The Most Outrageous Dessert You Can Find In Every State
Some desserts don’t settle for being sweet – they go all in with towering layers, wild flavors, and over-the-top presentations that make you stop mid-bite just to stare.
Across the country, bakers and chefs have dreamed up creations that turn sugar into pure spectacle.
Think sky-high cakes, extravagant sundaes, and treats so bold they feel like an event of their own.
1. Peanut Butter Explosion Cake (Alabama)
Alabama doesn’t mess around when it comes to peanut butter. This behemoth cake stacks layers of moist chocolate with thick peanut butter frosting between each tier.
Reese’s cups crown the top like edible jewels. Every bite delivers that perfect salty-sweet combo that makes your taste buds sing.
Bring friends, because finishing this solo is basically impossible unless you’re training for a dessert marathon.
2. Baked Alaska Sundae (Alaska)
Nothing says Alaska like a dessert that’s literally on fire. This classic gets a sundae twist with multiple ice cream flavors hidden beneath golden meringue peaks.
Watching the server torch it tableside feels like dinner theater. The contrast between warm, toasted meringue and frozen ice cream is pure magic.
3. Churro Ice Cream Bowl (Arizona)
Arizona heat demands serious ice cream solutions. Someone brilliant decided to craft an entire bowl from fried churros, then stuff it with premium ice cream.
Cinnamon sugar coats every crispy ridge. The bowl itself becomes dessert as you crunch through cinnamon-spiced dough between ice cream bites.
It’s messy, it’s ridiculous, and honestly, it’s genius.
4. Fried Cheesecake Burrito (Arkansas)
Arkansas took cheesecake, wrapped it in a tortilla, and dunked the whole thing in hot oil. What emerged is crispy, creamy, and completely bonkers.
Powdered sugar blankets the outside while warm cheesecake oozes from the center. It’s like a carnival and a bakery had a delicious baby.
5. Giant Cotton Candy Milkshake (California)
California goes big or goes home, and this milkshake definitely went big. Picture a thick vanilla shake crowned with a cotton candy cloud bigger than your head.
Instagram was basically invented for this moment. As the cotton candy melts into the shake, it creates a sugary tornado of flavor.
6. Skillet S’mores Brownie (Colorado)
Colorado brings the campfire indoors with this skillet masterpiece. A fudgy brownie base gets piled high with marshmallows, then torched until golden and gooey.
Graham cracker crumbs add that authentic s’mores crunch. The whole thing arrives at your table still sizzling in a cast-iron skillet.
7. Cannoli Nachos (Connecticut)
Connecticut’s Italian heritage shines in this creative twist on cannoli. Crispy fried dough chips replace traditional shells, arranged like nachos on a platter.
Sweet ricotta cream gets drizzled over everything, followed by chocolate chips and pistachios. It’s shareable, which is good because you’ll want witnesses to this deliciousness.
8. Funnel Cake Ice Cream Sandwich (Delaware)
Delaware’s boardwalk culture inspired this handheld hurricane of happiness. Two crispy funnel cakes sandwich a thick slab of vanilla ice cream between them.
Powdered sugar flies everywhere with each bite. The combination of warm, crispy dough and cold, creamy ice cream hits different when you’re near the ocean.
9. Key Lime Pie Overload Shake (Florida)
Florida said why choose between pie and shake when you can have both? This monster milkshake blends key lime pie into creamy soft serve, then tops it with an actual slice.
Graham cracker crumbs rim the glass like a margarita. It’s tart, sweet, and ridiculously refreshing after a day in the Florida sun.
10. Peach Cobbler Waffle Tower (Georgia)
Georgia peaches deserve the royal treatment, and this tower delivers. Fluffy Belgian waffles alternate with layers of warm, cinnamon-spiced peach cobbler.
Ice cream melts down the sides like a delicious avalanche. Each forkful combines crispy waffle edges, tender peaches, and cold cream in perfect harmony.
It’s breakfast and dessert having the best collaboration ever.
11. Haupia Cream Pie Mountain (Hawaii)
Hawaii takes its traditional haupia pudding and builds a coconut cream mountain. Layers of silky coconut custard stack impossibly high, separated by clouds of whipped cream.
Toasted coconut flakes add crunch to all that creaminess. One bite transports you straight to a tropical beach, even if you’re thousands of miles away.
Paradise never tasted so good.
12. Huckleberry Donut Sundae (Idaho)
Idaho’s wild huckleberries star in this donut-turned-bowl creation. A massive glazed donut gets sliced and stuffed with scoops of vanilla ice cream.
Purple huckleberry sauce cascades over everything like a mountain waterfall. The berries bring a tart brightness that cuts through all that sweetness perfectly.
It’s wilderness meets bakery in the best possible way.
13. Chocolate Cake Shake (Illinois)
Chicago doesn’t do subtle, and this shake proves it. An entire slice of chocolate cake sits perched on top of a thick chocolate shake.
Brownie chunks float throughout the shake like delicious icebergs. It’s chocolate on chocolate on more chocolate, and somehow it works beautifully.
14. Giant Breaded Fried Apple Pie (Indiana)
Indiana’s state fair inspired this portable pie perfection. A handheld apple pie gets breaded and fried until the outside shatters with each bite.
Warm cinnamon apples burst out when you bite through the crispy shell. It’s like autumn decided to become a dessert and absolutely nailed it.
15. Monster Snickers on a Stick (Iowa)
Iowa State Fair vendors asked themselves: what if a Snickers bar was absolutely enormous? This frozen candy bar on a stick weighs about a pound.
Chocolate coating, caramel, nougat, and peanuts all scale up proportionally. It’s ridiculous, excessive, and exactly what state fair dreams are made of.
16. Caramel Pretzel Bread Pudding (Kansas)
Kansas combines heartland comfort with sweet-salty genius in this bread pudding. Soft pretzel pieces get baked into custard-soaked bread, creating pockets of salty surprise.
Warm caramel sauce pools in every crevice. A sprinkle of sea salt on top makes the caramel sing even louder.
It’s comfort food that gives regular bread pudding a serious upgrade.
17. Bourbon Ball Layer Cake (Kentucky)
Kentucky knows bourbon, and this cake showcases it beautifully. Chocolate layers get brushed with bourbon syrup, while the frosting contains a generous splash too.
Chocolate bourbon balls crown the top like edible jewels. It’s sophisticated, boozy, and definitely adults-only.
The bourbon flavor is present but not overwhelming, just perfectly balanced with rich chocolate.
18. Bananas Foster Flaming Skillet (Louisiana)
New Orleans created this classic, and Louisiana still does it best. Bananas caramelize in butter and brown sugar before rum ignites into dramatic blue flames.
The show happens tableside, because presentation matters. Vanilla ice cream melts into the warm sauce, creating a hot-cold contrast that’s absolutely heavenly.
19. Blueberry Pie Ice Cream Mountain (Maine)
Maine blueberries are legendary, and this dessert treats them like royalty. An entire blueberry pie serves as the foundation for a mountain of vanilla ice cream.
More blueberry sauce drizzles down the sides. It’s fruit-forward enough to feel almost healthy, until you remember the pie crust and ice cream involved.
Almost healthy still counts, right?
20. Smith Island 10-Layer Cake (Maryland)
Maryland’s official state dessert doesn’t mess around with layer count. Ten thin yellow cake layers alternate with rich chocolate frosting.
Each slice reveals the impressive striped interior. The ratio of cake to frosting is absolutely perfect, giving you both textures in every single bite.
It’s a labor of love that tastes like childhood and sophistication combined.
21. Boston Cream Pie Tower (Massachusetts)
Massachusetts takes its signature dessert and stacks it to the sky. Multiple layers of sponge cake sandwich silky vanilla custard, all covered in glossy chocolate ganache.
It’s technically a cake, not a pie, but nobody’s complaining about the name. Each forkful delivers custard, cake, and chocolate in perfect harmony.
22. Super Loaded Cherry Crisp (Michigan)
Michigan’s tart cherry orchards inspire this loaded skillet dessert. Bubbling cherries hide beneath a thick blanket of buttery oat crumble.
Ice cream melts into the warm fruit filling. The combination of tart cherries and sweet topping creates a flavor balance that’s absolutely spot-on.
It arrives at your table still sizzling and smelling like heaven.
23. State Fair Deep-Fried Cookie Dough (Minnesota)
Minnesota State Fair vendors asked the important question: why bake cookie dough when you can fry it? These golden orbs arrive on a stick, crispy outside with gooey centers.
Chocolate dipping sauce makes them even more dangerous. It’s the kind of treat that makes you understand why people wait in line for hours.
24. Bottomless Bread Pudding (Mississippi)
Mississippi hospitality means the bread pudding never stops coming. This Southern comfort classic arrives warm, studded with raisins, and swimming in whiskey sauce.
The bottomless part means you can keep ordering more. It’s soft, custardy, and tastes like a grandmother’s hug in dessert form.
25. Gooey Butter Cake Sundae (Missouri)
St. Louis’s famous gooey butter cake becomes an ice cream vehicle in this Missouri masterpiece. The cake itself is impossibly rich and dense, almost like solidified butter and sugar.
Adding ice cream and caramel sauce seems excessive, and it absolutely is. But that’s precisely what makes it so ridiculously good.
26. Huckleberry Cheesecake Stack (Montana)
Montana’s wild huckleberries meet New York-style cheesecake in this stacked creation. Individual cheesecake rounds layer with purple huckleberry compote between each tier.
The berries cut through the richness beautifully. It’s like eating a slice of Big Sky Country in dessert form.
Each layer brings you closer to understanding why Montanans guard their huckleberry spots so fiercely.
27. Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding (Nebraska)
Nebraska took bread pudding and made it even more indulgent by using Krispy Kreme donuts instead of regular bread. Glazed donuts soak up custard before baking into something magical.
The result is impossibly sweet and ridiculously rich. It’s the kind of dessert that makes you question your life choices while simultaneously ordering seconds.
28. 24-Layer Chocolate Cake (Nevada)
Las Vegas goes bigger than everywhere else, and this cake proves it. Twenty-four thin chocolate layers stack impossibly high, separated by chocolate frosting.
It’s a showstopper that looks almost too pretty to eat. Almost. The texture is incredible, with each layer melting on your tongue.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, including your diet plans.
29. Maple Donut Bread Pudding (New Hampshire)
New Hampshire maple syrup turns ordinary bread pudding extraordinary. Maple-glazed donuts replace traditional bread, soaking up maple-infused custard.
More maple syrup drizzles on top, because why not? Candied bacon adds a salty crunch that makes the sweetness even better.
30. Rainbow Cookie Mega Slice (New Jersey)
New Jersey’s Italian bakeries make rainbow cookies, then someone decided to make them absolutely enormous. This mega slice features extra-thick layers of almond cake in red, green, and white.
Chocolate coats the outside. It’s dense, chewy, and tastes like every Italian celebration ever.
One slice feeds approximately four people, or one very determined person.
31. Green Chile Apple Pie (New Mexico)
New Mexico adds green chile to everything, including apple pie, and somehow it works perfectly. Roasted green chiles add subtle heat that enhances the sweet cinnamon apples.
The spice sneaks up on you after the sweetness. It’s unexpected, a little weird, and absolutely delicious.
Your taste buds won’t know what hit them, but they’ll definitely thank you.
32. Cookie Dough Stuffed Doughnut (New York)
New York City bakers stuffed a doughnut with edible cookie dough, because more is always more. The doughnut itself is fluffy and glazed to perfection.
Biting through reveals chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough inside. It’s carbs stuffed with more carbs, and it’s absolutely glorious.
Only in New York would this level of excess feel completely normal.
33. Cheerwine Ice Cream Float Tower (North Carolina)
North Carolina’s beloved Cheerwine soda becomes a towering float creation. Layers of vanilla ice cream alternate with the cherry-flavored regional soda.
The foam rises impossibly high as the ice cream melts. It’s sweet, fizzy, and tastes like childhood summers in the South.
34. Caramel Rollo Cheesecake (North Dakota)
North Dakota’s love for Rollo candies inspired this cheesecake masterpiece. Creamy cheesecake gets topped with whole Rollos, caramel sauce, and chocolate.
Each bite delivers chocolate, caramel, and tangy cheesecake. It’s rich enough to share, but you probably won’t want to.
35. Buckeye Brownie Explosion (Ohio)
Ohio’s famous buckeye candies explode across a fudgy brownie base. Peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate sit on top like edible decorations.
More peanut butter and chocolate sauce drizzle over everything. It’s a chocolate-peanut butter lover’s fever dream come true.
Buckeye State pride tastes incredibly sweet and slightly dangerous to your waistline.
36. Fried Pie Sundae (Oklahoma)
Oklahoma takes handheld fried pies and transforms them into sundae vessels. The crispy fried pie gets split open while still warm.
Ice cream fills the pocket, melting slightly from the heat. Fruit compote and caramel sauce finish the job.
It’s comfort food meets ice cream parlor in the best Southern tradition.
37. Marionberry Cobbler Skillet (Oregon)
Oregon’s marionberries are berry royalty, and this cobbler treats them accordingly. Dark purple berries bubble beneath a buttery biscuit topping in a hot skillet.
The berries are tart and intensely flavorful. Ice cream melting into the warm fruit creates purple rivers of deliciousness.
38. S’mores Baked Alaska (Pennsylvania)
Pennsylvania combines two classic desserts into one spectacular creation. Baked Alaska gets a s’mores makeover with graham cracker crust and chocolate ice cream.
The meringue toasts to golden perfection. It’s campfire nostalgia meets elegant French dessert technique.
The drama of the torching process makes everyone at nearby tables jealous.
39. Coffee Milkshake Tower (Rhode Island)
Rhode Island’s official state drink becomes a towering milkshake. Coffee milk syrup blends with ice cream, creating a sweet coffee flavor unique to the Ocean State.
A coffee roll balances on top because why not? It’s sweet, caffeinated, and absolutely Rhode Island through and through.
40. Praline Pecan Cheesecake (South Carolina)
South Carolina’s pecan trees contribute to this cheesecake masterpiece. Creamy cheesecake gets smothered in buttery praline sauce studded with toasted pecans.
The combination is pure Southern indulgence. Each bite delivers tangy cheesecake, sweet praline, and crunchy pecans.
41. Kuchen Ice Cream Swirl (South Dakota)
South Dakota’s German heritage shines in this kuchen creation. Traditional custard-topped kuchen gets paired with swirls of vanilla ice cream.
The cake is tender and slightly sweet. The combination of warm cake and cold ice cream creates perfect temperature contrast.
It’s German tradition meeting American ice cream obsession.
42. Banana Pudding Cheesecake (Tennessee)
Tennessee combines two Southern classics into one show-stopping dessert. Banana pudding meets New York cheesecake in perfect harmony.
Vanilla wafers form the crust and garnish. The banana flavor is present but not overwhelming, balanced by tangy cheesecake.
43. Texas-Sized Chocolate Sheet Cake Sundae (Texas)
Everything’s bigger in Texas, especially this chocolate sheet cake sundae. A massive slab of fudgy Texas sheet cake serves as the foundation.
Multiple ice cream scoops pile on top with every topping imaginable. It’s designed to feed a table, but sharing is technically optional.
44. Dirty Soda Cream Float (Utah)
Utah’s soda shop culture created the dirty soda phenomenon, and this float takes it further. Cola mixes with cream and flavored syrups in combinations that shouldn’t work but absolutely do.
The cream makes the soda silky and rich. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it’s uniquely Utah.
45. Maple Creemee Mountain (Vermont)
Vermont’s maple syrup infuses their soft-serve creemees with pure maple flavor. This mountain of soft-serve stacks cone after cone impossibly high.
More maple syrup drizzles down the sides. It’s sweet, maple-y, and tastes like Vermont in frozen form.
Eating it before it melts becomes an exciting race against time.
46. Peanut Pie Sundae (Virginia)
Virginia’s peanut farms inspire this pie-turned-sundae creation. Rich peanut pie, similar to pecan pie but with peanuts, gets topped with vanilla ice cream.
Caramel sauce and more peanuts pile on top. It’s nutty, sweet, and celebrates Virginia’s agricultural heritage.
The combination of warm pie and cold ice cream never gets old.
47. Marionberry Pie Shake (Washington)
Washington State blends marionberry pie into a thick milkshake, then tops it with an actual pie slice. The berries create a beautiful purple color.
It’s tart, sweet, and impossibly thick. Pacific Northwest berry season in a glass.
Seattle’s coffee culture has nothing on this berry-powered shake.
48. Custard-Filled Pepperoni Roll Donut (West Virginia)
West Virginia’s famous pepperoni rolls inspire this sweet-savory donut creation. The donut looks like a pepperoni roll but surprises you with sweet custard filling.
It’s confusing and delicious simultaneously. Berry sauce on the side mimics marinara for the full experience.
49. Deep-Fried Cheese Curds with Caramel Dip (Wisconsin)
Wisconsin takes its beloved cheese curds and makes them dessert by adding cinnamon sugar and caramel. The curds stay savory inside while the coating brings sweetness.
Caramel dipping sauce bridges the sweet-salty divide. It’s weird, it’s Wisconsin, and it’s weirdly amazing.
Cheese for dessert? In Wisconsin, absolutely.
50. Cowboy Cookie Ice Cream Stack (Wyoming)
Wyoming’s cowboy cookies get stacked with ice cream between each massive cookie. These aren’t dainty cookies – they’re loaded with oats, chocolate chips, and pecans.
Ice cream melts into all the cookie nooks and crannies. It’s hearty, rustic, and tastes like the Wild West.
Cowboys probably didn’t eat dessert this good, but they should have.
