Make ahead, portable desserts for a tailgate

Thank you all so much for these suggestions! I had planned to make cake (Suzanne, I always love your cake recipes), but I can see that something in bar form would be easier. I think I'll go with brownies, brown butter rice krispie treats, and Merrill's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I am keeping all these other recipes on file!

I second all the brownie suggestions. And if you want to get fancy you could frost them with chocolate frosting, cut them into elongated diamonds and pipe laces on them to look like footballs.

Bear in mind that Halloween is this weekend, so there's a good chance a lot of people will be stuck with extra candy at home... With that in mind, maybe do caramel apples or something else fruit-centric?

Piña Colada cupcakes.
1 basic yellow cake mix (not the butter one)
1 box instant vanilla pudding
1 can crushed pineapple drained - save juice
put about 3 tblspns aside and mix in 1 tblspn corn starch
1 pkg sweetened shredded coconut toasted in oven
1 can vanilla frosting if you don't want to make butter cream from scratch
2-3 oz pineapple rum
Mix cake batter per instructions adding pkg of instant pudding to mix and substituting some of the water with the plain juice. Bake and cool completely.
Filling:
Cook down pineapple about 5 mins on low - med heat just until it starts to boil and add about 2 -3 oz pineapple rum. Add cornstarch mix and cook until thick continuously stirring so it doesn't burn. Cool down and chill in fridge until cold.
Punch out center of cupcake half way down
with tool or spoon. Fill with pineapple mixture and frost with piping bag. Sprinkle on toasted coconut generously. Top with cherry or pineapple chunk.

I agree with treats that you can easily hold in your hand--cookies, brownies, etc. Anything else could be difficult to serve and eat.

i'd go with cookies, brownies, or krispy treats - cakes and fancier things are nice to make, but you don't want people to need to have plates and forks to eat it (unless this is a fancier tailgate than i'm used to).

"Sara's Granola Bars" are great. https://food52.com/recipes/12067-sara-s-granola-bars

pot brownies :-)

there are Hippie Krispy treats on this site too that might be a bit more grown-up, then again, it's a tailgate so maybe that's not what you are after. I brought a salad to one a while back and was mocked (right before they ate it all) Dr Babs Magical Memorable cookies are great because you can use all sorts of different add-ins:
https://food52.com/recipes/8595-magical-marvelous-memorable-cookies

oh and check out Merrill's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too

OH and these guava bars - I have brought them to a few different parties and they are always a hit too!
https://food52.com/recipes/21543-double-layered-guava-crumble-bar

Homemade rice krispy treats, brownies, or blondies are always a hit with little risk of mess during travel. I had some rice krispy treats last weekend made with nutella that were excellent!

Highly recommend Texas chocolate cake https://food52.com/recipes/14526-texas-chocolate-cake it travels well because it is transported in the 9x13 pan it is baked in, super simple, can be cut into squares before you leave. Love this cake.

Tres Leches Cake,
http://www.patismexicantable.com/2010/02/tres_leches_cake/