Desserts For People Who Don't Like Chocolate

Chocolate often seems like the go-to flavor in the dessert world. A 2016 survey by Ask Your Target Market revealed that chocolate is, by far, the most popular cake flavor, with 58 percent of all respondents identifying it as their favorite cake flavor. But it's not just chocolate cake that wins all the flavor love. In the summer of 2020, when YouGov asked nearly 20,000 Americans to name their favorite ice cream flavor, the winner was also chocolate. 

So, what this all means is that if you don't love chocolate, there's going to be a lot of desserts you don't love. And if you don't even like chocolate, we need to find you some alternatives, pronto.

For all the people who don't like chocolate, this one's for you. We've compiled this list of delicious desserts that are so good that don't need to mine that obvious crowd-pleasing flavor choice: chocolate. Instead, they're perfectly confident to rely on sleeper flavors like strawberry, lemon, orange, and of course, vanilla. These desserts for people who don't like chocolate are still crowd-pleasers with a fair amount of creativity and just a hint of risk-taking. 

We're all for an awesome cake-mix hack, but at some point, you start to wonder whether, with all the work and additional ingredients you're putting in, maybe it would have made more sense to just make it from scratch. 

Well, no one is ever going to say that about our recipe for three-ingredient vanilla cake, which is basically the best and the easiest cake-mix hack ever. In fact, it requires one less ingredient than you would need if you were making this cake according to the directions on the box. For vanilla-lovers, it doesn't get any better than this. 

In the summer of 2020, when YouGov asked nearly 20,000 Americans to name their favorite ice cream flavor, close to 17 percent responded with chocolate. Strawberry was a distant third. 

That's a real shame as, if you were to bake yourself this moist, delicious strawberry cake recipe, there is a really excellent chance that you won't have to fight off everyone in the house to nab the last slice. Then again,  maybe you will when you craft this cake.

It seems unjust that lemon is nowhere near as popular as chocolate or vanilla, especially as a cake flavor (via Ask Your Target Market). According to Veronica Hislop, a student of chemistry at Ryerson University, lemon contains notes of citrus, rose, lavender, pine, and lilac, among others (via MyFoodJobRocks). So with the four lemons this recipe for lemon cake uses, you're pretty much guaranteed not just the best lemon cake ever, but a complex, sophisticated flavor experience.

Once you put this recipe for three-ingredient berry cobbler into your rotation, the only thing that's going to feel lonely is chocolate. That's because you can swap out the mixed berries that are called for in this recipe for any kind of berry, or, for that matter, any kind of fruit you can imagine. It's also "dangerously" easy to make, though you probably won't bother to call it anything other than delicious when you take your first bite.

New Orleans flavors are back on trend, from Cajun blackened fish to French beignets. If you've ever had either a funnel cake or a Krispy Kreme plain cake doughnut, you'll have a pretty good idea of what beignets are. And if you have our simple, easy-to-follow beignets recipe, you'll be able to make them yourself. And if you're worried about the cooking process, they're actually easier to make than doughnuts and about as easy to make as cookies. 

Angel food cake is lighter-than-air and a perfect foundation for just about any flavor, but especially for summer strawberries. But until you've made your own angel food cake, you may not be able to fully appreciate just how light it really is, or why. So, here is the angel food cake recipe you've been looking for, which gets its lightness from a dozen egg whites whipped to medium-stiff peaks.

These three-layer raspberry bars may look and sound like they're complicated and time-consuming to make, but they are, in fact, nothing more than a simple butter cookie baked into bars. Those delicious cookies are then slathered with raspberry jam and a streusel topping made with healthy rolled oats. All told, they come together in a mere 15 minutes of prep time, making this perfect for last-minute dessert cravings and impromptu picnics.

The wonderful thing about oatmeal cookies, apart from the fact that you can enjoy them while actually believing that you're eating something good for you, is that there are many ways to make them that they are basically incapable of becoming boring.

The least boring of all, however, may be these cranberry orange oatmeal cookies. If you're into chewy cookies with surprising fruit flavors, then these are going to become your favorite go-to treat.

Junior's Cheesecake is a classic not only because it's so rich, smooth, and creamy, but also because of its sponge cake crust. For diehard cheesecake lovers, that sponge-cake crust is perfection because it doesn't compete with the wonderful cheesecake, itself, unlike, say, a graham cracker crust. 

This crescent roll cheesecake originates from the same general sentiment except, instead of having to make your own mildly-flavored crust, you can use refrigerated tubes of crescent roll dough. Easy peasy!

According to Statista, the only frozen dessert more popular than sherbet is plain old ice cream. As trendy as sorbets have been throughout the last few decades, their popularity just doesn't compare to that of sherbet. But for lovers of sherbet's smooth, creamy, fruity flavors, the choices in the supermarket tend to be slim. No worries if you have this Orange Julius recipe, which tastes like a Dreamsicle but sips like a milkshake. 

If you love the flavor and texture of apple crumble but don't relish the amount of work that goes into assembling it then you'll want to give this recipe for slow cooker baked apples a try.  Although they look impressive, they take a mere 10 minutes to prepare and only 30 minutes in the slow cooker to bake them to perfection. Plus if your Instant Pot has been making your slow cooker feel unpopular, here's an opportunity to show that slow cooker some love.

If you're having a hard time deciding between the cranberry orange oatmeal cookies and the crescent roll-crusted cheesecake, we have a recipe for you that will serve as the perfect compromise, although we hesitate to use the word "compromise." That's because there is absolutely nothing about this delicious no-bake recipe for cranberry orange cheesecake that could ever really be characterized as a "compromise."

Perhaps etiquette experts might argue that it isn't polite to make a spectacle of yourself at the dining table. But an exception will have to be made for this gluten-free bundt cake, which leverages Greek yogurt, honey, lemon, and a splash of olive oil, and is, frankly, quite spectacular. It delivers a burst of Mediterranean flavor with every bite. Just make sure you have almond flour on hand because it happens to be the secret to this cake's wonderfully moist crumb. 

With a mere 15 minutes of prep time, this recipe for lemon bars promises to yield you 15 sunshine-yellow lemon bars with hardly any fuss at all. Even better, these treats will look stunning arranged on a platter or serving dish at your next get-together. But perhaps what we love most about this recipe is the ability to pull up a fork and eat these babies right out of the pan. 

Funfetti cake first sent rainbow-colored waves over the home-baking horizon in 1989, when Pillsbury introduced a Funfetti cake mix, which was a white cake mix that contained rainbow sprinkles. When exposed to the heat of the oven, the sprinkles melt and turn everything ultra-colorful. Warning: this particular funfetti cake recipe, which has an irresistible vanilla buttercream frosting and is topped with rainbow sprinkles, may be so enticing that no one will be willing to wait for you to take a photo. 

Sometimes, that first visit to the scale in the morning reminds us that maybe it would be best if we chose between cocktails and dessert for moderation's sake. But that's not so much fun. Do you know what is so much fun? An icy, cold margarita. And so are cupcakes. So what's the most fun of all? When your cupcakes taste like margaritas, of course. That's what this berry margarita cupcake recipe is all about. Make sure you use a tequila you like because you're going to taste it. 

Shortbread cookies are a delicious but crumbly delight, whereas sugar cookies hold their shape nicely. Well, now you know why these gorgeous, pastel-hued frosted sugar cookies look so pretty and don't make a mess the way shortbread cookies do when you take a bite. They also contain a bit of baking powder, which is why they puff up in the middle while they're baking, leaving them with a subtle dome shape that makes the frosting really pop.

This lemon meringue pie offers up a velvety, substantial meringue that you can really sink your teeth into, making for a beautifully pleasing texture to accompany the pleasing crust and sweet-tart lemon curd waiting for you at the center of this dish. That's because, like pavlova, the meringue that tops this lemon meringue pie adds a splash of a secret ingredient that you will never believe is what works the magic until you try it for yourself. 

Not that we don't love and appreciate a beautiful ripe strawberry or some freshly whipped-up heavy cream, but the truth is that it's the shortcake in this easy recipe for strawberry shortcakes that really makes the whole dish shine. You see, it's made with butter, not shortening, lending a beautifully rich flavor and texture to the finished baked good. Add in some fresh strawberries and whipped cream and you'll be in culinary heaven in no time.

This recipe for carrot cake is so moist and delicious that it almost doesn't even need its creamy, rich cream cheese frosting. But if you're bothering to make the cake, you might as well make the frosting too, which is easy to make, besides. The recipe also calls for a cup of freshly shredded carrots, which you should be eating plenty of every day anyway because they're so nutritious.

According to What's Cooking America, pound cake reportedly gets its name from the fact that vintage recipes used equal parts butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, each measured out by the pound. However, the important thing in making great pound cake is not the amount of each ingredient, per se, but the proportion of ingredients to one another. You'll see that this recipe for zesty iced lemon pound cake is, therefore, the real deal — albeit a loaf-pan-sized version that uses lemon juice for flavor throughout the cake and its zesty icing.

A galette is a pie or tart that is baked free-form on a baking sheet, rather than molded into a pie dish or tart tin. That means the dough has to be substantial enough to maintain its shape while baking, but don't think that means it isn't good. But how tender and flaky can a "substantial dough" be? Very, when it makes use of the secret ingredient you'll find in this apple galette recipe.

This Key lime pie is made with just five ingredients and takes a mere 10 minutes to prepare to perfection. And, while it would be great if you could procure genuine Key limes to make this dish, the secret here is that they aren't entirely necessary to make a truly great pie. If you can't make the trip down to the Florida Keys yourself for the central ingredient, the regular Persian limes you find in your local grocery store will work beautifully, too.

This recipe will make not only the best gingerbread cookies you've ever tasted but also cookies with a wonderfully tender texture. That's because they use both butter and vegetable shortening. The shortening helps to increase tenderness, while butter lends a lovely rich flavor. Using a ratio of one-to-one butter to shortening is a perfect mix, along with classic gingerbread ingredients like cinnamon, brown sugar, molasses, and, of course, ginger.