25 Best Dessert Trucks In America 2015 Slideshow

If the food truck market is a niche in and of itself, then dessert trucks are one niche deeper. Food trucks have proven to be a sizeable industry in the United States, with an estimated 4,130 of them, worth $1.2 billion, plying their trade in 2015. The trucks have experienced a surge in popularity and revenue partly by way of social media in the past decade, and the industry has brought a new angle to the classic concept of street food, which is eaten by 2.5 billion people every day. These vehicles full of creative concoctions are also popular in Canada and Western Europe and are rolling up to the curb just about everywhere else.

After food trucks first became popular, it was only a matter of time before the sub-category of dessert trucks attracted fascination. People love desserts, as the $2.36 billion frozen novelty industry shows, and the recent farm-to-table and artisanal food movements support the kinds of handcrafted ice cream, doughnuts, and crème brûlée options made available by individually owned mobile purveyors.

To compile this list, we started with our 2013 roundup of 50 dessert trucks, weeding out any that were no longer operational. Next, we analyzed each one's number of Facebook and Twitter followers. After all, popular food trucks usually have loyal followings, and in order for fans to frequent them, they have to be able to locate them (usually via schedules on social media). We also took diversity of offerings and menu innovation into account when ranking the trucks. Now feast your eyes on the top 25 dessert trucks in America in 2015.

The Sugar Philly Truck's mission is to make desserts delicious and accessible in order to bring happiness and smiles to all. Food-truck lovers John Suh and Franklin Shen dreamt of creating a gourmet food truck to serve the city of Philadelphia, and after convincing their friend Dan Tang to return to Philadelphia to serve as head chef, the they were ready to launch. The truck serves crème brûlée, a selection of French macarons, and crème fraîche cheesecake made with local strawberries and a blueberry compote.

Like No Udder is the world's first all-vegan soft-serve ice cream truck, according to the company's website (its founder formerly ran a vegan baking business.) The truck, which is purple with polka dots, serves vegan ice cream, shakes, floats, frozen slushies, candy bars, and jerky. Classics like vanilla and chocolate are available ice cream flavors, and toppings include peanut butter sauce, Oreo crumbles, and toasted coconut.

Sweet Cow Ice Cream's primary goal is bringing smiles to the community. They're pursuing exactly that by hand-crafting ice cream daily and only using compostable and recyclable products. The MooMobile, which started serving ice cream in July 2011, visits office parks, but is also available for booking for parties and events. Available flavors include cookies and cream, strawberry, and Dutch chocolate, as well as a daily featured ice cream.

Sisters Kathryn and Laura Pekarik share a passion for baking and doing good. After Kathryn was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's T-cell lymphoma in 2010, her sister baked 250 cupcakes to fundraise at a benefit in Kathryn's honor. The treats were such a hit that they started Cupcakes for Courage, an organization that donates 10 percent of proceeds to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Ride Janie Ride Foundation. They also donate desserts to local non-profits. The sisters run Courageous Bakery, as well as two dessert trucks, nicknamed Green Machine and Little Green. Cupcake flavors include taffy apple, chocolate-covered graham cracker, and the survivor cupcake, which combines all the cancer awareness colors to show there's strength in numbers. Besides cupcakes, the trucks sell fresh-baked cookies, hand-cut doughnuts, and fresh-ground coffee.

The Parlour, which makes handmade ice cream in downtown Durham, also boasts a bus that traverses downtown Durham to serve dessert at public events. The bus is even available for private hire, for events like weddings, and corporate get-togethers. Try classic flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and cookies and cream, as well as special or rotating flavors like Vietnamese coffee, sweet potato, and salted butter caramel. Our pick? The Parlour's apple butter ice cream, which is made from fresh North Carolina apples cooked into apple butter with warming spices. Vegan options like vegan nog, coffee cookies and cream, and lemon sorbet are also available.

Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream has scoop trucks in both New York City and Los Angeles. The trucks offer flavors like honeycomb, Earl Grey tea, and Sicilian pistachio; recent specials like fluffernutter, brown butter cinnamon toast, and sour cream berry crumble; and vegan options like peanut butter chocolate chip, salted caramel, and coffee bean.

Cupkates, founded in 2009, claims to have been the Bay Area's first mobile cupcake truck and one of the first in the country. Two trucks offer cupcakes in the area, and the trucks' new sister shop is called Stateside Bakery. Cupcake options include s'mores, red velvet, and salted caramel.

The Treats Truck, which has been braving New York City traffic since June 2007, offers cookies, brownies, pies, cake squares, and ice cream cone cupcakes on its extensive menu. Try the cranberry almond crispy square or a pumpkin swirl cookie. Owner, baker, and driver Kim Ima had this to say about her truck: "I believe in those little moments in the middle of an ordinary day when you treat yourself or a friend to a cookie."

This gourmet dessert truck traverses the South Florida community offering handcrafted gelato, sorbet, and frozen yogurt. Ingredients are sourced locally and go into the making of all-natural, gluten-free, kosher pops on a stick at the company's Dania Beach micro-creamery. HipPOPs also offers pop-up gelato bars for hire.

This Chicago cupcake staple can be found in Lincoln Square almost every Sunday. The truck's sister — and stationary — location is known as the Flirty Cupcakes Dessert Garage. Cupcake flavors include Devil in Disguise, which is a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting, and the Turtle Always Wins the Race, a chocolate cupcake with a caramel pecan filling and caramel pecan cream cheese frosting.

This Belgian food truck, which sells waffles, ice cream, milkshakes, and coffee, also has a flagship café in the East Village. In Flemish, "dinges" is a placeholder word for things, people, and "whatchamecallits." The truck, which is known for its Belgian waffles, offers a rotating menu. Wafels and Dinges said it best when they described their process: "Every week, scientists from the Belgian Department of Wafels gather deep down in the Ardennes Mountains in their Super Secret Wafel Lab. They concoct new recipes, and when ready, invite the King over for taste-testing."

"Farchitecture," or food plus architecture, is the premise on which co-founders Natasha Case and Freya Estreller built this truck. Their business, which seeks to deconstruct flavor profiles and encourage learning about architecture and design, debuted in April 2009 at Coachella Valley Music Festival. Coolhaus' unique ice cream sandwich creations are sweet-meets-savory concoctions. Some even incorporate architectural puns into the names — think "Frank Berry," which is made with strawberry ice cream and snickerdoodle cookies. Other flavors include brown butter candied bacon and avocado sea salt.