Dessert covers a lot of ground on this site: cakes, pies, ice cream, cheesecake, pudding, donuts, brownies, crepes, and a few things that don’t fit any of those categories at all. Rather than pick a handful of favorites, I pulled together every dessert recipe worth making, 33 of them, organized by type so you can find what you’re actually craving instead of scrolling past cookies to get to pie.
A few to start with if you’re not sure where to begin: Extra Moist Honey Cake, the recipe readers come back to most, Sticky Toffee Pudding, because it’s the one people always request the recipe for, and Air Fryer Fried Ice Cream, because it sounds impossible until you make it. From there, the rest is organized by category below.
EXTRA MOIST HONEY CAKE FOR ROSH HASHANAH
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This honey cake stays moist in the center and turns crisp at the edges, with the deep, sweet flavor of honey running through the whole crumb. It’s perfect for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, or any time of year.
Get the Recipe: Extra Moist Honey Cake for Rosh Hashanah
STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING
This is a moist, date-based cake drenched in a sweet, buttery toffee sauce, easier to make than the name suggests. Guests pretty much always ask for the recipe for this one after just one bite.
Get the Recipe: Sticky Toffee Pudding
AIR FRYER FRIED ICE CREAM
This one has the crunchy shell and creamy center of restaurant fried ice cream, made in the air fryer instead of a pot of hot oil. It doesn’t seem like it should work, but it does!
Get the Recipe: Air Fryer Fried Ice Cream
APPLE CIDER DONUT CAKE
This cake has the rich, apple-forward flavor and dense, cake-y texture of a farmstand apple cider donut, right down to the cinnamon sugar coating on top.
Get the Recipe: Apple Cider Donut Cake
BEST ORANGE PASSOVER SPONGE CAKE
This sponge cake is citrusy, light, and flour-free, built from just a few basic ingredients. It works for a Seder table, but there’s no reason to save it for Passover.
Get the Recipe: Best Orange Passover Sponge Cake
COFFEE CAKE BUNDT CAKE
Sour cream gives this bundt cake a bit of tang against the sweet-spiced cinnamon sugar ribbon running through the center, and the whole thing gets a crackly glaze on top.
Get the Recipe: Coffee Cake Bundt Cake
EGGNOG BUNDT CAKE
This bundt cake takes the flavor of eggnog, rich and a little spiced, and bakes it into a moist cake built for the holiday table.
Get the Recipe: Eggnog Bundt Cake
ORANGE CAKE WITH BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE GLAZE
The batter for this moist, citrusy cake mixes in a single bowl with just a spoon, no mixer needed. It gets baked in a bundt pan and finished with a dark chocolate glaze.
Get the Recipe: Orange Cake with Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze
PECAN UPSIDE DOWN CAKE
The pecans on top bake into a buttery caramel layer that soaks down into the soft vanilla cake underneath, so every bite has crunch, cake, and syrup all at once.
Get the Recipe: Pecan Upside Down Cake
PUMPKIN BUNDT CAKE WITH COFFEE GLAZE
Pumpkin pie spice and a coffee glaze turn this bundt cake into something close to a pumpkin spice latte in cake form. Since it’s made in a bundt pan, it looks beautiful with no layering or frosting required.
Get the Recipe: Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Coffee Glaze
MAGIC LAYER PIE
This pie is built by layering the ingredients straight into the pan, no mixing bowl required, which makes it as much a camp dessert as a kitchen one.
Get the Recipe: Magic Layer Pie
CARAMEL WHOOPIE PIES
A caramel mascarpone filling sits between two soft, cake-like cookies here, richer than the classic marshmallow-filled version most people grew up on.
Get the Recipe: Caramel Whoopie Pies
GLUTEN-FREE PUMPKIN PIE WITH PECAN PRALINE TOPPING
The crust here is flaked coconut, pecans, and brown rice flour instead of wheat, and a pecan praline topping goes on after baking for crunch against the smooth pumpkin filling.
Get the Recipe: Gluten-Free Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Praline Topping
CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE
Dark chocolate and a splash of bourbon go into the filling of this pecan pie, which holds its own on a Thanksgiving dessert table next to the classic version.
Get the Recipe: Chocolate Pecan Pie
MINI BLUEBERRY PIE FOR TWO
These are full-size flaky pie crust and juicy summer blueberries, just scaled down to a pair of mini pies sized for two people instead of a crowd.
Get the Recipe: Mini Blueberry Pie for Two
TRIPLE BERRY HAND PIES
Buttery pastry wraps around a mix of three berries here, individually portioned, which makes these a good way to use up whatever’s left from a summer berry haul.
Get the Recipe: Triple Berry Hand Pies
PEACH COBBLER WITH A GOLDEN, CAKEY CRUST
Ripe peaches turn soft and syrupy underneath a golden, cake-like topping that cracks open as you spoon into it, the kind of dessert worth building a farmers market trip around.
Get the Recipe: Peach Cobbler with a Golden, Cakey Crust
GRAHAM CRACKER ICE CREAM
This no-churn ice cream is built around the honey-molasses flavor of graham crackers, flecked with mini chocolate chips and topped with a buttery graham cracker crumble.
Get the Recipe: Graham Cracker Ice Cream
MISSISSIPPI MUD ICE CREAM
Coffee, chocolate, and marshmallow come together in this one, rich enough that a small scoop goes a long way.
Get the Recipe: Mississippi Mud Ice Cream
PUMPKIN ICE CREAM
A brown-sugar crumble runs through this pumpkin cinnamon ice cream, and it doubles as a topper for apple pie, gingerbread, or pumpkin bread if you want to stack desserts.
Get the Recipe: Pumpkin Ice Cream
ROCKY ROAD ICE CREAM
Silky chocolate ice cream gets studded with mini marshmallows, toasted nuts, and chunks of chocolate here, so nearly every bite hits a different texture.
Get the Recipe: Rocky Road Ice Cream
S’MORES ICE CREAM
This one carries all the flavors of a campfire s’more, chewy marshmallow, bits of chocolate, crushed graham cracker, without needing an actual fire.
Get the Recipe: S’mores Ice Cream
CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE BITES
These come together in under 30 minutes and make just enough for two people, which is rare for cheesecake and useful when you don’t want a whole cake’s worth sitting in the fridge.
Get the Recipe: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake Bites
MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKES
These blend the richness of cheesecake with pumpkin’s fall flavors, portioned small enough that a second one doesn’t feel like overdoing it.
Get the Recipe: Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes
PUMPKIN PECAN CHEESECAKE
Creamy cheesecake, a pumpkin filling, and crunchy pecans layer together here into a full-size cake built for a fall dessert table.
Get the Recipe: Pumpkin Pecan Cheesecake
THAI BLACK RICE PUDDING WITH COCONUT MILK
The striking color here comes from Thai black glutinous rice, cooked down warm, dense, and rich with coconut milk.
Get the Recipe: Thai Black Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk
ISRAELI JELLY DONUTS (SUFGANIYOT)
Sufganiyot are pillowy fried donuts filled with jelly and dusted with powdered sugar, traditionally eaten during Hanukkah but good any time of year.
Get the Recipe: Israeli Jelly Donuts (Sufganiyot)
MOCHI DONUTS WITH BROWN BUTTER AND SEA SALT
These are chewy on the inside with a light, crisp shell, finished with a brown butter glaze that’s more complex than a standard donut icing.
Get the Recipe: Mochi Donuts with Brown Butter and Sea Salt
COFFEE BROWNIES FOR TWO
This small-batch brownie recipe is fudgy, scaled down to a pair of servings, and built for whenever you want a chocolate fix without a full pan of leftovers.
Get the Recipe: Coffee Brownies for Two
AIR FRYER BROWNIES WITH CARAMEL AND PECANS
A swirl of caramel and toasted pecans run through these fudgy brownies, made in a small batch in the air fryer instead of heating up the oven.
Get the Recipe: Air Fryer Brownies with Caramel and Pecans
CHOCOLATE CHICKPEA MUFFINS
Chickpeas replace most of the flour in these chocolate muffins, which taste closer to a chocolate cupcake than anything resembling bean-based baking.
Get the Recipe: Chocolate Chickpea Muffins
HOTTEOK (SWEET KOREAN PANCAKES)
These filled Korean pancakes are golden on the outside with edges that turn distinctly crisp, worth trying even if you think you already know what a sweet pancake tastes like.
Get the Recipe: Hotteok (Sweet Korean Pancakes)
MATZOH TOFFEE FOR PASSOVER
Matzoh gets layered with toffee and chocolate here, crunchy and sweet enough that it disappears at a Passover Seder faster than anything else on the table.
Get the Recipe: Matzoh Toffee for Passover
