98 Dessert Recipes Sure To Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

So there's a bake sale that you've totally forgotten about. Or maybe, you've found yourself responsible for supplying the dessert at a potluck. Perhaps an unforeseen craving for something sweet seems to have struck? Now, you could always go pick up a ready-to-eat treat, but hear us out — there's a good reason why whipping up a dessert from scratch can be a lot more satisfying.

Making something for someone else in particular — baking a cake for someone's birthday or whipping up that mousse your partner loves for your anniversary — can go a long way in showing your love, appreciation, or gratitude to someone (via HuffPost). Baking for yourself can also be an incredibly mindful activity and a way for you to express yourself creatively. Besides, there's a delicious reward waiting for you at the end and who knows, it may impress everyone more than anything store-bought would anyway!

To make things easier, we've compiled an extensive list of dessert recipes. Whether you're a chocolate lover with lots of time on your hands or a fruit fanatic who only has half an hour to spend in the kitchen, there's bound to be a sweet recipe for everyone.

Perfect for someone committed to making a homemade pie but not quite invested enough to roll out pie crust from scratch, recipe developer Catherine Brookes gives everyone the leeway to use a store-bought, pre-baked pie crust in her old fashioned fudge pie. All you really need to do is mix flour, eggs, butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla extract, pour it into your pie crust, pop it into the oven, and voila! You'll have a first-class fudge pie you wouldn't believe was that easy to make.

Recipe: Old Fashioned Fudge Pie

An apple pie in ice cream form? Now that's one way to shake things up! Try churning this apple pie ice cream at home and you'll be surprised to find just how well the flavor of fresh apples can go with the richness of smooth ice cream. To substitute the flaky texture of a pie crust, you can even add a heap of crumbled graham crackers on top before serving.

Recipe: Apple Pie Ice Cream

What if you could turn rice into a dessert in 15 minutes? This aptly-named 15-minute rice pudding requires very little in time and ingredients, but gives in return a dessert that's equally suitable for breakfast when served with berries and honey on top. Unlike its fussier counterparts, this rice pudding is a super flexible dessert in that it gives you the option to use leftover rice from the day before, swap dairy milk for a non-dairy milk alternative, or add your choice of toppings like raisins —  just remember to eat the pudding as quickly as possible after it's ready.

Recipe: 15-Minute Rice Pudding

Although the pound cake got its name from older recipes that called for a pound of each ingredient — flour, butter, sugar, and eggs — modern versions over the years have switched up the ratios. Recipe developer Angela Latimer's take on the classic is a moist pound cake that gets its softness from the use of room temperature ingredients. Latimer also takes readers through the correct way to measure ingredients with and without a kitchen scale, and has nifty little baking tips you can use beyond just this pound cake.

Recipe: Pound Cake

This cheesecake will make you see black forest cake in a whole new light. If you're ready to fall in love with an age-old classic all over again, this no-bake cheesecake version has pretty much all the elements of the original, plus cream cheese and an Oreo cookie base. If you're all for the spiked versions of traditional black forest cake, you'll be happy to know that there's a bit of booze in here too, thanks to the kirschwasser-soaked cherry filling.

Recipe: Black Forest Cheesecake

Not to be confused with the almond-based macarons, macaroons are a joy for anybody who prefers coconut-flavored desserts in a world dominated by vanilla and chocolate. Although the macaroons have the obvious sweet flavor of the tropical fruit, recipe developer Catherine Brookes says that a drizzle of dark chocolate on top gives them some bitterness too. This recipe for a batch of classic coconut macaroons even leaves enough room for you to add mix-ins of your liking to really make the cookies your own — think chocolate chips, chopped dried fruits, and spices.

Recipe: Coconut Macaroons

With its soft and fluffy melt-in-your-mouth texture oozing with the flavor of rich chocolate, you'd be forgiven if you thought chocolate mousse is already darn near perfect. But recipe developer Jennine Bryant strongly recommends trying the dessert with a splash of Guinness Extra Stout: "Adding the Guinness to the mousse gives an extra depth to the chocolate flavor," she says. As a bonus, you can even serve the mousse in a glass to mimic an actual pint of Guinness — frothy white-colored head and all. Once you try this spiked version of the chocolate dessert, it's very much possible that you may never look back at plain ol' chocolate mousse ever again.

Recipe: Guinness Chocolate Mousse

Classic tiramisu is great without a doubt, but Giada De Laurentiis has made it even better by swapping the cocoa powder dusting for chocolate shavings on top. Recipe developer Jamie Monkkonen adds another twist to Giada's tiramisu by adding flavors that mimic a nostalgic childhood favorite: Neapolitan ice cream. By adding a layer of fresh sliced strawberries before the chocolate shavings and adding a touch of vanilla extract to the mascarpone cream, the tiramisu blends flavors of childhood with the spiked dessert meant for adults. Plus, Monkkonen says each bite "tastes like chocolate-covered strawberry."

Recipe: Giada's Tiramisu

Legend goes that the wife of Russia's Emperor Alexander I vehemently despised all things honey (via Russia Beyond). However, a new and unaware chef working in the imperial kitchen baked her a cake made with honey and sour cream. But the Medovik, or Russian honey cake as it's also known, was so good that even the empress fell in love with it. If that's not reason enough to try it, the Russian honey cake is a showstopper to slice into, revealing six neat layers of golden cake and white frosting.

Recipe: Russian Honey Cake

Matcha and white chocolate may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of cookies. Recipe developer Eric Ngo, however, says that the cookies are both tasty and easy to bake whilst packing in flavors that stand out in a world full of chocolate and sugar cookies. Plus, matcha contains considerably less caffeine than coffee does, so you can easily bite into a lovely, green-hued cookie or two before bed without worrying about any energy boost beyond the expected sugar rush.

Recipe: Chewy Matcha White Chocolate Cookies

Recipe developer Angela Latimer faces a predicament many can relate to: a love for Dunkin's chocolate glazed donuts without a Dunkin' store nearby to ensure a steady supply. The solution? Making your own, of course! These baked chocolate donuts, in Latimer's words, will "knock your socks off" and go perfectly well with a glass of cold milk at night or a cup of coffee in the morning.

Recipe: Copycat Dunkin' Chocolate Glazed Donut

A New York cheesecake is as classic as a dessert can be, but preparing the custardy cheesecake mixture can be a tad intimidating. Recipe developer Jennine Bryant promises that this recipe for New York cheesecake is so simple and solid that it will never let you down. Plus, the cheesecake is versatile enough for you to throw together and eat as-is, or use it as a blank canvas to create a stunning showstopper. Top it with colorful fresh fruits and a chocolate drizzle, and everyone will be impressed.

Recipe: New York Cheesecake

Blame it on lockdown-induced boredom, but the world was a touch obsessed with baking banana bread during the pandemic. After baking and eating one too many fruity loaves, it's only fair to feel a bit bored of it. But for those not quite ready to leave banana bread behind just yet, these banana bread cookies are the perfect way to shake things up. You'll get all the taste of banana bread but in an entirely different form with only five ingredients!

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Banana Bread Cookies

Fans of Julia Child may remember her baking petit fours on "The French Chef," the French dessert that was also the topic (and name) of episode four of HBO's latest show "Julia." Now, this may make the little cakes seem like an incredibly challenging technical task for a home baker, recipe developer Jennine Bryant breaks it down into a dessert that even a beginner can whip up, and in a mere 12 minutes at that. The secret ingredient? Store-bought pound cake!

Recipe: Petit Fours

Add two favorites — cake pops and Oreos — into one little dessert and you have a treat that's bound to leave you and your guests asking for second helpings. These no-bake cake pops get their cake-like texture from mixing crumbled Oreo cookies with full-fat cream cheese in a food processor, aka you don't even need an actual cake. After the Oreo cream cheese batter is rolled into balls, the pops are dunked in white chocolate and drizzled with more dark chocolate on top. The result is a cake pop with a hard chocolate shell but a soft and gooey center!

Recipe: Oreo Cake Pops

Who hasn't watched Netflix's most-watched show "Squid Game"? And who hasn't wondered what that candy was in episode three that saw contestants struggling to cut out a shape from a round cookie-like thing? Recipe developer Stephanie Rapone recreates the candy — also known as Dalgona Candy — so you can see how well you'd fare in the challenge too. Her only word of caution is that the candy requires working with boiled sugar, so it's best left to adults, and even then it's wise to be careful. The copycat Dalgona candy doubles up as an excellent praline when broken up and mixed with cashews.

Recipe: Copycat Squid Game Dalgona Candy

There are certain desserts, like brownies, that are unanimously adored. You may not think of them as your favorite dessert, but when was the last time you met someone who turned down a brownie? But if you'd like to make this crowd favorite slightly more nutritious, these sweet potato brownies do so without compromising on taste. On the contrary, mashed sweet potatoes will even help make the brownies extra-gooey whilst disguising a vegetable inside a tasty treat for fussy kids who wouldn't eat it otherwise.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Brownies

Tarts are notoriously difficult to bake. The crust can be too tough, too soggy, too thick, too thin, too pasty, too raw... You name it. Recipe developer Jennine Bryant's five-ingredient chocolate orange tart leaves out the traditional pastry for a crust made from British biscuits, shortbread cookies, or graham crackers. All the tart requires, is chocolate, butter, cream, and orange extract to make the filling. With only 15 minutes for prep and another five for the pie to cook, you'd never have thought that making a tart could be this easy!

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Chocolate Orange Tart

The sneaky splash of booze in a cake aside, the amaretto in this dessert pairs excellently with the sweetness of blueberries. Once the blueberry cake is baked, pricked with tiny holes, and hot out of the oven, a few tablespoons of the Italian liqueur are drizzled onto the sponge cake. The amaretto makes the cake so soft, moist, and flavorful that recipe developer Jennine Bryant insists drizzling amaretto should be an essential step in all cakes, especially if you're trying to revive a dry or overcooked one.

Recipe: Blueberry Amaretto Cake

To the untrained eye, marble cakes seem more difficult than they are. While it gives you the best of all worlds in that you don't have to commit to one single flavor, mixing several different flavored batters into one cake can seem intimidating. However, this marble cake recipe doesn't even require different batters. With only a handful of ingredients, this recipe walks you through the steps to make one big batch of cake batter and then divides it into two different flavors — vanilla and chocolate — which are then layered to create a marble-like effect.

Recipe: Marble Cake

Emeril Lagasse's banana cream pie with caramel drizzle and chocolate sauce has been on his restaurant's menu since the very first day. If you have been lucky enough to try it however, recipe developer Ksenia Prints says that Lagasse's banana cream pies tend to be too huge for one person to eat alone. In this recipe, Prints takes the chef's banana cream pie and turns it into a mini tart-sized version that has most of the original layers — banana slices, whipped cream, vanilla custard, drizzles, sauces, and all — but is perfectly sized for one person to gobble up.

Recipe: Emeril Lagasse's Banana Cream Pie

Don't let the two-hour chill time for the chocolate fool you into thinking of these truffles as time-consuming. With only three items on the ingredient list — dark chocolate chips, heavy cream, and cocoa powder — this recipe only requires about 15 minutes of your undivided attention and gives you 18 bite-sized dark chocolate ganache truffles in return. Remarkably simple to make and exquisite in both taste and appearance, a box of these truffles will make for a lovely gift.

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Ganache Truffle

Chocolate has always been the go-to flavor to pair with strawberries. Chocolate-dipped strawberries, chocolate strawberry cakes... You name it. What also traditionally goes with strawberry though, is a shortcake — the dessert has even inspired a famous cartoon character after all! The most difficult part about this strawberry shortcake happens to be the biscuit. This recipe gives you the option of making your own biscuits from scratch but also allows you to use canned ones instead. All you then need is strawberries, lime juice, sugar, and dairy (or plant-based) whipped cream.

Recipe: Traditional Strawberry Shortcake

A coconut-based dessert famously served at Hawaiian luaus or on top of wedding cakes, 196Flavors says that haupia is thought to be a pudding but in reality, is eaten in blocks and has the consistency of jelly. Recipe developer Miriam Hahn's haupia requires all but four ingredients and gets its thickness from the use of either cornstarch or arrowroot powder. When stored in the refrigerator, the haupia is similar to a pudding square but when frozen, it doubles up as a popsicle. You could eat it plain to enjoy the coconutty flavor or amp it up with lots of fresh fruit, lime juice, or even ice cream.

Recipe: Hawaiian Haupia

There's no denying that Dairy Queen's Dilly Bars are great but once you see how easy they were to make at home, you'll never want to wait for a trip to Dairy Queen again. Not counting sticks, a baking tray, and something to cut out the ice cream disks with, recipe developer Kit Hondrum's copycat Dilly Bars require only two ingredients... Yup, that's it! All you need is 15 minutes to spare, some melted chocolate, half a gallon of vanilla ice cream that freezes hard (not the soft kind) — and there you have it, homemade Dairy Queen's Dilly Bars.

Recipe: Copycat Dairy Queen's Dilly Bars

Gordon Ramsay's chocolate donut recipe was already (seemingly) easy. 30 minutes of prep, 10 to cook, and ta-da, you have Ramsay-style donuts at home. But recipe developer Michelle Morey thinks that making donuts is difficult enough, you don't necessarily have to be making your own ganache too. Her hack? The good ol' Nutella instead of homemade ganache. She also adds toasted hazelnuts to malted cocoa powder before coating the fried donuts in the mixture for "a little extra touch of sophistication."

Recipe: Gordon Ramsay's Donuts

Who would have thought it possible to bake a cake from scratch in under six minutes before mug cakes became a thing? Using just seven ingredients — all of which are bound to be in your pantry on most days — this Nutella mug cake can also easily be amped up with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or sliced strawberries on top. Because the entire prep for the mug cake happens in the mug itself, you'll also have very little washing up to do after!

Recipe: Nutella Mug Cake

S'mores? Cinnamon Rolls? Cinnamon rolls that taste like s'mores? Thanks to recipe developer Jessica Morone and her love for Hershey's hot fudge topping that served as inspiration, you will never have to choose between s'mores and cinnamon rolls ever again. Hot fudge is spread onto the cinnamon roll dough along with cinnamon, sugar, and graham cracker crumbs; and marshmallow fluff is folded into the cream cheese and sugar topping. Just in case the s'mores part isn't clear enough, more mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips go on top.

Recipe: S'mores Cinnamon Rolls

It's not often that you find a fresh and citrusy bake amidst the array of sweet and fruity desserts. Recipe developer Eric Ngo's recipe for madeleines however, has options for giving the French classic either the typical vanilla flavor or a citrusy flavor with lemon or orange zest. He even gives little tricks to give the madeleines their signature bump that is neither too high nor too flat. These homemade madeleines also have an edge over store-bought ones because you can eat them whilst they are still warm, meaning they'll still have crisp edges.

Recipe: Lemon Madeleines

Gluten-free versions for desserts like chocolate cakes that heavily depend on the use of flour are hard to come by. When they do, gluten-free desserts are misconceived to be bland and dry at best. Recipe developer Catherine Brookes' chocolate cake is as rich and moist as any other chocolate cake and you wouldn't even be able to tell that it lacks gluten! The trick in the recipe is in its ingredients: gluten-free all-purpose flour, xanthan gum, milk, and boiling water on top of the usual chocolate cake ingredients.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

Pronounced "ko-lah-chee," these cookies are said to have been brought to the U.S. by Czechoslovakian immigrants in the 1800s (via NPR). Although they are a frequent part of dinners and gatherings in Czechoslovakia, recipe developer Mark Beahm says that these fruit jam-filled kolache cookies are perfect for anybody who isn't a fan of overly sweet treats but doesn't want to compromise on the richness and flakiness that goes with it. Besides, these cookies only require five ingredients!

Recipe: Kolache Cookies

If your go-to Cold Stone Creamery order is a scoop of cake batter ice cream, you aren't alone. The ice cream chain's statistics showed that cake batter was the flavor that people loved the most in 2020 (via PR Newswire). In this recipe, Kristen Carli recreates Cold Stone Creamery's iconic cake batter ice cream at home using a few simple ingredients and an ice cream machine. Carli's key to packing in the flavor of cake batter ice cream into this homemade version? Roast boxed butter cake mix in the oven first!

Recipe: Copycat Cold Stone Creamery Cake Batter Ice Cream

Slow cookers are arguably the next best thing since the invention of microwaves. Just chuck in a bunch of ingredients in the cooker, set a timer, and forget all about it while you run your errands — what's not to love? Now, imagine baking a cake in a slow cooker. Once you have the batter for this banana pudding cake recipe ready, all you need to do is transfer it into the cooker and allow it to slowly cook for three hours or so. In the end, you'll have a banana pudding in a cake form that tastes similar to a banana poke cake.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Banana Pudding Cake

Whether you call it a science experiment or a neat trick, magic cakes are a fascinating way to have a little fun with baking. All you have to do is make one cake batter and watch it magically create three distinct layers in the oven: a sponge on the top, a light cream in the middle, and a dense cake at the bottom (via Food Heaven). You don't even need a long list of fancy baking ingredients for this magic cake recipe — some eggs, sugar, butter flour, milk, vanilla extract, and ta-da! You have crisp, creamy, and dense textures all in one enchanting cake.

Recipe: 3-Layer Magic Cake

The thought of a cake with layers of ice cream and toasted meringue on top is enough to intimidate even skilled pastry chefs. So it's no surprise that baked Alaska is ranked amongst one of the hardest desserts to make, right next to the ever temperamental soufflé (via HuffPost). Recipe developer Ausrine Zygaityte provides a relatively low-effort Oreo and mint baked Alaska that will yield a successful, zero-stress confection. You don't even need an extravagant blow torch to toast the meringue — a quick flash in a hot oven does the job just fine!

Recipe: Mint Baked Alaska

Over the last few years, zucchini has become a popular ingredient to bake with. It's easy to see why — the summer squash adds texture and moisture to bakes similar to the way in which bananas do (via King Arthur Baking). As a bonus, you get to sneak in a nourishing veggie inside a sweet little treat! In these moist chocolate zucchini muffins, recipe developer Kristen Carli folds in a cup of grated zucchini with chocolate chips to bake a batch of chocolate muffins that you wouldn't even realize has veggies hiding inside.

Recipe: Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

What if we were to say that you could make your very own Mounds bar at home? If you're wondering why anybody would ever want to go through the trouble of doing that, a look at the lengthy ingredient list might convince you. Recipe developer Susan Olayinka scraps ingredients like sodium metabisulfite, emulsifier, and corn syrup to make a homemade Mounds bar that is "basically a replica" of the original, but with only three ingredients: condensed milk, desiccated coconut, and dark chocolate.

Recipe: Homemade Mounds Bar

There are several reasons why this mango pudding should be the next dessert you make. Fresh and tropical in taste, mangoes make for a refreshing summer dessert, especially when they're served cold in the form of a sweet pudding. The pudding uses dairy-free coconut milk which not only makes the recipe vegan, but also adds a certain creaminess to the pudding. As long as you leave at least two hours aside for the pudding to set in the refrigerator, you'll have yourself a chilled dessert that is not only incredibly tasty, but healthy, too.

Recipe: Mango Pudding

For the longest time, no one really knew how Taco Bell made its spirally cinnamon twists. But ever since a Taco Bell employee spilled the beans on the cinnamon twist mystery (twistery?), it turns out that making the snack is way easier than it seems. The secret ingredient here is a type of Mexican noodle called duros that you can buy from a Hispanic store or online. Once you manage to snag a bag, you only have to fry them up and roll them in a mix of cinnamon and sugar to make homemade Taco Bell-style cinnamon twists that taste like the real deal.

Recipe: Copycat Taco Bell Cinnamon Twist

If the three-ingredient and no-churn bit doesn't do it for ya, this homemade vanilla ice cream can be ready in as little as five minutes. You read it right: A handful of ingredients, no fancy-schmancy ice cream maker, and pretty much an instant scoop of ice cream! In fact, recipe developer Mark Beahm says that while you could use an electric mixer to make this vanilla ice cream, you can even whisk it to life by hand. Serve a scoop of your handmade ice cream on top of this five-minute mug cake and you'll have a stunning dessert that no one will believe was made at home, let alone in ten minutes!

Recipe: 3-Ingredient No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream

Chocolate cupcakes may be great, but what better way to liven up a classic dessert than with a generous splash of booze? Recipe developer Hayley MacLean says that the bitterness of red wine in this recipe balances the sweet chocolate exquisitely. The red wine in the frosting even adds a pop of color to the otherwise dull and brown-colored dessert. Although this particular flavor pairing was inspired by Valentine's Day, there's no reason why you can't enjoy a spiked chocolate cupcake all year round.

Recipe: Red Wine Cupcakes

This pineapple coconut cake makes things easier by bringing in a simple box of white cake mix. All you have to do is tie your apron and focus on adding flavor to this magnificent cake. Coconut extract goes in the boxed cake mix; a frosting flavored with coconut milk, coconut extract, and vanilla extract gets piped into the middle; and a thick layer of pineapple preserve is sandwiched between the two slabs of baked cakes. Sure to be a treat for fans of sweet and fruity cakes, you even have the option of pressing desiccated coconut onto the frosted cake for another layer of flavor.

Recipe: Pineapple Coconut Cake

If you're finally feeling ready to take your baking skills to the next level, there's no better place to start than with this French apple tart. Apart from being "totally doable" — as recipe developer Eric Ngo puts it — Ngo is a skilled French pastry chef who is happy to make the process as simple as possible. Because this tart doesn't have a pastry lid on top like a pie does, the flavors of apples will shine much better, making it the perfect dessert to bake in fall or when you've spotted a ripe bag of apples at the farmer's market.

Recipe: French Apple Tart

The sweet spin on a traditionally savory recipe may put you off at first, but don't scroll past just yet — recipe developer Jennine Bryant's wheels started turning when she read a cookbook that used chocolate in savory dishes and included a chocolate-flavored pasta recipe. Why, exactly, could chocolate and orange not go in risotto too, she wondered? So here it is: A risotto made from arborio rice, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and orange zest that will make you question why sweet risottos aren't more widespread yet.

Recipe: Chocolate Orange Risotto

Domino's may be a pizza chain, but everybody knows that one of the best items on their menu is not a pizza at all. It's the warm chocolate lava crunch cake! If you don't agree, you probably need to taste it one more time to be convinced and there's no better time to do so than now. Gather your butter, eggs, dark chocolate, sugar, salt, and flour, because that's all you need to bake a copycat lava cake that tastes suspiciously like the real deal.

Recipe: Copycat Domino's Chocolate Lava Crunch Cake

Who doesn't love a multi-use kitchen gadget? This recipe will show you that your air fryer can do more than fry French fries and chicken wings — it can bake crisp apple pies, too. All you need is a pre-made pie crust and canned apple pie filling (unless you have trusty recipes for homemade versions instead), as well as eggs, sugar, and cinnamon. If you don't have the 20 minutes on hand, you can even prepare the pies in advance, freeze them, and then pop them in the air fryer for 10 minutes or so when you're ready to dig in.

Recipe: 20-Minute Air Fryer Apple Pie

Those not familiar with this "cake" from Wales may be surprised by how much these little treats look like anything but cake. They resemble thick cookies in appearance, are cooked in a pan like pancakes, and have an ingredient list that looks a lot like you're about to be making scones. This traditional British snack uses flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and eggs, as well as sultanas and a mixed spice powder (the same that usually goes in gingerbread cookies). The best part? You can even make the recipe gluten-free by using equal amounts of gluten-free flour instead of the all-purpose type.

Recipe: Welsh Cakes

If you enjoy lacing your hot chocolates and coffees with a trickle of Bailey's Irish Cream every now and then, these Irish cream Brownies are going to be right up your alley. A boozy, adult spin on the classic brownie, you can use any boxed brownie mix for the recipe — the Bailey's is hiding in the frosting. Alternatively, you can even swap the water that your boxed brownie mix calls for with equal parts of Bailey's for some more of that sweet Irish liqueur!

Recipe: Irish Cream Brownies

When you think of Canadian food, poutine is probably the first dish that comes to mind. What you most likely won't think about are sweet and flaky bite-sized butter tarts. No one really knows how butter tarts came to be but some say that it was in the 1600s, when brides from Quebec used a mixture of dried fruits, butter, and maple syrup to fill their French tarts. Recipe developer Molly Allen's tarts use neither dried fruits nor maple syrup, but depend on a mixture of butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and eggs for the gooey filling.

Recipe: Butter Tarts

French desserts have a reputation for being technically challenging and generally difficult to bake, especially at home — soufflé, macaron, croquembouche... Any of them ring a dreadful bell? With this mille feuille recipe, however, you'll have at least one French pastry that's easy to whip up at home. Translating to "thousand sheets" in English, the trickiest part about mille feuille is the puff pastry. The shortcut here is to leave the homemade puff pastry for later and simply use the store-bought frozen one when you're just starting out. The rest of the recipe may be "fussy" and time-consuming, says recipe developer Laura Sampson, but it definitely won't be difficult.

Recipe: Shortcut Mille Feuille

If the sound of a cupcake that tastes like Mexican hot chocolate hasn't left you drooling already, wait till you see all the ways in which recipe developer Autumn LeAnn has upgraded the regular cupcake. Instead of all-purpose flour, LeAnn suggests cake flour for lighter and fluffier cupcakes. In goes dark cocoa powder (not the regular type) to make the cupcakes richer, tons of spices that are signature of a traditional Mexican hot chocolate, and gelatin powder for a frosting that holds its height and shape. If you love your desserts with a hint of spices or a touch of chili, this one's going to be a winner.

Recipe: Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

It takes a lot of willpower to walk through a fair or a carnival without grabbing a funnel cake (or two). Some would even say that it's precisely the funnel cake that you go to one for — what's not to love about fried dough with a generous dusting of powdered sugar on top? But with this recipe for funnel cake bites, you can have this carnival-style treat any time you want. According to recipe developer Jessica Morone, these bites are just as fluffy, light, and crisp as you'd expect a funnel cake to be, but their small size makes them a lot less messy to eat. The only downside? You'll wish you had made more.

Recipe: Funnel Cake Bites

Even the developer of this recipe Kristen Carli admits that the combination of Kraft Mac & Cheese and ice cream may be unusual. But if you dare to try it, you may find it's a combination that works. Inspired by NYC-based ice cream shop Van Leeuwen's 12-dollar Kraft Mac & Cheese tub, this homemade version with five ingredients will cost you far less. If you're still hesitant to try it, Carli assures us that the ice cream has a "classic creamy cheese taste" that we have come to love in plenty of desserts like cheesecakes.

Recipe: Kraft Mac & Cheese Ice Cream

Why would you want to choose between a cake and a donut when you could have both in one sweet little treat? Recipe developer Catherine Brookes says that carrot cake works especially well in donut form because the light and fluffy texture of a donut goes excellently with the sweet and spicy flavors of a carrot cake. You don't even need to fry them — 10 minutes in the oven to bake is all they need. Plus, baking them will make the texture of the donuts more like that of a cake!

Recipe: Carrot Cake Baked Donuts

Now that we've established that carrot cakes make an excellent donut, let's go over why they make equally wonderful cinnamon rolls too. Imagine your normal cinnamon roll dough, and then imagine the sweet cinnamon sugar filling, except with all the flavors of a carrot cake! Along with cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and vanilla extract, in go chopped carrots and pecans. Never again will you have to choose between a carrot cake and a cinnamon roll — a problem you didn't think needed a solution till you had one.

Recipe: Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls

Good Humor's iconic Viennetta has made a number of appearances in the U.S. through the years (via Delish). The British ice cream dessert enjoyed high levels of popularity in the 80s and 90s, and was on a 30-year hiatus before making a comeback in 2021. So why would you want to go through the laborious process of making your own homemade Viennetta? Because once you've gotten the hang of a classic Viennetta, recipe developer Jennine Bryant says that you can switch up the flavors and experiment with different ice creams and flavors as much as you like — it doesn't always have to be vanilla and chocolate.

Recipe: Creamy Viennetta

Call it halva, helva, halwa, or halvas, this nutty confection is popular in Turkey, the Balkans, and the Middle East, albeit with different flavorings (via The Spruce Eats). There are all sorts of nuts, dried fruits, and even cocoa powder that can be added to a halva, but this recipe relies on the crunch of pistachios to go with the tahini that forms the halva's base. Since you're working with hot sugar, the recipe does require that you at least have a meat thermometer, if not a candy one in particular.

Recipe: Pistachio Halva

For those who weren't around in the 1960s and 70s to witness the phenomenon of the Sock-It-To-Me catchphrase, Fave Southern Recipes explains that the phrase was first coined by Aretha Franklin and later popularized by in a Rowan & Martin sketch comedy show. Later, Duncan Hines jumped on the bandwagon and printed a recipe for a certain Sock-It-To-Me Cake on the back of their Classic Butter Golden Cake Mix. Since then, the buttery Bundt cake with brown sugar, nuts, and spices has become a Southern classic. This recipe shows you how to make the cake from scratch without using a cake mix, but without making the process too time-consuming either.

Recipe: Sock-It-To-Me Cake

Anything that a fast-food chain like Wendy's makes might seem darn near impossible to replicate at home. The Frosty in particular has that perfectly smooth but thick consistency every single time you order it. Gadgets like ice cream makers aside, Wendy's Frosty has a long ingredient list that you couldn't possibly imagine recreating at home. Brace yourselves: This copycat version nails the taste and texture of a Wendy's Frosty and with only three ingredients at that! With a few nifty little tricks — like freezing chocolate milk into cubes — you don't even need an ice cream maker. A high-power blender will do the job just fine!

Recipe: Copycat Wendy's Frosty

Think of this peach pudding as a bread pudding with the addition of juicy peaches in the mix. With a basic pudding batter as the base, all you need are a handful of pitted peaches and sugar. But the real kicker in this peach pudding is a brown sugar and cinnamon syrup. "The warm spice," recipe developer Catherine Brookes says, "goes great with the sweetness of the fruit." Although the pudding is an ideal dessert to bake in the months of fall, the delicious combination of peach and cinnamon will leave you wanting this fruity dessert all year round!

Recipe: Peach Pudding

Who wants to make homemade cannolis that require making a dough, shaping it, frying it, and making a homemade filling when you could just go to your local bakery and buy a box of freshly-made cannolis instead? Here, recipe developer Liz Capozzoli leaves out all the difficult bits to give you a cannoli recipe that is far more doable. Simply buy pre-made cannoli shells from a store and focus your efforts on the filling. Although Capozzoli uses cinnamon and chocolate chips in her sugar and ricotta mixture, you can feel free to experiment with all sorts of flavors — think coconut, nuts, fruits, or even caramel.

Recipe: Classic Cannoli

Thin Mints may be the classic Girl Scout cookies, but peanut butter lovers know that nothing quite beats the underrated Do-Si-Dos. With a creamy peanut butter filling sandwiched between two thick peanut butter cookies, Do-Si-Dos pack in heaps of sweet and salty peanut flavor in each bite. Even better, with this copycat recipe of the cookie, you won't have to countdown the months till the Girl Scout season comes around — it's peanut butter-packed Do-Si-Do season all year round!

Recipe: Copycat Girl Scout Do-Si-Dos

Thanks to the large number of eggs that go into it, a chiffon cake tends to be lighter and airier than most of its counterparts. If you're a fan of citrusy flavors, you're going to want to try this lemon-flavored chiffon cake. While bottled lemon juice may be tempting due to its convenience, this cake depends on the zest and lemon juice of fresh lemons for its flavor. For an extra kick, even more lemon juice is added to the glaze.

Recipe: Lemon Chiffon Cake

If the name doesn't already give it away, this pudding pie made from Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding is for true chocolate aficionados. With only four ingredients on the list and five minutes of cook time once your store-bought pie crust is baked, this chocolate pudding pie is sure to be the new go-to dessert you make in times of a quick chocolate fix! And if that isn't convenient enough, this pie even keeps for as long as six months in the freezer so you can have an instant supply at all times.

Recipe: Chocolate Lover's Pudding Pie

With its layers of syrup-soaked flaky pastry, baklava looks like a dessert complicated enough to put its notorious French counterparts to shame. But with recipe developer Erin Johnson to guide you through the process — and a shortcut store-bought phyllo pastry to make things easy — baking your own baklava at home is a snap. As Johnson says, "baklava looks complicated but it's just layering." Once you have your syrup, nut filling, and phyllo pastry ready, it's just a matter of assembling, soaking the baklava in sweet syrup, and being patient!

Recipe: Baklava

We're all for baked donuts. Not having to pour a ton of oil into a pot, not having to work with hot oil, and not having to worry about disposing it after is a win-win. Plus, these baked donuts will come out nice and fluffy without feeling heavy, which only means that you'll be able to eat more of them in a go! To make up for the lack of grease that makes a donut a donut, melted butter is brushed onto the baked apple cider donuts in this recipe. The butter will add moisture, flavor, and make the apple-flavored donuts taste even richer.

Recipe: Apple Cider Donuts

If you love a bit of spice in your cookies, these gingersnaps might just replace gingerbread as your new favorite treat. These gingersnaps get their spice from dry ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove powders, but there's also the option for you to grate or mince fresh spices instead. Dip the baked cookies in melted white chocolate after they're baked, and you'll never want to wait till the holidays for an opportunity to make these gingersnaps!

Recipe: White Chocolate-Dipped Gingersnaps

When was the last time you met someone who said that their favorite cake was fruit cake? Never, that's when. But with Kristen Carli's recipe, you might be able to convert even the fussiest of eaters into fruit cake fans. The trick? Three-quarters of a cup of rum! Now that that's gotten your attention, Carli soaks six different fruits in a bowl of rum for this fruit cake, but gives you the option to leave out a fruit or two, as long as it's not the juicy figs that are being scrapped.

Recipe: Fruit Cake

Oreos may be all the rage right now, but it's not the first time someone genius thought of sandwiching a layer of vanilla-flavored cream between two thick and chewy chocolate cookies. These homemade Whoopie Pies have a shorter ingredient list than the store-bought ones and are made with items that you can easily find in a grocery store. Buttermilk helps the cookies rise and Dutch-process cocoa powder makes them dark and rich. There's also an option to make these Whoopie Pies gluten-free, as well as ways to switch up the flavors for more seasonal non-chocolate alternatives!

Recipe: Whoopie Pie

Tasting your first beignet may be on your list of things to do when you finally make that trip to New Orleans. But with this recipe, you'll be able to enjoy this NOLA confection wherever you are. The puffy little squares of fried dough with a mountain of powdered sugar on top look like they're tougher to nail than they actually are. On the contrary, recipe developer Stephanie Rapone thinks they're easier to make than churros and donuts. No baking, no shortcuts — Rapone walks you through the process of making New Orleans-style beignets just as they are made: deep-fried in hot oil and coated in powdered sugar!

Recipe: Beignets

Looking for a fun project to do by yourself or with the little ones? These caramel turtles are as playful to make and assemble as they are delightful to eat! All you need are five simple ingredients: chocolate, pecans, sugar, butter, and heavy cream. The pecans form the turtle legs, the melted chocolate on top creates the little turtle's hard shell, and the caramel made from butter, sugar, and cream glues everything together. Voila: a dessert that's fun to make and eat!

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Caramel Turtles

Somewhere between a cake and a custard, clafoutis is a French dessert that you could think of as a much simpler version of a soufflé. With the consistency of both a cake and a custard, clafoutis will puff up into a golden cake when baked, and usually has juicy fruits sprinkled in between. First, you make a pancake-like batter which you then pour over cherries. While you could be using other fruits like blueberries and plums, recipe developer Mark Beahm says that it would change the name of the dessert to flaugnarde. Hey, the world of French desserts isn't known for being flexible.

Recipe: Clafoutis

Slicing into a Battenberg cake reveals four neat squares within each slice, each alternating square a different flavor. While the original Battenberg had nine squares of plain white cake in the colors of pink and yellow, modern takes on the classic have greatly switched things up. Mary Berry likes hers with coffee and walnut! In recipe developer Jennine Bryant's Battenberg, the pink and yellow are replaced by a block of white sponge cake and another chocolate sponge cake, both held together with a thick buttercream frosting and marzipan.

Recipe: Chocolate Battenberg Cake

Sometimes, all you need is a simple no-fuss dessert. Eggs, heavy cream, milk, vanilla pods, sugar, and cornflour are all you need to make this easy peasy vanilla custard. Even though the process is not complicated at all, the custard packs in tons of flavor because it uses vanilla pods and not vanilla essence or extract. Recipe developer Susan Olayinka says that pods add a far more intense smell and taste to the custard, and you'll also get those lovely bits of vanilla that you'd find in a traditional vanilla custard.

Recipe: Vanilla Custard

While this three-ingredient fudge gives you a basic skeleton recipe to work with, it leaves a ton of room for you to customize this treat exactly to your liking. This recipe makes a fudge with chocolate chips, vanilla extract, and condensed milk but from there on, you can add all sorts of flavors to it. Chopped nuts, Oreo cookies, and nut butters can be added for a different kind of taste, while powders like turmeric and matcha will add unique color. Or, you could swap out the milk chocolate chips for white or darker versions. You can even leave out the condensed milk entirely and use a nut butter in its place to make the fudge dairy-free!

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Fudge

No-bake AND keto? Recipe developer Molly Allen's cheesecake already has a lot going for it! For Oreo lovers, however, the best part is yet to come. While most cheesecakes only utilize Oreos in the crust, this one uses bits of Oreo cookies in the creamy filling too. But wait, there's more: Additional crushed Oreos go on top to finish off this no-bake, keto dessert. In fact, you're going to need an entire pack of Oreos for this cheesecake!

Recipe: No-Bake Keto Cheesecake

Is it a cookie? Is it a cake? Is it both? Here's the convincing case recipe developer Jennifer En makes for this chocolate chip cookie cake. First, you take all that's good about a chocolate chip cookie. Then, you turn it into a bigger, cakey version of itself. In the end, you have this: A cookie cake with crisp edges, a soft and chewy center, and a "more intense" chocolate taste. There's little puddles of melted chocolate in each bit — what possibly is there not to love?

Recipe: Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Did you even go to Disneyland if you didn't try the legendary Dole Whip? If you're missing the cold pineapple-flavored dessert from a past trip or simply want to know what the hype is about without having to actually visit the amusement park, this copycat version will give you Disney-style Dole Whip anytime you need. Gather frozen pineapple chunks, pineapple juice, vanilla ice cream, vanilla essence, a blender, and a bit of magic, and you'll have yourself a frosty dessert that recipe developer Susan Olayinka promises "is very close to the real thing."

Recipe: Copycat Disney Dole Whip

Now, we're not saying that chocolate-covered strawberries are a dessert that needs shaking up. But who could ever resist the addition of Nutella to the mix? You'll dip your strawberries in melted chocolate like normal, and cover the chocolate in crushed hazelnuts. But here's where things get better: You spoon some Nutella inside hollowed-out strawberries. Once you try this leveled-up version of the classic, it's very likely that you'll never go back to plain ol' chocolate-dipped berries ever again.

Recipe: Nutella Stuffed Strawberries

If you're someone that wakes up craving dessert for breakfast, these healthy no-bake chocolate oat bars will come in handy. What makes the bars so great for breakfast or a healthier alternative for a dessert on the go you ask? Three cups of oats, honey, and peanut butter of course! To keep the bars as healthy as possible, all-natural or homemade peanut butter is recommended. Alternatively, you can use any type of nut butter and substitute honey with maple syrup or agave nectar if you're out of it.

Recipe: No-Bake Chocolate Oat Bars

Did you think double chocolate chip cookies were it? Aren't you in for a sweet surprise! Not one, not two, but three kinds of chocolate chips are used in the making of these triple chocolate chip cookies, as well as half a cup of cocoa powder on top. The cookies will turn out so soft, chewy, and flavorful that you'll end up second-guessing whether they're gluten-free at all. If only this recipe made more than 16 cookies in a batch!

Recipe: Triple Chocolate Gluten-Free Cookies

These cream puffs may not be as easy to make as other recipes on this list. Recipe developer Mark Beahm warns that deflated or burnt choux buns, over whipped cream, and several other baking disasters are very much a possibility when you try this recipe the first time. But don't let that put you off. Once you do master this recipe for homemade cream puffs — even if it takes a couple tries — frozen alternatives will never be the same again.

Recipe: Cream Puff

Everybody who watched the first "Chronicles of Narnia" film (or read the book) wondered what that chewy, red-colored thing coated in powdered sugar was. Clearly, it was powerful enough for the White Witch to win Edmund over. As it turns out, the confection was Turkish delight. Now you may not have a magical wardrobe that can transfer you to Narnia where a box of Turkish delight awaits, but you surely can make it at home. With a handful of ingredients and a candy thermometer, you can bring the enchanting dessert to life in your very own kitchen!

Recipe: Turkish Delight

If an ice cream sandwich is your dessert of choice on a hot summer day, you might want to try this upgraded version of a store-bought one. By making your own ice cream sandwich at home, you not only have control over your cookies, but also over the kind of ice cream that you use as well as its flavor. These soft and chewy cookies go perfectly with vanilla ice cream no doubt, but you could also add nuts, chocolate chips, or coconut to the cookies and pair them with an entirely different ice cream!

Recipe: Ice Cream Sandwich

Light enough for you to squeeze another slice in after a filling dinner, this lemon meringue pie has a wonderful contrast of flavors as well as textures. The pie gets its sweetness from the crunchy graham cracker crust and its tart flavor from the lemon curd filling that is finished off with a soft and airy layer of meringue. Don't be fooled by the three and a half hour cook time; most of it is spent waiting for the meringue to cool down.

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Pie

A classic panna cotta celebrates vanilla at its very best. Italian for "cooked cream," panna cotta is quite literally a vanilla-flavored cream that has been thickened with the help of gelatin into a smooth, creamy and jiggly dessert. That being said, you don't have to stick to classic flavors when making your own panna cotta. Simply replace the vanilla extract with any other of your liking and adjust the amount you add based on the strength of the extract compared to that of vanilla.

Recipe: Classic Panna Cotta

There are two tell-tale signs of a celebration: a bottle of fizzy champagne and a giant cake. In this recipe, Jessica Morone mixes the two into one stunning creation: pink champagne cake. The thrill of using champagne in a cake aside, Morone says that the flavor of the sparkling wine comes through subtly in the cake itself but is much stronger in the frosting. You don't even have to worry about splurging on a pricey bottle of champagne. Morone uses a $15 Costco champagne in the recipe so you can save that fancy bottle of Moët & Chandon for actually drinking alongside the pink champagne cake.

Recipe: Pink Champagne Cake

Raise your hands if you prefer chewy cookies over crunchy ones! Lucky for you, Kristen Carli has another fantastic recipe for perfectly soft cookies that will transport you right back to the cozy months of fall and winter. Flavored with nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and clove powders, the cookies get their nuanced sweetness primarily from molasses. Depending on how sweet you want your cookies, Carli recommends choosing your molasses wisely: Light for sweet cookies, dark for cookies where the spices will shine, and blackstrap for the least sweet cookies. 

Recipe: Chewy Molasses Spices Cookies

Certain classic desserts don't require a recipe. If you spend time around your oven, you likely know how to make a batch of simple chocolate chip muffins. But what if you wanted to make them gluten-free? This recipe is here to save the day! Just as easy to make as your usual muffins, these light and fluffy gluten-free chocolate chip muffins are made using gluten-free all-purpose flour and require all but 15 minutes of prep time. You may even want to find a hiding spot to store your stash away because these gluten-free muffins will disappear ridiculously quickly.

Recipe: Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Muffins

As the name suggests, recipe developer Jessica Morone says that this mildly spiced Irish apple cake with a streusel topping is a traditional dessert in Ireland. The recipe uses tart Granny Smith apples that go very well with the crumbly and buttery streusel topping as well as with the sweetness of the cake. A winner for fans of apple pie, Irish apple cake is traditionally served with custard sauce on top, but a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and powdered sugar are excellent options too.

Recipe: Irish Apple Cake

According to Definitions, kringla is a pastry that comes from Scandinavia and gets its name from the Old Norse word for ring or circle. While the recipe for kringla is no more difficult than your usual cookie recipe, Mark Beahm says that the hardest (and most fitting) part about this kringla is giving the cookie its shape. The trick, he says, is to make sure that your dough is cold. Only then will it be manageable enough to be shaped into figure-eight loops by hand. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to make kringla cookies for your morning coffee in a jiffy!

Recipe: Kringla

Why would you want to use an Instant Pot to make brownies when you have an oven that works just fine? The thrill of being able to boast about making brownies in an Instant Pot aside, recipe developer Jaime Bachtell-Shelbert says that the recipe comes in handy during summertime when you don't want to add to the heat by turning on an oven in your house. You might even consider sticking with the Instant Pot for good once you see just how dense, moist, and fudgy your brownies turn out!

Recipe: Instant Pot Brownies

It's easy to get bored of the usual chocolate and vanilla desserts, especially if it's after a sugar-filled holiday season. This passionfruit cake will shake things up for ya! Made with passionfruit pulp, orange zest, and vanilla extract, and topped with a sweet glaze, think of this dessert as a sponge cake that's gone on a tropical vacation. Perfect for anybody that wants a light and summery confection that has a balance of sweet, tart, and tangy flavors, recipe developer Jennine Bryant suggests serving this cake with a glass of cold lemonade or sparkling elderflower.

Recipe: Passionfruit Cake

People say ambrosia is the food of the gods and once you taste this dessert, you might start believing that too. Some say that this fruity mix should be considered a sweet salad whereas others think of it as a dessert with roots in Greek mythology (via Alabama Chain Journal). The fact that ambrosia can include a ton of fruits, nuts, shredded sweet coconut, maraschino cherries, and even marshmallows makes things all the more confusing. Considering this recipe only requires a mere 10 minutes, why not make your own ambrosia at home and find out for yourself which side of the ambrosia debate you stand on?

Recipe: Ambrosia

When you think of Italian desserts, it's tiramisu and cannoli that tend to come to mind first. What you probably don't think about is cassata cake. A sugar syrup-soaked sponge cake is layered with a sweet mixture of ricotta, sugar, vanilla bean, and lemon filling. The cake is then lined with green-colored pistachio marzipan and drizzled with a thick lemon glaze, which gives the cassata cake its signature white and green look.

Recipe: Cassata Cake

Dairy Queen's Blizzards are iconic. They're too thick for a straw to do its job but not quite like the consistency of ice cream either. Not to mention the mystery behind the way in which a Blizzard can be served upside down without it splattering onto the floor below. With all this in mind, making it at home seems like a frankly impossible task. Brace yourself here, because not only can you make a Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard at home, but you can make it using no more than two ingredients... That's right, TWO ingredients! Follow the steps and work fast, and your copycat Blizzard will even pass the upside-down test with flying colors.

Recipe: 2-Ingredient Copycat Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzard

More often than not, chocolate mousse is made using eggs. This three-ingredient mousse, on the other hand, depends on whipped cream for its airy and fluffy texture, making the recipe suitable for vegetarians or anybody that follows an eggless diet. Don't let the three-ingredient bit hold you back from making this chocolate mousse your own. You can go ahead and add all sorts of toppings to the finished chocolate mousse — think cacao nibs, maple syrup, or even just a sprinkle of salt.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Okay, we'll admit it. The three-ingredient hack here comes from the use of a boxed red velvet cake mix, but as a wise person once said: Work smarter, not harder. The goal here is to make a smashing red velvet cake that doesn't take an entire day to make, so recipe developer Jason Goldstein uses a boxed cake mix but upgrades it with a cup of applesauce for a more rich, moist, and velvety texture. On goes a layer of store-bought cream cheese frosting and in the end, you have a red velvet cake so good, no one would guess it came from a box!

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Red Velvet Cake