Dessert
3839 recipes found
Strawberry Lemonade Cake
Topped with fluffy pink buttercream and a generous cap of strawberries, this perfectly pink cake is a stunning centerpiece for any gathering. Strawberries are used here in two ways: Freeze- dried berries in the buttercream provide concentrated berry flavor, and fresh berries are used to fill and top the cake. This recipe uses the reverse creaming method made popular by author Rose Levy Beranbaum: The dry ingredients are mixed with a solid fat (butter, in this case) before the liquid ingredients (including oil) are mixed in, helping ensure that you don’t overmix your batter. The combination of butter and oil in this mixing method creates the soft, tender crumb of the zesty lemon cake. And, as a bonus, the cake layers bake up nice and flat, so you don’t have to worry about trimming them.
Easy Chocolate Cake
This classic chocolate layer cake is big enough for a celebration but can be easily made with pantry staples and a hand mixer. The cake layers are deeply chocolatey, fluffy and even tastier if you make them the day before you plan to eat the cake. They also bake up nice and flat so you don’t have to bother with trimming. The sour cream makes the cake layers nice and plush, and adds a bit of tanginess to the American-style buttercream made with confectioners’ sugar, a hefty dose of cocoa powder, vanilla and plenty of salt to balance the flavor. Cover the cake with swoops and swirls of buttercream, and top with sprinkles, if you like.
Berries and Cream
Made with just a few ingredients presented beautifully, berries and cream is the perfect cap to a summer meal. If you keep vanilla bean paste on hand, this would be an excellent way to use it: Substitute an equal amount of vanilla bean paste for the extract. If you’re feeling up to it, you can whip the cream by hand, but you can also use an electric mixer. The berries and cream can be assembled up to four hours in advance, covered and stored in the refrigerator. But for the best appearance, wait until just before serving to add the final layer of berries on top.
Strawberry Pretzel Bars
Old-fashioned strawberry pretzel salad, topped with gelatin, gets a modern makeover. Here, pretzels are tossed with graham cracker crumbs, then topped with a light cream-cheese mixture and finished off with strawberry jam and fresh strawberries, for a delicate sweetness. Cut the bars into bite-size pieces or bigger slabs. Either way, this old-new dish is sure to be a favorite.
Buttermilk Tres Leches Cake
The beauty of a tres leches cake is that it is perennial in its appeal. Cold, light and yet still decadent in the summer, comforting and familiar in the colder months, it is a cake for all occasions and seasons. Don’t be afraid to engage in a little experimentation and play. Adding rum or other seasonings or spices is perfectly acceptable. But don’t skimp on the refrigeration and soaking time. You’ll be glad when your cake is optimally chilled and moist to the core.
Blueberry Spoon Cake
This recipe for a simple summer spoon cake draws the juices out of blueberries then pours them on top of a gluten-free cornmeal batter. As the cake bakes, some blueberries sink and form a stewy bottom, others bubble into chewy jam. The result looks like an upside down cobbler, or a muffin without its middle. It isn’t too sweet, and what it lacks in slice-ability and portability, it makes up for with tenderness and juiciness. Make sure to bake it on a tray to catch any batter or berries that rise over the rim — these are the cook’s midbake treat.
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Bakery-Worthy Meringue Cookies
With a little know-how, you can make spectacular meringue cookies that won’t break or weep on you.
Death by Chocolate
Death by Chocolate, which by name suggests that it’s so rich and decadent that it may cause one to simply expire, commonly takes the shape of a trifle dessert. It consists of layers of crumbled brownies or chocolate cake, chocolate pudding and whipped cream, plus a fourth layer that is either crumbled chocolate sandwich cookies or chopped up chocolate toffee bars. The assembled trifle is placed in the fridge to rest in peace until served cold. While often made with boxed cake, pudding mixes and Cool Whip, this recipe contains easy homemade versions of all three.
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Retro Hummingbird Cake
Studded with pineapple chunks, bananas, crunchy pecans, and coated in a tangy cream cheese frosting, hummingbird cake is an opulent dessert that’s been a mainstay of Southern tables since the 1970s.
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Classic Banana Pudding
Made with a luscious vanilla pastry cream, ripe bananas, and vanilla wafers, this simple banana pudding is the very best version you can make at home.
Strawberry Layer Cake
Summer is a soft, or strong, hue of pink in the South, depending on who is making the strawberry cake. When strawberries come alive, anywhere from early March down in Louisiana to as late as June as far up as East Tennessee, Southerners take to their strawberry cakes for as many celebrations as they can. Often referred to as church cakes in the South, layer cakes reign supreme. And strawberry layer cakes take the cake as the most sought-after style for many bakers. This recipe, with a soft and moist but sturdy crumb, uses store-bought preserves, but if you can roast your own high season strawberries, it is recommended you do so. The frosting is light and ethereal. And the color? That is all up to you and how heavy you pour the red food coloring. No matter the shade of pink you aspire to, you’ll get a regal and splendid cake worthy of any high celebration or common weekday luncheon.
Rum-Raisin Carrot Cake
This boozy variation on classic carrot cake is imbued with both freshly grated and ground ginger, giving it a spiced aroma that pairs wonderfully with the rum-soaked raisins and crushed pineapple (which makes the cake particularly tender). Rum plays a central role in this cake: It’s first used to soak raisins until plump, then the leftover liquid is added to the cake batter as well as the frosting, ensuring very little waste and a cake that lives up to its name. Slowly beating the cream cheese into the butter-sugar mixture will ensure a sturdy frosting that can stand up to the heft of the cake layers. For the creamiest frosting, be sure to take your time, as cream cheese frosting can become runny or lumpy if mixed too fast. This cake is perfect for any time of year — enjoy it as the tulips bloom, bring it to your summer barbecue or curl up with a slice next to the fire alongside a dark ’n’ stormy.
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5-Ingredient British Banoffee Pie
This low-effort dessert with gooey dulce de leche, sliced bananas, and whipped cream is a British classic—and is one I bring to every dinner party.
Citrusy Shortbread
This brightly flavored shortbread has a short ingredient list and is simple to make, with no electric equipment required. There are two types of sugar in these cookies, and each serves an important purpose: Rubbing grainy granulated sugar with citrus zest helps break down the zest and release its flavorful oils, and powdered sugar gives this shortbread a fine, tender texture. Use whatever citrus you have on hand, but do make sure to gently wash the outside before zesting to remove any wax. You can cut these cookies into neat rectangles or break up the slab into irregular shapes.
Shahi Toast
White bread transforms into a luxurious dessert in this classic South Asian sweet. Think of shahi toast as the ultimate bread pudding — cold, creamy, dreamy, crunchy and fragrant with cardamom, which tastes citrusy, sweet and floral. Buttered, toasted squares of bread are soaked in a citrusy-sweet cardamom cream until soft (but not soggy!) and topped with crunchy pistachios. This was one of my mom’s favorite desserts as a kid growing up in India and this is her shortcut version, with my upgrades (hint: butter). It is amazing how luxurious this tastes considering how easy it is to make.
Raspberry-Almond Clafoutis
A traditional clafoutis is made with cherries, replaced here with raspberries, which have a slight tartness. The batter is made with almond flour and a little almond extract for a gluten-free version. Cool to room temperature before serving.
Piloncillo Chocolate Chip Cookies
Piloncillo, unrefined whole-cane sugar, is the key ingredient of these richly nuanced cookies. Known as piloncillo in Mexico; chancaca in Chile, Bolivia and Peru; or panela in other Latin American countries, it is commonly used in both sweet and savory dishes and is made by crushing, extracting and boiling down the juice from sugar cane to caramelize the sugars. It adds notes of caramel, butterscotch and molasses to everything from cakes to barbecue sauce. In this cookie, the grated piloncillo complements the bittersweet chocolate and mimics some of the nutty flavor of browned butter, but without any of the work. It is a bit of a chore to grate, but the flavor it adds is well worth it.
Chocolate-Hazelnut Schaum Torte
Ever since I can remember, my mother made a meringue topped with strawberries for Passover dessert, though it always seemed too sweet to me. When visiting my son’s in-laws in Copenhagen, I was so pleased to be served nearly the same meringue as my childhood, but this time studded with roasted hazelnuts and chunks of bittersweet chocolate, cutting its sweetness. Now my family's Passover tradition continues in this updated recipe adapted from my new cookbook, “My Life in Recipes” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2024). It works well throughout the year, especially for gluten-free guests (see Tip if you will be cooking it in a humid environment). You can even make this dish dairy-free by using coconut cream in place of the heavy cream. Excellent for any celebration, this dessert feels quite fancy but involves little effort.
Doolsho (Cardamom Sponge Cake)
While doolsho is simply translated as “cake” from the Somali language, this cardamom sponge cake is perhaps the most well-known cake among Somali people. This light cake gets its airiness from egg whites, which are whipped until cloudlike. Doolsho is an integral part of the Somali casariyo (afternoon tea) tradition, in which thick, cardamom-dotted slices are served alongside homemade cookies, sticky bright red xalwo (Somali-style halwa, an intensely sweet cardamom-scented dessert) and steaming cups of spiced shaah (chai) or gingery qahwo (coffee). It’s not only a coveted afternoon snack, but also a beloved dessert and the star of the to-go boxes that are a fixture of traditional weddings. While this cake is served plain without any bells and whistles such as frosting or glaze, its simplicity allows the floral flavor of the cardamom to bloom.
Sgroppino
Traditionally, a Sgroppino is an Italian palate cleanser, though it’s equally as suitable served as a cocktail or dessert. Whatever time of day you choose to make this boozy, lemony combination, you’ll want to drink it quickly once it’s in front of you. The slushy, lightly fizzy texture comes from a combination of sorbet, vodka and Prosecco — but, if you have another dry, light sparkling wine, that works well, too.
Citrus and Coconut Ambrosia
Many know the kind of ambrosia with marshmallows and whipped topping, called ambrosia salad. This, on the other hand, is an elegant, simplified (and perhaps closer to the 19th-century original) version of dessert-style ambrosia. It can and should be prepared up to several hours before serving. The main thing is to let the citrus fruit sit in its juices for a while. It’s worth the wait.
Lemon Bars With Pecan Crust
Lemon bars, with their buttery shortbread crust and their tart-as-you-like curd, have become one of the great American desserts ubiquitous to the 20th century cookery canon. These have a little twist with a rich pecan short crust, making them just a bit more well-rounded, the toasty nuttiness serving as a counterbalance to the tart lemon zing. While there are some official notations of its origins in print — most notably in the Chicago Tribune in 1962 — it remains one of those desserts that has seemingly lived in the hearts of modern Americans for as long as we can remember. As a friendly harbinger of spring and a favorite for every summertime cookout or picnic or backyard hang, these bright bites are a great option to make ahead; chilling them overnight makes them easy to cut and sugar right before you plan to serve or carry them to your festivities. For all these reasons and more, lemon bars will likely keep their rightful place as a great American standard for many years to come.
Chew Bread
For many families growing up in North Carolina, chew bread was commonly served as dessert or a snack, especially after a Sunday church service. This recipe is from Doretha Mitchell, the mother of Ed Mitchell and grandmother of Ryan Mitchell, longtime pitmasters in Wilson, N.C., who now help run True Made Foods, a food company making barbecue sauce and other condiments. She sold the chew bread, along with other desserts, in the 1980s at a supermarket she owned with her husband. Adapted from “Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque” by Ed Mitchell and Ryan Mitchell (Ecco, 2023), this recipe is significantly chewier, denser and less sweet than a blondie. The snack likely originated from sharecroppers who made it with leftovers they received from white families. It also has different names throughout the South, like cornbread cake, or chewies in South Carolina.
Chewy Lemon Cookies
These cookies have an Italian-inspired taste and an American texture. The flavors of lemon, polenta and rosemary may remind you of biscotti, or a lemon-polenta cake, but the cookies are as crisp-edged and chewy-centered as they come. The recipe uses Sarah Kieffer’s pan-banging technique, which requires quite a specific dough-ball size and wide spacing on the sheet pan to work. Make sure each round of dough is 3 ounces, and don’t bake more than four balls on one pan. These giant cookies are even better when they’ve cooled slightly — they become chewier and the rosemary emerges.