Dessert
3921 recipes found
Sweet Potato Layer Cake
Taking an old recipe and making it new, without compromising its comfort and nostalgia, can be a real joy. Howard Conyers Jr., a legacy sweet potato farmer in South Carolina, did what all good minds do: He got creative with what he had an abundance of. Using his mother Hallie’s carrot cake recipe, he replaced the grated carrots with sweet potatoes, introducing a deep and warm flavor to a classic recipe. The sweet potatoes play well with the spices, bringing in an appealing vegetal note that is a true delight with the cream cheese frosting. This is an easy cake to put together for a lazy Sunday, yet it feels regal and elegant enough for special occasions.
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How I Turned a Childhood Classic Into the Ultimate No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars
These no-bake peanut butter bars are chewy, gooey, and great for snacking.
Honeynut Pumpkin Muffins With Cornmeal
Honeynuts are no longer the new squash on the block, but their sweet, custardy flavor is still one of my favorites for baking. This classic pumpkin muffin turns not-so-classic when you swap canned pumpkin for homemade honeynut purée, but either will work just fine. The fun part of this recipe is the light, crispy brown butter cornmeal crumble, which gives the muffins a toasty nostalgic note. There’s a good ratio of crumble-to-muffin here (and by good, I mean high).
Plum-Cardamom Upside-Down Cake
Turn this easy to make (and easy to love) cake right-side up, and it’s a rustic beauty, generously made with any kind of pear. It keeps well and actually improves the longer it sits. So don’t give big servings. Have a reasonable sliver at the table after dinner and save a nice fat slice for breakfast.
Mini Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies
These pies require a fairly simple ingredient list — cream cheese, canned pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice and other baking staples — but one stands out: The butter, melted and browned until the milk solids toast, adds an intoxicating nutty flavor and aroma. The simple step takes the filling to the next level. The flavor of browned butter can easily be lost when mixed into batter and baked, so here, the fragrant butter is instead whipped into a classic cream cheese frosting. Sandwiched between two fluffy, delicately spiced pumpkin cakes, it really shines.
Pignoli Cookies
Pignoli cookies are the royalty of Italian cookies, not only because they’re encrusted in toasty pine nuts on the outside and feature next-level chewiness on the inside, but also because pignoli (pine nuts, for the unacquainted) and almond paste aren’t the cheapest ingredients on the shelf. They’re worth the investment, though, especially in a recipe as simple as this one, which is adapted from my cookbook “Let’s Party” (Union Square & Co., 2025).
Mango Basque Cheesecake
Intensely creamy with a shiny burnished top, the rustic Basque cheesecake is the perfect format for aromatic mango. This recipe works best with small, intensely flavored ripe mangoes like Alphonso or kesar. Since their season is short, and top quality mangoes can be hard to find, tinned mango pulp, available online and at international supermarkets, works brilliantly here. The convenient, highly flavored pulp also means this can be a centerpiece any time of the year. The top may color unevenly — embrace this, as they do at La Viña in San Sebastian (the homeplace of this now global dessert) where every cheesecake is slightly different and all are glorious to behold.
Boozy Apple Crunch Cake
This cake is loosely inspired by German apfelkuchen, a simple apple cake that capitalizes on humble ingredients and great seasonal produce. In this version, brown butter, bourbon, almond and a hint of citrus perfume the custardlike cake, which gets an extra bourbon soak after baking for good measure. Slicing the apples thinly allows for them to nestle in a cozy pile in the center of the cake, almost as if the cake itself were laminated with apples, cooking through while maintaining a nice crisp bite. The top, a mixture of coarse turbinado sugar and chopped slivered almonds, provides a necessary crunch that sparkles. Boozy, crunchy and chock-full of apples, this cake can be served warm with ice cream or at room temperature, and is sure to be the “it” dessert at any fall function.
Sweet Potato and Brown Butter Snacking Cake
A snacking cake is something that can be made with everyday ingredients, often in one bowl and baked in a single layer. The best ones are fit for a celebration but also so easily assembled that they feel casual enough for snacking. This sweet potato cake comes together in about an hour, making for a perfect low-effort dessert that pays dividends. The cake itself is a cinnamon- and nutmeg-scented spice cake, owing its moist and tender texture to grated sweet potato and the addition of maple syrup. The star of the show, however, is the brown butter cream cheese frosting, which is at once nutty, caramelized and slightly tangy. Take care to ensure the brown butter and cream cheese are around the same temperature and texture, so that they emulsify properly and the frosting doesn’t split (look curdled). Move over, carrot cake! A new root vegetable is here to steal the spotlight.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Pound Cake
This loaf cake is all the best parts of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, amplified. Tender and a bit denser than a traditional sponge cake, this perfectly peanut-buttery cake features layers of jam that ripple throughout the center so that each slice gets the proper ratio of jam to nuttiness. Use whichever jam or jelly you like, though note that jam varieties can be quite different, and some are much looser than others. (If yours feels particularly loose, reduce it on the stove for a few minutes or strain it before dolloping it into the loaf pan.) Roasted salted peanuts get strewn over the sweet, fruity glaze. This cake would fit in at the lunch table with a tall glass of milk, or at a dinner party with an espresso martini, because the love for a good PBJ is universal.
Pumpkin Blondies
Fudgy like a brownie but slightly cakey (and light) from the pumpkin purée, these delightful brownies are the ultimate fall sweet treat. They’re a riff on a Martha Stewart recipe, tweaked by Annie Marshall of Everyday Annie to include butterscotch chips and white chocolate. (If white chocolate’s not your thing, don’t worry: It’s not cloying, but adds perfect little pockets of sweetness.) Add nuts or don’t, but do chill a bit before cutting if you have the time, as it helps ensure clean, even squares.
Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake
Carrot cake has always felt like a fall-winter dessert due to its warming spices, dried fruits, and nuts. This version, inspired by Italian citrus cakes made with olive oil, feels lighter and brighter and is incredibly quick to put together because there is no grating required. The carrots are tossed in a blender along with the wet ingredients, creating a smooth texture and a much lighter cake without those bits of carrot, fruit and nuts weighing it down. (Another light, fluffy carrot cake made with a blended batter, called bolo de cenoura, is also popular in Brazil.) Orange zest and juice brighten things up, and cardamom brings in that warmth you want in a carrot cake while keeping it distinct from the classic.
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This Easy Cinnamon Apple Cake Delivers Big Fall Flavor With Minimal Effort
This easy apple cinnamon cake is moist, spiced, and topped with caramelized apples—an effortless fall dessert that tastes as good as pie.
Cranberry Pecan Cookie Bars
Soft and buttery pecans and cranberries are a perfect pair in these low-effort cookie bars. Packed with dark brown sugar and browned butter, they have a depth of flavor that you may not expect at first glance. You could make these bars with untoasted pecans, but it’s worth it to seek out the toasted kind at the store or take the extra time to toast them yourself for deeper flavor. Try popping them in the oven while it preheats until they’re fragrant, for richer results.
Apple Crumb Cake
Buttery caramelized apples are sandwiched between toasty oat crumble in this warmly spiced cake. The cake is plush and soft, the apples melt into a gorgeously gooey layer, and the crumble adds crispy texture and toasty buttery flavor. Don’t let the ingredient list dissuade you, as each element comes together quickly and easily, without any special equipment or tools. A slice of this cake is equally at home at the brunch table, with a hot cup of coffee, or as dessert, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Use tart, firm apples to ensure they keep a bit of a bite after they’re baked.
Apple and Honey Babka
Similar in taste to my late mother-in-law’s homey Polish apple cake but a bit chewier and less sweet, this babka can be served as a dessert or breakfast treat. It comes from Sarah Amouyal, co-founder and co-owner of Babka Zana, a bakery in Paris with a nod to North African and Ashkenazi Jewish baking traditions. Unlike many other babkas today, it still has the feeling of old Europe in its simplicity. Make it for breakfast as I did, in a traditional loaf, or twist it into four smaller round buns to be shared when sipping coffee, as Ms. Amouyal does. What I especially like about this babka recipe is that it can be assembled one day and baked off the next. The cold, long rest in the refrigerator helps the dough rise more slowly, giving it time to develop flavor, while also making the babka easier to work with. Add a half teaspoon or so of cinnamon to the apples if you must.
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This 3-Ingredient Coffee Dessert Is the Pick-Me-Up You Need
In Japan, coffee is often in its jiggly, jellied dessert form. Made with black coffee to highlight the roasted, bitter flavors of the beans, Japanese coffee jelly is typically set with kanten (a type of agar-agar) or gelatin) and is served for dessert with heavy cream and ice cream.
Snickerdoodle Muffins
Inspired by the classic snickerdoodle cookie, these tender, just-sweet-enough muffins feature a double dose of cinnamon, both in the batter and as a heavy cinnamon-sugar shower on top. Yogurt provides that signature snickerdoodle tang without the need for cream of tartar. It also lends protein and moisture to the batter, and keeps the muffins from going stale quickly, which means they can be baked to be enjoyed throughout the week as an easy, comforting breakfast.
Chocolate Chip-Tahini Skillet Cookie
With no need to pull out a stand mixer, shape or chill the dough, this tahini skillet cookie makes a quick, crowd-pleasing dessert that’s a sweet solution for casual, last-minute gatherings. For minimal cleanup, the cookie dough comes together directly in the skillet. An inviting, nutty aroma floods the kitchen when the tahini hits the skillet and the sugars are stirred in. (For a toastier taste, allow the melted butter to foam and develop brown specks.) Once the egg and the dry ingredients are incorporated, it’s bake time. The cookie will develop two separate layers in the oven: a crispy, crackly cookie on top, and a soft, gooey, half-baked bottom. Scoop the warm cookie into serving bowls and top with a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream. While this cookie is best served warm, right after baking, the leftovers are delicious eaten like cereal with ice-cold milk, or chopped and sprinkled over a sundae.
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This Easy Applesauce Cake Tastes Like a Leaf-Peeping Trip to Vermont
This easy applesauce snack cake stays moist and tender for days, thanks to a smart balance of applesauce, olive oil, and honey, plus a kick of fresh ginger.
Pan de Elote (Mexican Corn Cake)
Mexican corn cake — call it budín, panqué or pan de elote — is like cake and cornbread mashed together into a lush, custardy dream, bursting with fresh corn flavor that screams summer. It’s as easy as whirling juicy, sweet corn, eggs, milk, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla in a blender. It bakes in less than one hour, and it’s soft and just sweet enough. You’ll find this dessert, or pan dulce, sold by the slice at mercados and bakeries in nearly every corner of Mexico. Eat as is, warm or at room temperature, or top the cake with whipped cream, ripe fruit or spoonfuls of a fruit compote for a simple, sunny treat.
Cherry Karpatka
Karpatka, also known as Polish Mountain cake, gets its name from the Carpathian Mountains, a 1,500-kilometer range that stretches from the Czech Republic to Romania. Visually dramatic, this dessert is a staple in Polish bakeries, its layers of airy choux pastry giving way to a creamy custard filling. Here, the custard is finished with cream instead of the usual butter and the untraditional addition of a juicy cherry compote delivers a bright hit of fruit flavor amidst the richness, making this a total showstopper.
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These Crisp-Topped Baked Apples Are Easier Than Pie—and Just as Good
Apples make excellent vessels for baking, especially when you fill them with cinnamon sugar and butter and top them with a crispy crumble. What you're left with is an individual-sized apple crisp: an easy dessert that feels special even on an ordinary weeknight.
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Get Ready for Fall with These Portable Spiced Apple Hand Pies
Maximize your ratio of buttery, flaky pastry to deeply apple-y spiced filling in these homemade hand pies. They’re the perfect portable fall dessert.