Yankee Doodle dessert cups

Kids will have oodles of fun creating this Yankee Doodle dessert for the Fourth of July.

These clever butterscotch pudding cups — with Oreo cookies hidden inside the hats — are the perfect patriotic and portable holiday treat. Bonus: No baking required. Because who wants to spend hours in the kitchen during the summer? Not me!

These treats can be made with butterscotch or vanilla pudding cups, whichever you prefer.

You can cover the entire Oreo cookie or just the top wafer with candy melt. Only the top half will be seen, peeking out of the paper hat.

The hats can be the same size, or you can cut some of them shorter. Taller hats means more cookies hidden inside.

Give Uncle Sam a long beard or a short goatee. Have fun with his facial hair.

I used Golden Oreo cookies in my hats, but you could also stash Nilla Wafers in there too. All cookies taste great with pudding.

These Yankee Doodle dessert cups are fun for the kids, but the adults won’t mind dipping into them too.

Now you’ve got a perfectly patriotic treat for your picnic. Happy Fourth of July!

Yankee Doodle dessert cups recipe

Yields 6

Ingredients and supplies:

• 6 butterscotch pudding cups
• 20-30 Golden Oreo cookies
• 1 cup red candy melt wafers
• 3 patriotic hat printouts on card stock (download PDF here)
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• 12 small googly eyes (found in most craft stores)
• 6 wood plugs (1/2 inch or smaller, found in craft or hardware stores)
• 6 cotton balls
• Tape
• Scissors

Directions:

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, heat the red candy melt wafers for 30 seconds, stir, and then heat for another 30 seconds, until smooth. Dip the tops of 6 Oreo cookies into the red candy melt. Set them aside on a plate to cool and harden.
2. To make the patriotic hats, download and print the PDF above on card stock paper. Cut out the shapes. If you want to make hats of varying heights, then just trim the top of the red-and-white-striped area. Form the cylinders of the hat, hot gluing the ends together. Attach the cylinders to the red circles, using more hot glue. Set them aside to let them cool.
3. To make Uncle Sam’s face, hot-glue the googly eyes to the front of the pudding cup. Make tiny eyebrows, mustaches, beards and sideburns with the cotton balls. Hot-glue them in place. Glue the wooden plug noses last.
4. Put a rolled piece of tape on top of the pudding cups, and attach the paper hats. Fill the hats with stacks of Oreo cookies to the desired height, making sure to place a red candy melt-covered cookie on top.

Get into the red, white and blue spirit

Candy poppin’ bottle rockets
Star spangled banner bars
Firecracker cakelettes

More patriotic eats

Stars and stripes summer pie
Fireworks boozy shake
Portable patriotic cupcakes in a jar