Dirt Cake Cups

These Dirt Cake Cups are made with chocolate pudding and crushed Oreos! Top them with edible cookie flowers, gummy worms, and Swedish fish.

Dirt cake is perfect for spring and summer celebrations! It’s an easy, no-bake dessert that you can serve at parties and backyard barbecues. If you put it in individual cups, it is super easy to serve!

How To Make Dirt Cake

Start with the chocolate pudding mixture. Whisk the instant chocolate pudding and milk together for two minutes. Then, set the pudding aside.

In a separate bowl, beat the softened cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Then, beat in the softened butter, and once it is combined, mix in the powdered sugar.

Add the Cool Whip and mix until combined. Finally, combine the chocolate pudding and cream cheese mixture in a large bowl.

Start with crushed Oreos on the bottom of individual serving cups. You can also use a large bowl or trifle bowl. Then, top the crushed Oreos with chocolate pudding, followed by more crushed Oreos and more chocolate pudding. Then, garnish the dirt cake cups with coconut grass, gummy worms, blue frosting for water, gummy fish, or edible flowers!

Dirt Cake Cups With Gummy Worms

The classic topping for chocolate pudding cake is crushed Oreos for “dirt” with gummy worms and gummy bugs. I decided to top them with coconut grass instead. If you don’t want to use coconut, try green sprinkles or use frosting to pipe grass onto the pudding like I did when I made my Easter Basket Cookie Cups.

How To Make Coconut Grass

To make green coconut grass, put two cups of shredded, sweetened coconut in a ziptop bag. Mix about 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of green gel food coloring with 1/2 teaspoon of water. If you are using liquid food coloring, use 1/4-1/2 teaspoon.

Pour the mixture into the bag with the shredded coconut, zip the top, and shake the bag to mix. Once the coconut is evenly colored, spread it out on a parchment-lined baking sheet to dry. To speed up the drying process, you can bake the coconut at 250˚F for 5-10 minutes, checking it often.

Top the Oreo pudding cups with the green coconut and gummy worms. You can also add gummy bugs! This dirt cake would also be perfect for Easter, topped with a chocolate bunny and jelly beans or Cadbury mini eggs.

Dirt Cake Lake With Gummy Fish

These fun dirt cake lake cups with gummy Swedish fish are perfect for summer or a kid’s birthday party! You can easily turn them into ocean pudding cups by using Golden Oreos for sand instead of chocolate ones for dirt. Then add tropical gummies such as sharks, fish, octopus, and lobsters.

How To Make Blue Frosting Water

Getting the smooth blue frosting that looks like water is really easy! I also use this technique to make these gone fishing brownie bites, and you can even use it to frost sugar cookies.

I tinted store-bought vanilla frosting blue using a combination of blue and teal gel food coloring. You can make it any shade you want.

Then, melt the frosting in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, and stir it until smooth. If it still isn’t melted, return it to the microwave. When you put it on the pudding, you want it to be smooth but not hot.

Some of the blue color may leak down into the pudding during storage. It adds a cool effect! But if you want to prevent that, put a layer of crushed Oreos on top of the pudding before adding the blue frosting.

Spoon the melted frosting over the chocolate pudding, smooth it out with a spoon, and top it with mini Swedish fish, gummy sharks, or other gummy fish.

Dirt Cake Flower Pots

Make dirt cake flower pots complete with edible flowers for Earth Day, Mother’s Day, or any spring celebration. Or, for a holiday treat, top them with edible trees made from mini ice cream cones dipped in green candy coating.

How To Make Edible Flowers

To make the edible flowers, melt white chocolate chips in the microwave. Put heart-shaped sprinkles in a circle on a piece of parchment paper so that the inner circle is smaller than the mini Nilla wafers. Then, coat the back of a cookie with melted white chocolate chips and place it in the center of the sprinkles.

Allow the chocolate to harden, peel the flower top off of the parchment paper, and attach a pretzel stick for a stem.

If you want to make the stems longer, you can attach a second pretzel stick to the bottom of the first one, overlapping the two. Once you insert the pudding, the part where the two attach will be hidden.

The pretzel stems will soften in the pudding, so wait to insert the edible flowers. Or, you can fully coat the pretzel sticks with the melted white chocolate chips to prevent them from getting soft in the pudding.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I make this dirt cake recipe in one big bowl? Yes, you can assemble it in a large clear glass bowl or trifle bowl instead of the individual cups.
• How can I add vanilla pudding? Use one package of vanilla pudding mix and one package of chocolate pudding mix. Whisk them in separate bowls with 1 1/2 cups of milk for each. Then, stir half of the cream cheese mixture into each bowl.
• Can I make them dirt cake cups ahead of time? Yes, the pudding needs to chill in the fridge for at least three hours or overnight. You can wait to add the toppings until closer to serving time.

More Summer Desserts

• Homemade Milkshakes
• Rainbow Rice Krispies Treats
• Shave Ice and Snoballs
• Funnel Cakes