77 Scrumptious Mother's Day Desserts To Make For Mom This Year

Moms are simply the best. They gave us life. They hug us in good times and bad. They kissed our boo-boos when we were little. They fed us round the clock and, when we grew older, just couldn't refrain from sending us home with leftovers. They were Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, our biggest fan and our rock. Moms are there to support us when the times are tough, celebrate the highs, and cheer us along life's way. So when Mother's Day rolls around, what could we possibly purchase to explain just how much we love Mom? Instead of buying something at the store, what about giving Mom a home-made treat with a stunning, delicious dessert from scratch that she will love? 

We've compiled a list of recipes that will stun Mom in the form of an edible gift for Mother's Day. On a day dedicated solely to her, your mother will surely love the time spent with you, proudly enjoying your creation. Be sure to thank her for all the things she's done for you in between the compliments you'll likely receive. Just as a mother's love knows no bounds and is simply amazing, so are these desserts that she'll very much appreciate.

Considered to be a traditional Southern spice cake, this dessert supposedly earned its name because its sweetness can attract hummingbirds. Brimming with flavorful bananas and pineapple, this succulent cake is polished with a smooth cream cheese frosting that only adds to the incredible flavor and texture. Believed to have originated in Jamaica sometime in the 1960s, hummingbird cake requires quite a few ingredients, but trust us, it'll be worth it. It may take 40 minutes to prep and frost, but it only requires 24 minutes to bake, and will be ready to slice and serve in no time at all.

Recipe: Hummingbird Cake

Dusted with powdered sugar and topped with whipped cream and fresh berries, angel food cake reigns supreme. It's light, fluffy, and simply heaven-sent. This recipe does require a few extra steps, such as working the sugar into a super fine consistency with a food processor that results in what's called caster sugar. It also calls for blood orange extract, but you could also use orange, lemon, or lime extract. Just don't use fresh juice — the extra kick from the fruit extract supplies just the right flavor balance. This dessert may take a bit of time and effort, but Mom will love it!

Recipe: Angel Food Cake

To perk up Mom on Mother's Day, serve her a slice of this espresso-laced tiramisu. With Italian roots, the creamy and indulgent dish will satisfy anyone's sweet tooth, especially your hardworking and deserving Mom's. Perfect for special occasions, this dessert may seem intimidating to make, but it's really not. 

If kids are partaking, you'll want to skip the rum. Other ingredients you'll need include egg yolks, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, mascarpone cheese, heavy cream, ladyfingers, and unsweetened cocoa powder. Just know that this special recipe should be refrigerated for 24 hours before digging in.

Recipe: Tiramisu

With its buttery graham cracker crust, this scrumptious five-ingredient cheesecake rivals anything you'd pick up at the store. Why not save yourself some money and make a cheesecake from scratch for mom? Some people tend to shy away from whipping up cheesecake for fear it won't turn out quite right, but this easy-peasy recipe calls for just five ingredients and doesn't take long at all. 

If you want to take it up a notch, you can crush Oreo cookies or Nilla Wafers for the crust and decorate with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, or cherry pie filling. Whichever topping you choose, it will taste amazing!

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Cheesecake

If Mom adores anything chocolate, then she'll fall in love with this three-ingredient chocolate mousse. You can ramp up the sugary sweetness by adding coconut flakes, dusting powdered sugar across the whipped cream, dropping chocolate chips on the dessert's chocolatey surface, or crumbling candy bites everywhere. Each spoonful of your chocolate mousse creation will have your Mom swooning. This is also perfect when you're short on time, as it takes just 10 minutes to prep and an hour to cool in the fridge.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Adorned with almond slivers and garnished with fresh fruit and edible flowers, this cake is perfect for an occasion like Mother's Day. Your mom will be truly impressed that you were able to pull this together.

The moist cake is thoroughly infused with almond flavor and topped with a light crumb, giving it some texture. This recipe also calls for you to make the homemade almond whipped cream yourself. As gorgeous as this cake is, it's truly surprising that it takes a mere 20 minutes to prep and 28 minutes to cook. You'll have this beauty ready for Mother's Day in no time at all.

Recipe: Almond Cake

If you are your momma's baby, then she might love this dessert for Mother's Day, based solely off its adorable name. Called a Dutch baby, this dish is believed to be a German fare and also goes by the name German pancake and even Hootenanny. It also isn't fried in a skillet like a traditional pancake, but rather baked in the oven in a heavy cast iron skillet, which gives it a distinctive shape. Better yet, this Dutch baby barely takes any ingredients to make: Flour, milk, eggs, butter, and a topping like fruit or powdered sugar are all you'll need.

Recipe: Dutch Baby

This enticing bundt cake, with its flavored icing drizzled all down the sides, will truly convince Mom to declare you her favorite child. This cake doesn't feature any artificial fruit flavor — fresh and ripe strawberries are used in the cake mix and even in the fresh glaze. It may be simple to make, but the taste is so complex and fantastic that there may not be any left after serving it up for Mother's Day. The berries can even be a bit on the overripened side for this recipe, which allows you to make good use of those large strawberry bins of spring.

Recipe: Strawberry Cake

If Mom happens to be a carrot cake fan, she'll adore this delicious (and easy) recipe that doesn't require any special pans or patterns on parchment paper. Sure, you could grate your own carrots, but that'll take too much precious time away from your mom and family. So, simply buy a bag of grated carrots — they'll work just fine. Be sure not to frost this cake until it's cooled completely, or else the decadent cream cheese frosting will melt off and ruin all of your hard work. As sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, this carrot cake surely will bring a smile to your mom's face.

Recipe: Carrot Cake

Panna cotta is a decadent and smooth Italian dessert with vanilla overtones that's fantastic with fresh fruit. It's also the perfect light dessert to serve on Mother's Day. Although this recipe is a cinch to whip up, it must set for at least four hours in the fridge, so you can prepare it the day before Mother's Day and take it out for a brunch or lunchtime surprise when the occasion arises. When the dessert is ready to rest, it's time to choose what type of toppings Mom would love on her panna cotta, whether it's fresh fruit, chocolate sauce, or caramel bits.

Recipe: Classic Panna Cotta

If your Mom happens to be a lemon lover, then you have to make her this lemon cake. In fact, you could pair it with a refreshing glass of lemonade or a light tea for a truly refreshing experience, as this particular recipe creates a cake that's surprisingly light but still full of natural lemon flavor. 

You'll use both lemon juice and zest to make the glaze, and if you'd like an even stronger lemon taste, you could use pure lemon extract. The lemon cake can also be made in a square pan, two round pans, or even a cupcake tray if you don't have a bundt pan.

Recipe: Lemon Cake

Chocolate lovers rejoice — we have a fantastic brownie recipe available for you this Mother's Day. In fact, these treats will be snatched up and devoured in less time than it takes you to make them — just make sure Mom gets at least one square! 

This brownie recipe calls for chocolate chunks, and could be modified to include peanut butter, coconut flakes, nuts, or butterscotch chips — whatever Mom prefers. Instead of using traditional cocoa powder, you'll be using melted chocolate chips for extra richness. For even more deliciousness, dust them with powdered sugar, top with some vanilla or chocolate ice cream, or slather them in chocolate frosting. Mom will love it all!

Recipe: Brownies

This versatile dessert recipe is a great option for Mother's Day because it looks beautiful and can accommodate practically any fruit.

The sugar cookie "pizza" crust is buttery, rich, and chewy, while the cream cheese-based spread pairs fantastically with the fruit. As a result, every single bite is pure sweetness. Even sweeter is the fact that it doesn't require many ingredients, doesn't take too long to fix, and kids can help make it, too. This delicious recipe calls for blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and red raspberries, but you could add slices of kiwi or banana, peach quarters, pineapple bits, or mango chunks.

Recipe: Fruit Pizza

Every forkful of these strawberry shortcakes is a sheer delight and will drive you — and Mom — to seek out another square. Better yet, they don't take much effort to make. 

This particular recipe relies on the decadence of a rich homemade buttermilk biscuit instead of a sponge cake, and it works. Be sure to pick beautiful red and succulent strawberries that you'll coat with sugar and allow to macerate, which is a fancy way of saying let them soften in their own sugary syrup. It's truly a fantastic and unique dessert that's just as sweet as Mom.

Recipe: Strawberry Shortcakes

With its light and airy topping and tart filling, the gift of a lemon meringue pie will win over the hearts and stomachs of everyone at your Mother's Day celebration. The homemade pie crust is easy to make, too. Just pulse almonds, sugar, and graham crackers in a food processor until a fine crumb forms, and then add in melted butter until it's ready to press into the pie plate. To create the lemon filling, you'll need to temper your eggs, so just follow the directions closely. When everything is ready, slide it into the oven and bake.

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Pie

If you're looking for a polished dessert for Mother's Day that's actually easy to whip up, check out this no-bake banana pudding. Brimming with bananas and vanilla wafers in a whipped cream base, Mom will fall in love with this tantalizing dessert that's as delicious as it is gorgeous. 

This recipe calls for store-bought banana instant pudding, bananas, cream cheese, Cool Whip, and vanilla wafers. It takes just 10 minutes to prep and 30 minutes to cook, leaving you lots of time to hang out with Mom on her special day. Assembling this dessert is half the fun: You can use any container, but mason jars make for a beautiful presentation that Mom will love.

Recipe: No-Bake Banana Pudding

With roots stemming from Greece, this honey-soaked pastry is believed to be at least 3,000 years old. Even though it looks like it could be a doozie to prepare, it really isn't.

The key to making baklava begins with the syrup that's poured over the pastry. The finishing touch requires layering butter-brushed phyllo sheets with cinnamon-flavored pecans over and over until you run out. Just bake it, pour the sugar-honey syrup across the dessert and allow your creation to soak up the sweet syrup until it's ready to serve. Mom will be quite impressed with your culinary skills if you present her with this dessert!

Recipe: Baklava

There's nothing quite like cheesecake, but it does take a bit of time to prepare — this recipe for crescent roll cheesecake, however, reduces your prep time drastically. 

Your shopping list is pretty short, too: canned crescent rolls, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and powdered sugar. That's it! Even the kiddos can help. Just press the crescent roll dough into a greased baking pan before turning your attention to the cream cheese filling. Spread that across the dough, place another layer of rolls across the top, and bake. Then, sprinkle cinnamon and powdered sugar across the top and dig in — Mom will be so impressed!

Recipe: Crescent Roll Cheesecake

Many people think of Christmastime when they think about fruitcake, but this recipe would work wonderfully for Mother's Day, too. This fruitcake is chock full of six different types of dried fruit and dark rum. Did we have you at rum? 

You'll need a good number of ingredients for this recipe, but making it won't take long at all. Soak the dried fruit in rum for 24 hours, and the next day, start whipping up the fruitcake. The batter will be heavy and thick, but when it comes out of the oven, it'll be a most delicious Mother's Day dessert.

Recipe: Fruit Cake

This dessert has layers of sweetness, just like all the best moms, and since just about everyone loves strawberries and whipped topping then you really can't go wrong. The only other ingredient you need is some graham crackers, making this treat sublimely simple to put together. If you're planning a day out and want to return to a fresh dessert then this recipe is perfect. You can make it hours ahead or even the night before. If strawberries aren't mom's fave, you can easily swap in other types of fruit instead, like blackberries, peaches, or bananas. 

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Strawberry Icebox Cake

The strawberries look so pretty in this light and creamy basil-flecked dessert, while the Oreos add some chocolatey crunch. There are plenty of chances for customization here: Lime juice and zest adds some zing, or you can use balsamic vinegar for a little tartness. You can also swap the Oreos for other cookies or graham crackers, if you prefer. Lining your tin with plastic wrap that overhangs makes it easier to flip it onto a serving dish. Thin slices of this frozen delight pair perfectly with some bubbles, making for a wonderful moment to toast Mom. 

Recipe: Chocolate Strawberry Icebox Cake

The essence of a loving, warm mother, in culinary terms, has to be a warm and comforting chocolate chip cookie. For Mother's Day, a lovely way to reflect that same nurturing love is by making a batch of cookies. All mothers deserve to be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of a homebaked sweet and crumbly bite. Cut chocolate up instead of using chips so that you get different-sized bits. This recipe calls for light brown sugar, but darker is fine if you like a toffee taste.

Recipe: The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

The flavors in these cupcakes fit together perfectly, just like you and your mom. Chocolate and raspberry together bring out the best of each of the flavors. If your mom prefers strawberries or cherries, they're fortunately in season during Mother's Day month, so feel free to use these fruits instead if you want. For a truly tasty cupcake, use a good unsweetened cocoa powder so that each bite tastes indulgently rich and contrasts exquisitely with the raspberry-infused buttercream.

Recipe: Best Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

There's a simplicity in unconditional love that doesn't need ostentation. Every part of this apple pie speaks (or should we say sings?) to that symphony of uncomplicated, traditional home cooking. The pie crust and buttery crumble work so well with the mellow sweetness of the fruity filling. Granny Smith apples are wonderfully tart for this recipe, but you can use another variety instead. Serve with a generous spoonful of whipped cream or ice cream. As it melts into the pie, every bite will taste better and better. 

Recipe: Simple Dutch Apple Pie

Sweet and citrusy, these lemon tarts are super-cute served as a light and refreshing Mother's Day dessert that still feels special. They're sophisticated without being fancy and are perfect if you're planning a hearty lunch or dinner course beforehand. Feel free to mix in other citrus flavors such as lime, orange, or grapefruit. When you're making the tangy cream filling you just need to watch that you're whisking every part of it so that it doesn't burn on the sides of the pan. Serve with candied peel for that extra-special touch.

Recipe: Lemon Tarts

These little fruit tarts feel fun, chic, and celebratory. They're perfect for garden parties where the sun is shining and everybody's smiling, and they're bound to make any mom happy. Plus, the beautiful colors of the different fruit express the vibrancy of what being a mother is all about. This recipe adds vanilla instant pudding to phyllo pastry cups, but you can use lemon to give the custardy flavor a lift. Strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, and raspberries are adorable on top — just don't overcrowd each tart.

Recipe: Mini Fruit Tarts

When was the last time you ate an eclair, let alone made one? These traditional, sensational French choux pastries are filled with whipped cream custard and topped with a chocolate glaze. They taste light yet decadent and the unique airy texture somehow makes the cream and chocolate taste even better. While you don't have to be a pro to make these, you still might want to practice first, as they're not the simplest dessert to make. If the shapes go wrong, that's ok: Moms will still appreciate the effort and love them anyway.

Recipe: Classic Eclairs

While some fans can eat Nutella straight out of the jar, using this hazelnut-chocolate spread to make cupcakes is a little more glamorous. The cocoa sponge with Nutella frosting tastes even better than it looks and there's a sweet surprise in the center: They're also filled with Nutella. These are a total treat that tells any mom that she's loved. Make sure the cakes have cooled down before you fill and frost them. For a final flourish, add chocolate sprinkles and some chocolate and hazelnut candy pieces. 

Recipe: Best Nutella Cupcakes

A gooey frosted cake is the type of dessert you expect at a party or when celebrating a special occasion. What's more special than honoring a mom on Mother's Day? Buttery, sweet coconut milk icing is sandwiched between sponges and covers this whole cake while the jammy pineapple preserve completes the tropical taste. A good tip to stop your cake from sliding around while adding the frosting is to 'stick' the lower sponge down with a little splodge of icing. Finally, be gentle when pressing on the sweetened shredded coconut. 

Recipe: Best Pineapple Coconut Cake

The creamy vanilla taste of these puddings appeals to moms who don't enjoy a super-sweet dessert. There's nothing complex about the ingredients, but do be mindful when making these. When you're heating up the sweet milky liquid, do it gently and stir continuously so it doesn't burn or get chunky. When it coats the back of a spoon, it's ready to add to your egg mixture. Vanilla is tasty on its own, but feel free to top this pudding off with berries, which also add a delicious pop of color. 

Recipe: Easy Vanilla Pudding

Little bakers can show mom they love her with this easy slice that's got all the taste of a chocolate eclair without the fuss. It's also perfect for grown-ups looking for a no-bake dessert — perhaps because they're cooking a sumptuous feast for their mom on her special day and the oven's full. While there's no compromise on taste, you do still need time, as the cake needs to set for at least four hours.

Recipe: No-Bake Chocolate Eclair Cake

Each smooth spoonful of this velvety pudding is a real treat for moms who love chocolate. It's easy to make, and you can set it in advance so there's time for everyone to enjoy their mom's special day. The key to making this is to whisk the ingredients off the heat first and add the milk cold, which helps achieve a smooth finish. Leave out the chocolate nibs if you want a lighter result. Serve with some fresh berries or with dollops of whipped cream and a few chocolate chips.

Recipe: Super-Rich Chocolate Pudding

This is definitely a dessert mom can fall in love with, so only make it if you're happy to create it time and again. It's actually two ideas in one stunning slice: Imagine combining the crispy deliciousness of buneleros (aka Spanish doughnuts) and the creaminess of a cheesecake. Amazing mothers give their kids the world, so the least they can get in return is a two-in-one, homemade sweet treat. The caramelized honey is so good baked under the dough with the vanilla filling, and the sugar-cinnamon crust is simply beyond.

Recipe: Simple Sopapilla Cheesecake

This is a salted caramel dessert — need we say more? Yogurt doesn't just make this cake light and fluffy, it also gives it a subtle tang that works well with the sauce. Moms deserve it all, and that includes the sweet and salty taste of this sauce. Let the sugar melt on medium heat and give it time, otherwise, it'll burn. If the sauce seizes, heat it up to loosen it again. Serve the Bundt-shaped cake whole with half the sauce, drizzling the rest over individual slices. 

Recipe: Salted Caramel Cake

What is it about British desserts that just remind you of home comforts? A classic Eton mess might be a retro recipe, but this version gives it a modern flavor by serving it in individual jars. You don't have to make your own meringues for this; in fact, there's no cooking at all. You just need to whip the heavy cream and make a strawberry sauce. It's perfect to enjoy on a sunny day, but even if Mother's Day is rainy, the creamy, sugary wonder of this old-fashioned treat is sure to save the day.

Recipe: Easy Eton Mess

Part of cherishing any mom on Mother's Day is remembering times gone by. A great way to do that is with an old-fashioned dessert that's having a moment again. This recipe combines maraschino cherries, mandarin oranges, pineapple, and shredded coconut. Just as moms are unique, make this dish feel individual by adding whatever with your own combination of fruit. Picking mom's favorite fruit is the cherry on top — you can even add a cherry on top if she likes them too. Sour cream balances the sweetness, and the pecans and marshmallows are a nice surprise. 

Recipe: Ambrosia

Having kids turns a mom's life upside down, but this is what makes motherhood so rewarding. This tarte tatin sweetly celebrates this idea with its upside-down structure. The caramel apple slices fanned out have a stunning look that will wow your guests. Don't tell anyone, but this dessert isn't that difficult to make, just as long as you make sure your sauce doesn't burn. If you're wondering whether to serve it with whipped cream or ice cream, then why not add a generous dollop of both? Treat yourself, and Mom, too, of course. 

Recipe: Apple Tarte Tatin

There's something so satisfying about that first crack of the spoon on a crème brûlée before it sinks into the vanilla silkiness beneath. This dessert has the wow factor for any special occasion. It's impressive to make for Mom too, and if you've got one of those little kitchen blowtorches then you can add some theatrics in as you torch the top to caramelize it. This recipe is super-easy though as you only need ice cream, eggs, and sugar. 

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Crème Brûlée

Mother's Day happens when rhubarb is plentiful, and making a dish with seasonal fruits is sure to please a lot of moms. Making a cake rather than a pie or a crumble is a nice and different use for these vibrant stalks, and it's a simple recipe so there's no stress in the kitchen. However, one important step to follow is the addition of buttermilk, which gives it a nice tang and fluffy cake texture. Add the lemon glaze once the sponge has cooled down. 

Recipe: Easy Rhubarb Cake

When you can't decide whether to make cake or a custardy dessert, make clafoutis. What's also appealing about this recipe is that it takes advantage of cherry season, whether you need that perfect Mother's Day after-dinner treat or something sweet for afternoon tea. It's best to pit the cherries for ease of eating, although some chefs like to keep them intact. This is about as difficult as the prep work gets, as you're essentially coating the fruit in a batter and baking it. Serve warm with a sprinkling of powdered sugar on top to add some sparkle. 

Recipe: Clafoutis

Nothing says celebration like champagne, and we've always found the pink kind to be particularly festive. (Fun fact: According to Ian Fleming's short story "007 in New York," it was a favorite of James Bond, as well.) The fizzy stuff not only lends its pretty pink color to this delightful cake, but adds a delicate flavor, as well. For a slightly different flavor and even brighter pink color, though, you can also make the cake with strawberry soda.

Recipe: Classic Pink Champagne Cake

If you're intrigued by the idea of cooking with champagne but don't want to waste a bit of the bubbly, you might prefer making these cupcakes which are flavored with red wine. The wine adds a little depth to the light chocolate flavor of the cake itself, but the taste is even more pronounced in the cream cheese frosting with its attractive mauve hue. While the cupcakes would, of course, make the perfect accompaniment to a glass of merlot or pinot noir, they go equally well with an after-dinner cup of coffee if Mom will be driving home.

Recipe: Red Wine Cupcakes

This is just your basic quick and easy crepe recipe: flour, eggs, milk, and butter. What turns these super-thin pancakes into a spectacular dessert, however, is your own ingenuity. You can roll them around sweetened whipped cream and sliced berries, or perhaps fill them with sauteed apples and chopped walnuts. Try a cheesecake-type filling, or maybe go cannoli-style with sweetened ricotta, chocolate chips, and pistachios. You could also fill them with ice cream, top them with hot fudge, nuts, whipped cream, and a cherry, and turn them into crepe sundaes — what mom wouldn't get a kick out of that?

Recipe: Quick Crepes

Linzer torte is a delicious pastry that comes from Austria, and the Austrians, in fact, consider it to be the world's first true cake recipe. This may or may not be true, depending on how you define the word "cake," as the torte more closely resembles a giant jam-topped cookie topped with a pie-like lattice. In fact, in our shortcut recipe, we're actually using packaged sugar cookie mix as the base. While this torte still requires a certain amount of effort due to the lattice, it's still quite a bit simpler than starting from scratch.

Recipe: Easy Linzer Torte

The Viennetta may take its name from an Austrian city, but it's not Austrian at all. Instead, it's a super-fancy supermarket ice cream dessert that was popular back in the '90s, While the Viennetta has been re-introduced after a nearly three-decade absence, how much more fun would it be to serve Mom a swirly ice cream dessert that you actually made? You won't even be using store-bought ice cream, but instead starting from the ground up with whipping cream and condensed milk. This recipe makes a classic chocolate/vanilla version of the Viennetta, but you can always customize it to Mom's liking.

Recipe: Creamy Viennetta

We promised you vegan and gluten-free recipes! These mini apple crumbles are made without any dairy products since coconut oil takes the place of butter and there's no need for eggs, milk, or cream. The topping, too, is entirely gluten-free as it's made with oat flour, rolled oats, and chopped nuts. Those who don't mind doing dairy can top their individually-sized apple crumbles with whipped cream, but whipped coconut milk makes for a perfect plant-based alternative for any vegans at the table.

Recipe: Mini Apple Crumbles

Moms who were around back in the '70s may have not-so-fond memories of the Watergate scandal, particularly the endless hearings that seemed to take over the TV airwaves back in the pre-cable, pre-streaming days. Watergate cake, on the other hand, is likely to bring back far sweeter memories since this retro dessert is only "nuts" in a good way. Whether or not your mom is nostalgic for (or even remembers) the disco decade, if she's a fan of coconut, pecans, and pistachio pudding, she's sure to love this old-fashioned cake.

Recipe: Watergate Cake

Yes, we're aware that the Kentucky Derby takes place a week or so before Mother's Day, but Derby pie is such a treat that we just had to feature it here. This dessert is basically a chocolate chip cookie in pie form, so it combines two of our favorites in one. Our derby pie recipe resembles the original one in that it's made with walnuts instead of the pecans many later recipes call for. It does, however, include bourbon, but you can leave the booze out if you don't have it on hand since it, like pecans, is a latter-day addition to this storied pie.

Recipe: Easy Derby Pie

If your mother used to read the Narnia books to you, then it's likely you both have vivid memories of the Turkish Delight that the White Witch used to lure Edwin Pevensie over to the dark side. The candy itself isn't the sole provenance of fictional evildoers, however, as this simple sweet dates back to the Ottoman Empire and has been delighting Turks — and countless others — ever since. Flavored with rose water and colored pink with a few drops of food coloring, Turkish Delight can make for a gorgeous addition to your Mother's Day dessert table.

Recipe: Turkish Delight

Looking for something a little bit different this Mother's Day? Try dessert nachos. They start with a base of chips, as all nachos do, but these are sweet chips made from pita bread and flavored with cinnamon sugar. (Flour tortillas will work, too.) For nacho toppings, pile on whipped cream, ice cream, chocolate chips, marshmallows, sliced berries or bananas, chopped nuts, or whatever other sundae-type ingredients you like, then drizzle the whole thing with a delicious dessert sauce like raspberry or fudge.

Recipe: Sweet Dessert Nachos

While this old-school fudge pie may be somewhat plain in appearance, what it lacks in looks, it more than makes up for in rich chocolate flavor. Think of an extra-gooey brownie in a pie crust and you're in the ballpark. All this pie needs is a sprinkling of powdered sugar, although you could also top it with whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream. Fresh raspberries would also help to dress up the dessert while providing a delicious contrast to all that glorious fudginess.

Recipe: Old Fashioned Fudge Pie

While the Eton Mess has long been a British favorite, it doesn't seem to have caught on in the U.S., which may be due to the name. "Mess" doesn't sound too appetizing, after all, nor is elite private school Eton a household name here. The dish itself, however, is both perfectly simple and simply perfect, especially for springtime. Sweetened whipped cream, sliced strawberries, and crushed meringue cookies get layered to make a lovely, luscious parfait. This recipe even ups the ante with the addition of homemade strawberry syrup. While not a traditional Eton Mess ingredient, it nevertheless brings some extra bright color and sweetness to the dish.

Recipe: Homemade Eton Mess

Ice cream cake makes for a fun and festive addition to any celebration, but here we're offering a lighter option: an angel food cake layered with sherbet, instead. You can simply use rainbow sherbet to get a colorful rainbow effect, or you could also opt for 3 separate pints of different flavors like lemon, lime, and raspberry. One thing to note before you go sherbet shopping: Sorbet isn't simply a fancy way to spell the word but is instead an entirely different frozen dessert with a less-creamy texture that might not work quite so well here.

Recipe: Rainbow Sherbet Cake

Want to make something truly impressive for mom? Try a classic French tarte tatin, aka an apple tart. It's actually as easy as pie — which is to say, not super simple, but not particularly difficult, either. In fact, it may be just a little bit easier than some pies as you only need to make a bottom crust (and you can even use refrigerated pie crust; we won't tell). You'll have to take time to arrange the sliced apples in a pretty pattern, though, as they'll be on full display in this elegant pastry.

Recipe: Classic French Apple Tart

If you're having the whole family over to celebrate Mother's Day, you're going to need a pretty sizeable dessert and a sheet cake may be just perfect for your needs. While Costco sheet cakes are a go-to for many people, if you're not already a member of the warehouse club, there's no need to shell out the membership fee for just this one item. Instead, you can make a Costco sheet cake duplicate in your own kitchen and have enough dessert to feed a crowd.

Recipe: Copycat Costco Sheet Cake

Oops, did Mother's Day just kind of sneak up on you, leaving you unprepared? What you need is a quick and easy dessert recipe like these Nutella brownies. Simply mix the chocolate-hazelnut spread with eggs and flour, bake the brownie batter for half an hour, then enjoy your delicious homemade dessert. To take the brownies up a notch, you could also top them with ice cream. Warm some extra Nutella in the microwave and thin it out with a little milk, and you'll have the perfect topping for a super-simple Nutella brownie sundae.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Nutella Brownies

Peach melba was created to honor a 19th-century Australian opera singer, and it's the kind of old-fashioned dessert that you're unlikely to see on most restaurant menus these days, but it's well worth reviving in your own kitchen. Our extra-easy recipe is made with canned peaches, while we're simply thinning out some raspberry jam with water to make the traditional raspberry sauce. With these shortcuts, you have a dessert you can throw together in under 5 minutes. As a bonus, peach melba is naturally gluten-free and if you opt for dairy-free ice cream, can be 100% vegan, as well.

Recipe: Easy Peach Melba

Lemon cake on its own is perfectly lovely, but what really takes it over the top is the addition of fresh or frozen blueberries. This summery cake is loaded with rustic charm, but if you feel it needs a bit of dressing up, a lemony glaze would be the perfect addition. Just squeeze a bit more lemon juice, then stir it into some powdered sugar — about 1 tablespoon of juice to each ½ cup of sugar ought to do the trick. You could then sprinkle some lemon zest over the top to add both flavor and visual appeal.

Recipe: Lemony Blueberry Cake

Baked Alaska is a retro dessert that might seem tricky for the home cook to pull off. After all, how do you cook an ice cream cake without having a melted mess on your hands? The cake in this recipe doesn't actually need to cook at all, though: It's simply an ice cream layer atop a cookie crumb crust. It's topped with a layer of meringue and the baking (or broiling) only takes a minute or two, so there's no time for the ice cream to melt. While we've opted for mint chocolate chip ice cream here, you can replace it with any flavor you favor.

Recipe: Easy Mint Baked Alaska

Let's play a little word association game, shall we? We say "mousse," you say "Bullwinkle." Whoops, did we forget to spell it out? Once we're clear that this is the dessert version we're talking about, you're probably going to think of a delicious chocolate treat. While mousse au chocolat is a classic, it's not the only mousse in the housse. Why not try this light and luscious lemon version instead? Just mix lemon curd with whipped cream, then add lemon zest for a little more zing. Top with whipped cream and fresh raspberries and you'll have a gorgeous Mother's Day dessert.

Recipe: Easy Lemon Mousse

Dirt cake is usually associated with kid's parties — in fact, there's a chance your mom may have made it for you once upon a time. If she's into gardening, though, we came up with a cute variation. These dirt cake parfaits have alternating layers of creamy Cool Whip-based chocolate pudding with crushed Oreo crumbs, but skip the gummy worm garnish. Instead, top the final layer of "dirt" with tiny toy garden implements and flowers. If you can't find any of these, you can always just decorate lollipops to look like flowers by adding paper petals and leaves.

Recipe: Easy Dirt Cake

Okay, we admit that this recipe is actually name-dropping a different holiday, but chocolate-covered strawberries are a popular Mother's Day gift, as well. In fact, they're probably even better for the latter holiday, since in many parts of the country fresh local strawberries will be in season by mid-May. While homemade chocolate-covered berries on their own are a delightful dessert, here we're taking things up a notch by using them to garnish fudgy brownies topped off with strawberry-flavored buttercream frosting.

Recipe: Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Valentine's Day Brownies

If you've been unsatisfied with the results of making red velvet cake from scratch, you might want to give it another try. As long as you follow the directions for this fail-proof recipe -– and that includes having the ingredients at room temperature as well as using gel food coloring –- you'll wind up with cupcakes that are just as good to eat as they are to look at. Even if one cupcake comes out less than perfect, you can always just crumble it up and repurpose it as a clever garnish for its more symmetrical pan-mates.

Recipe: Perfect Red Velvet Cupcakes

Moms who are into clean eating might not want to dig into gooey, sugary layer cakes or scarf down high-calorie slices of pie a la mode. While this does tend to narrow down available dessert options, we have a suggestion: a simple mango pudding. The fresh fruit makes this pudding pretty nutritious and the coconut milk base keeps it vegan, as well. Top the pudding with whipped coconut cream and some brightly-colored berries and you'll have a dessert that manages to be both festive and healthy at the same time.

Recipe: Best Mango Pudding

Kinder may be best known for its chocolate eggs with a toy surprise inside, kind of a candy equivalent of Cracker Jacks, but that's not the only type of chocolate sold by these Italian confectioners. In this recipe, plain Kinder milk chocolate bars flavor a ganache which is then used to top a cheesecake baked in a graham cracker crust. If you really want to make the cake look cute, you can always double down on the Kinder theme by decorating it with a package of Kinder Happy Hippo cookies.

Recipe: Nico Norena's Kinder Cheesecake

If you're unfamiliar with pavlova, then we'd guess you do not come from a land down under. Both Australia and New Zealand claim this dessert as their own, but that's a fight we'd just as soon stay out of. Instead, we'll just enjoy this delicious large meringue cookie filled with whipped cream, fruit, and/or jelly. (Yes, Wisconsinites, it's pretty much a super-sized schaum torte.) If you're planning to make pavlova for Mother's Day, there's one thing you need to know: The meringue itself can be baked in advance, but don't try filling or topping it until right before you serve it, as it might get soggy.

Recipe: Pavlova

A torte, by definition, is a type of flourless cake, but here we're going the deconstructed route with a no-bake dessert that, to be honest, is really more of a parfait. Still, whatever you call this dish, its layers of crushed graham crackers, chopped nuts, cream cheese filling, and pistachio pudding make for a treat that's easy to make, pretty to look at, and tastes amazing. By our count, that's a triple score for a sure-fire Mother's Day win!

Recipe: Individual Pistachio Tortes

Bundt cakes, no matter how simple, always look festive on account of their shape. While some home cooks may hesitate to use bundt pans for fear that the cakes won't come out intact, a lot of grease and flour (or, better yet, a cooking spray that combines both) will help avoid any damage. Even if disaster strikes, this cake's coconut cream cheese frosting can hide a multitude of sins. You can use it to glue a broken cake back together, then spackle over the cracks and sprinkle on extra coconut if things look lumpy.

Recipe: White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake

If you're not much of a baker, it's okay to make something out of a boxed mix — no need to keep secrets from Mom, since chances are, she already knows. Still, with a few tweaks, you can always make that boxed mix into more of a homemade dessert, which is what we're doing here with this no-bake cheesecake. It starts with a box of Jell-O mix, but adds a swirl of homemade berry coulis (which is a lot easier to make than it sounds) to amp up the flavor and make the dish a lot more colorful.

Recipe: No-Bake Jello Cheesecake

Most risotto dishes are savory, it's true, but there's no reason not to take this basic formula and make it sweeter. If it helps, you can think of this chocolate orange risotto as a sophisticated kind of rice pudding, since that's exactly what it is. If you top it off with whipped cream and grated orange peel, it looks quite elegant, and makes for a celebration-worthy dessert. As a bonus, this risotto is gluten-free (since it's made with rice) and can be vegan if you opt for plant-based milk and whipped coconut cream instead of the dairy kind.

Recipe: Chocolate Orange Risotto

A decade or so ago, chocolate and bacon might have seemed like an unthinkable combination, but all that changed during the bacon boom of the mid-20-teens. Suddenly people started baconing all the things and we soon discovered that smoky, salty, meat actually tasted pretty great when dipped in chocolate. Here, we're not mixing the bacon directly into the cake batter. Instead, what you get is a pretty straightforward chocolate cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting topped with crumbled, candied bacon. While these cupcakes might seem a little extra, they're sure to make a memorable Mother's Day dessert.

Recipe: Easy Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes

If your mom's a donut fan (and who isn't?), we suggest surprising her on her special day with a great big homemade donut. It may take time to shape, bake, and decorate this super-sized pastry, but none of the steps are particularly challenging. It does call for a couple of specialized ingredients, but they're all just fancy types of food coloring and aren't really necessary unless you're trying to duplicate the exact shade of mauve shown in the photo. Instead, you can use whatever food coloring you have on hand, or just leave it white and cover it with colored sprinkles.

Recipe: Giant Donut

If you're not quite ready to tackle a giant donut, how about a colossal cookie? Cookie cakes have long been a crowd-pleaser because they're a lot of fun to eat, but they're also pretty easy to bake, too. What you're doing here is just making a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, then pressing the dough into a cake pan and making a big round bar cookie. Decorate the cookie cake with frosting (recipe included), adorn it with colored sprinkles, and it'll be all ready for a party.

Recipe: Cookie Cake

This strawberry pie, while undoubtedly eye-catching, is actually one of the simplest kinds of pie you can make. Our recipe starts with a pre-made pie crust which is baked on its own (if you substitute a pre-baked or crumb crust, you can even skip this step), then filled with strawberries that have been simmered in sugary syrup. Thanks to a little bit of cornstarch, the strawberry mixture thickens up into a perfect pie filling after a few hours in the refrigerator.

Recipe: Easy Strawberry Pie

If you want to wow Mom with a dessert that looks like you put a lot of effort into it — because you did -– then you might want to try your hand at this sophisticated spin on an old-fashioned dessert called floating island. The "island" itself is made of meringue and it floats on a pool of vanilla custard, but here we're giving it a golden garnish made of spun sugar. Even if your garnish doesn't come out looking quite like the picture, it should still be pretty impressive.

Recipe: Modern Floating Island Dessert

Mille feuilles are another show-stopper of a dessert. This multi-layered French pastry would undoubtedly be very time-consuming to make and tricky to pull off if you started from scratch, but using frozen puff pastry allows you to outsource the most difficult part. You still need to cut and assemble the dough and layer it with homemade vanilla custard, though, so you won't be taking too many shortcuts. Our step-by-step instructions break it down for you and walk you through the entire process, right down to putting that fancy swirly pattern in the chocolate and vanilla icing.

Recipe: Shortcut Mille Feuilles

If Mom's always up for trying something new, how about making a batch of brigadeiros? This delicious Brazilian candy is kind of like fudge and also somewhat similar to chocolate truffles, only unlike with truffles, you don't need to bother with dipping each candy in an outer coating. Instead, you take the soft chocolate dough and roll it into balls, then dip the brigadeiros into colored sprinkles to make for a fun and festive display.

Recipe: Classic Brazilian Brigadeiros