diabetic guests can find them easily. For a whole menu built around blood sugar, see our diabetic-friendly catering page.
Reserve your date
Design Your Dessert Table
Send us your date, guest count, theme colors and any favorite sweets, and we will prepare an itemized dessert quote within 24 hours. You can also write to info@medellincatering.com.
- Itemized quotes available
- Menus, staff, tableware, setup and cleanup in one quote
- Food-handler certified team and labeled allergens on every tray
- Monday to Saturday
- 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Sunday
- Closed (events still run)