Dessert Table menu
Moroccan Dessert Table — A Lavish Spread of Pastries and Sweets
For a celebration, few things impress like a Moroccan dessert table — tiers of almond pastries, honey-soaked sweets and fragrant biscuits, all perfumed with orange-blossom and served with endless mint tea. This spread is designed as the sweet finale to a party or as a standalone dessert reception for a crowd: kaab el ghazal, chebakia, almond briouats, sellou, ghriba and fresh fruit, arranged in abundance. Most of the sweets keep for days, so the table is built almost entirely ahead. The art is in the styling — tiers, height and generosity. Discover more Moroccan sweets to fill it. Opulent, fragrant and made for celebration.
The menu
The centrepiece pastry
Kaab el ghazal
Elegant almond-paste 'gazelle horns' scented with orange-blossom — the refined star of the table, arranged front and centre.
The honey sweet
Chebakia
Sesame-and-honey flower pastries, fried and soaked in syrup until sticky and glossy. Piled high, they add rich colour and shine.
The crisp parcel
Almond briouats in honey
Crisp fried pastry triangles of almond paste dipped in honey and sesame — a crunchy, sweet contrast among the softer pastries.
The energy sweet
Sellou
A dense mound of toasted flour, ground almonds, sesame and honey, dusted with icing sugar and sometimes studded with whole almonds. Rich and traditional.
The biscuits
Ghriba and fekkas
Crumbly almond or coconut ghriba and crunchy sliced fekkas — the everyday biscuits that give the table variety and volume.
Fresh and drink
Seasonal fruit and mint tea
Platters of oranges, dates, grapes and figs to lighten the sugar, with pots of sweet mint tea poured throughout.
Shopping list
- Ground almonds in quantity (for kaab el ghazal, briouats and ghriba)
- Warqa pastry (for briouats and gazelle horns)
- Sesame seeds, honey and anise (for chebakia)
- Orange-blossom water and icing sugar
- Toasted flour (for sellou)
- Coconut or extra flour (for ghriba)
- Flour, nuts and sesame (for fekkas)
- Eggs, butter and sugar
- Seasonal fruit: oranges, dates, grapes, figs
- Gunpowder green tea and plenty of fresh mint
Prep timeline
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Up to a week before
Make chebakia and fekkas, which keep for weeks in tins and only improve as they settle.
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Two to three days before
Bake the kaab el ghazal, ghriba and almond briouats; all keep well airtight and can be made in stages.
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Day before
Make the sellou and press it into its mound. Gather the tiered stands and serving plates for styling.
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Morning
Arrange the pastries on tiers by type, building height and abundance. Prepare the fruit platters and keep chilled.
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Before serving
Dust the kaab el ghazal and sellou with icing sugar, set out the fruit, and brew big pots of mint tea for pouring.
Host's tips
- Style with height and tiers — a Moroccan dessert table is about abundance, so build upwards and fill every gap.
- Group each sweet together rather than mixing, so the colours and shapes read clearly across the table.
- Almost everything keeps, so make the sweets across the week before and assemble the table on the day.
- Balance the richness with platters of fresh fruit and dates so guests can graze between the heavier pastries.
- Dust icing sugar over the pale pastries just before serving so it stays crisp and white, not absorbed.
Questions about this menu
What sweets belong on a Moroccan dessert table?
The classics: kaab el ghazal (almond gazelle horns), chebakia (honey-sesame pastries), almond briouats, sellou, ghriba biscuits and fekkas, alongside platters of fresh fruit and dates. Together they offer a range of textures — delicate, sticky, crisp and crumbly — and the fragrances of almond, honey and orange-blossom that define Moroccan sweets. Mint tea is essential throughout.
How far ahead can I make the sweets?
Remarkably far, which is the joy of a dessert table. Chebakia and fekkas keep for weeks in airtight tins, and kaab el ghazal, ghriba and briouats keep for several days and often improve. Sellou is made the day before. This means the entire table can be baked across the preceding week and simply assembled on the day.
How do I style a Moroccan dessert table?
Build abundance and height. Use tiered stands and cake plates to create levels, group each type of sweet together for clear colour and shape, and fill gaps with dates and fruit. Dust pale pastries with icing sugar just before serving. Add a teapot and glasses for mint tea. The look should be generous, fragrant and overflowing.
What is sellou?
Sellou, also called sfouf, is a rich unbaked Moroccan sweet of flour toasted golden, ground almonds, sesame seeds, honey and warm spices, pressed into a dense mound and dusted with icing sugar. Energy-dense and long-keeping, it is eaten in small pieces and is a fixture at celebrations, Ramadan and on any generous Moroccan sweet table.
How do I stop the table being too sweet?
Balance the pastries with plenty of fresh fruit — oranges, grapes, figs and dates — which refreshes the palate between rich, honeyed sweets. Serve unsweetened water alongside the mint tea, and include some less sugary items like plain fekkas or ghriba. The contrast of fresh fruit against the pastries keeps guests grazing happily rather than overwhelmed.
Learn to cook this menu with a local in Marrakech
Every dish here is taught, hands-on, in a Marrakech cooking class — or taste them across the medina on a guided food tour.