Edible Shot Glasses or Mini Serving Cups – Fun and Easy to Make

When I saw a lady from a local cake shop demonstrate how to make edible shot glasses on the local morning show, I knew I had to try them. We’re not big drinkers, but the mold works great as an edible serving cup, too.

Fill a cookie shot glass with eggnog, ice cream or pudding. Make finger gelatin in a gelatin cup and fill it with wassail punch. Sprinkle some nutmeg on an eggnog whip cream filled gingerbread cup.

The only limit is your imagination! (You can get the shot glass mold that I used here.)

You can use these edible shot glasses to hold liquid, too, of course. Just make sure to:

• Line cookie glasses with chocolate or summer coating to seal them
• Use room temperature or chilled beverages
• Fill cups just before serving

I was surprised that the shot glass molds didn’t come with recipes, and when I went hunting for instructions and recipes on the internet, most of them weren’t very clear.

The boys and I tested several recipes, adjusting times, temps and ingredients until we were happy with the end product. I hope you like the results, too.

The recipes are grouped into cookie shot glasses, gelatin shot glasses (jello shot glasses) and hard candy shot glasses. You can also use chocolate or candy melts, water (ice shot glasses) or pureed frozen fruit (serve a strawberry mini margarita in a frozen strawberry glass).

Don’t want to make your own edible shot glasses? There are an assortment of ready made edible shot glasses, too, such as:

• chocolate shot glasses
• candy cane shot glasses

Cookie Shot Glasses (or Mini Edible Serving Cups)

To get the glasses to bake evenly and fill the forms completely, there are a few steps you should follow.

1. Fill the molds completely, packing tightly to avoid air pockets.
2. Place the mold on a baking sheet to keep it level in the oven. (I used Airbake sheets.)
3. Bake the cookies until they puff over the top of the mold and tops are lightly browned and crisp.
4. If exposed end of cookies are browning too fast, cover with aluminum foil.
5. When the cookies are finished baking, remove from oven and place on a flat surface. Use a baking sheet to press down on the tops of the cookies and squish them back into the mold. (I set the pan on top of them with my tea kettle on top for five minutes.)
6. Move mold to fridge or freezer to cool completely before unmolding.
7. When removing the cookies from the shot glass molds, work gently, pushing and pulling the mold away from the cookie. Manipulate the mold, not the cookie.
8. To make the cookies leak-resistant, coat inside with a layer of chocolate or candy melts. For chocolate, adding 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of coconut oil per half cup of chocolate will make the chocolate flow more easily. This allows you to spoon some chocolate into the shot glass, spin to coat, and dump out the excess – much easier than painting it on. Summer coating should flow well “as is”. If it doesn’t, try the coconut oil trick. I prefer to gently heat the chocolate or summer coating on the stove top, but you can use the microwave if you prefer. Just make sure you don’t get it too hot, or it will seize and get hard instead of melting.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

Adapted from Chatelaine.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• melted chocolate, for coating
• coconut oil, optional, for coating
• Sprinkles, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Blend in egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, blend dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt). Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Mix will appear crumbly.

Press cookie dough into shot glass molds, filling each cavity completely. Bake on pan as directed above for 30-35 minutes, until cookies are puffed and golden brown. Remove from oven and press back into mold. Chill and remove from mold. Serve “as is” or coat with chocolate and sprinkles, if desired. Chill until chocolate is set before filling with liquid. Use within one week of baking for best results. Store in an airtight container. Note: This recipe is supposed to make 8 cups, but for us it made 11.

Gingerbread Cookie Cups

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (plus additional for garnish)
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 cup white candy melts (or chocolate chips) and Christmas nonpareils (for garnish)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter, sugar and molasses. Blend in egg. In a separate bowl, blend dry ingredients (flour, salt, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and cinnamon). Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix will appear crumbly.

Press cookie dough into shot glass molds, filling each cavity completely. Bake on pan as directed above for 20-25 minutes, until cookies are puffed and exposed edges are firm and dry. Remove from oven and press back into mold. Chill and remove from mold.

Serve “as is” or coat with white candy melts or chocolate and nonpareils, if desired. Chill until chocolate is set before filling with liquid. Use within one week of baking for best results. Store in an airtight container. Note: This recipe is supposed to make 8 cups, but for us it made 10.

Sugar Cookie Cups

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• melted chocolate, for coating
• coconut oil, optional, for coating
• Sprinkles, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Blend in egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, blend dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt). Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix will appear crumbly.

Press cookie dough into molds, filling each cavity completely. Bake on pan as directed above for 15 minutes, until cookies are puffed and golden brown. Remove from oven and press back into mold. Chill and remove from mold. Serve “as is” or coat with chocolate and sprinkles, if desired. Chill until chocolate is set before filling with liquid. Use within one week of baking for best results. Store in an airtight container. Makes 8 cookie cups.

Eggnog Whipped Cream Recipe

Adapted from allrecipes.com.

Makes a great filling for the cookie cups, or topping for pudding or drinks served in the cookie cups.

Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1-2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon rum or 1 teaspoon rum extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

Pour whipping cream into mixing bowl and whip on high speed until soft and fluffy. Add sugar and nutmeg and whip until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla and rum, whip to stiff peak stage again. Serve immediately or chill and serve within 4 hours.

Gelatin Shot Glasses (“Jello” Shot Glasses)

Don’t use regular strength “finger jello” in these molds, or you’ll end up with a mess. Freezing makes the problem even worse. To get a stable cup, you need very firm gelatin. Here’s the recipe that we used.

Ingredients

• 2 cups fruit juice, divided
• 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) gelatin powder Buy gelatin

Directions

Measure out one cup cold fruit juice. Sprinkle gelatin over cold fruit juice. Stir in and let stand for one minute. Heat the rest of the juice until boiling.

Stir cold juice and gelatin into hot juice until completely dissolved. Place shot glass mold on a pan or other flat container. Fill molds with gelatin.

Place in refrigerator to chill for 3 hours, or overnight. Gently remove cups from molds and fill as desired. Makes 8 shot glasses.

Candy Cane Shot Glasses

You will need about 4 regular sized candy canes per shot glass, so around 32 to fill all eight sections of the mold.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Break candy canes into lengths roughly the height of the mold. Stuff pieces upright around the mold, making sure that they reach all the way to the bottom.

Pack as tightly as possible to avoid air pockets. Fill in top of mold with smaller candy pieces and bits, mounding slightly above mold. Candy will melt and settle into the mold as it is heated.

Place mold on baking sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes, until candy is soft. Remove from oven. Using a butter knife, carefully press candy into mold and level bottoms. (Be careful – mold will be hot.)

Remove mold from pan and chill on level surface until cool. Remove shot glasses from molds by gently inverting one glass at a time and squeezing out the center. Store candy cups in a sealed container away from direct heat.

Jolly Rancher Shot Glasses

Adapted from Princess Pinky Girl.

You will need about 13-14 candies per shot glass.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Stuff the candies into the mold. Don’t worry if the mold bulges in or out a little – just cram those candies in there. They’ll melt together to fill in the air pockets. Heaping a little on top is good, as the candy will shrink quite a bit.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes. You want it soft, but not bubbling. (Bubbles show up in the finished glass.)

Remove from oven and cool completely on a level surface. If bubbles appear, tap out gently with a spoon or butter knife.

Note: Some sites suggest crushing the candies and pouring them into the molds. I don’t recommend this, as we tried it and found that we couldn’t fill the molds full enough. The crushed candy melted down and we ended up with half of a glass.

Download printable PDF of all these recipes.

Have you ever made edible shot glasses? Which recipe did you use and what did you serve them with? Leave a comment and let me know what works for you.

You may also enjoy:

• Lemon Shortbread Cookies
• Coconut Oil Fudge – Easy, Delicious, No Baking Required
• Chocolate chip cookie dough truffles made with almond flour and coconut oil

Last updated in 2018.