55 Spring Desserts Starring *All* the Seasonal Produce
We’ll take any excuse to make dessert. Wednesday? Cupcakes. Only hit snooze once? Cookies, coming right up. Thawing out from winter’s permafrost and saying hello to spring? Now that’s an occasion worth celebrating with sweets. In honor of a new season (and the return of our farmers market favorites), here are 55 spring dessert recipes to make from now until June.
1. Easy Lemon-Hibiscus Layer Cake
By easy, we mean it’s ready in about an hour. If you want to be extra festive, decorate it with edible flowers.
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2. Pineapple and Ginger Upside-Down Cake
It seems summery, but pineapple is actually in season in the spring. It gets caramelized and ultra-sweet in this recipe, which has a little bit of fresh ginger for a kick.
3. Mini Strawberry Ice-Cream Pies
Roasting the strawberries brings out their sweetness, even if you can’t get the best pint at the farmers market. Plus, this dessert takes no time to make.
4. Cheater’s Mini Rhubarb Galettes
Psst: The crust is made from store-bought puff pastry, but you don’t have to tell anyone.
5. Lemon Meringue Cookies
The trick to maximum citrusy flavor involves rubbing the lemon zest and sugar together before making the dough. (Genius.)
6. Coconut Rice Pudding with Rhubarb Compote
On its own, rhubarb is pretty tart. A creamy, sweet coconut rice pudding is the ideal foil.
7. Botanical Shortbread Cookies
They’re almost too pretty to eat. (The keyword there is “almost.”) We like to get edible flowers online from Gourmet Sweet Botanicals, FYI.
8. Grapefruit Meringue Stacks
This is like a cross between a meringue pie and a pavlova, and while it looks totally impressive, it’s foolproof to put together.
10. Lemon Pie with Blueberry Meringue
This is the baking project you’ve been searching for. The meringue topping gets its soft purple tint from freeze-dried blueberries, which add color and flavor.
12. Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake
Meyer lemons are technically in season in winter, but you can substitute regular lemons in the spring. It’ll taste a little tart, but we like that.
13. Strawberry Pie with Strawberry Crust
Get this: The crust is colored with strawberries instead of food dye, so this pie is strawberries squared.
14. Sheet-Pan Strawberry Shortcake with Black Pepper, Whipped Honey Ricotta and Togarashi
It all comes together on one sheet pan, which means more time eating and less time worrying about the dishes.
15. Orange Flower Olive Oil Cake
When you think cake, you probably don’t think “less than an hour” or “doesn’t require special equipment,” but this recipe will change your mind.
16. Jammy Shortbread Bars
These cuties are made with raspberry jam, but you could use any flavor you prefer.
17. Bite-Size Almond Raspberry Spoon Cakes
Lightly sweet and bursting with almond flavor, these cake bites can be made by hand using just a whisk and a single bowl. We’re smitten.
18. Lemon-Raspberry Whoopie Pies
Whether you consider it a cookie, pie or cake is a moot point—it’s delicious any way you spin it.
19. Lemon-Berry Sheet-Pan Trifle
Trifles only sound stuffy and old-school. This modernized version is served right on the baking sheet, making it easy for everyone to dig in at once.
20. Blueberry, Blackberry and Raspberry Soufflés
Mastering the fine art of the soufflé is officially NBD, thanks to this foolproof recipe.
21. Strawberry Sponge Cake
Everyone will think you’re running a fancy French bakery out of your kitchen. (Not a bad idea, if you ask us.)
22. Strawberry, Cardamom and Pistachio Pavlova Bites
They’re small and light as air. Go ahead and have more than one.
23. Raspberry Choux Puffs
Making the moving parts is slightly involved, but the end result—creamy, dreamy éclair-like pastry—is so worth it.
24. 3-Ingredient Japanese Cheesecake
The texture is light and fluffy, but the taste is just like New York-style cheesecake. You might even have the ingredients in your kitchen already.
25. Angel Food Cake
When three layers and homemade buttercream aren’t in the cards, make this “less is more” cake and let the fresh fruit garnish do the hard work.
26. Muffin-Tin Lemon Meringue Tarts
Sugar cookie crust, creamy lemon custard and soft meringue all baked up in a muffin tin—what’s not to love?
27. Angel Food Cupcakes
These cupcakes take 30 minutes to make from start to finish. Need we say more?
28. Strawberry Shortcake Skewers with Whipped Cream
On the first 60-degree day, we’re firing up the grill and making these sweet skewers.
29. Carrot Cake Doughnuts with Cream Cheese Glaze
Carrots for spring? Not so groundbreaking. Carrot doughnuts, on the other hand…
30. Peanut Butter Cream Pie with Raspberry Meringue
It’s the raspberry meringue for us.
31. Tie-Dye Sugar Cookies
Swap the heart cookie cutters for flowers, the pink food coloring for yellow, orange and green, and you’re in business.
32. 10-Minute Strawberry Cobbler for One
This one is for those nights when you don’t want to share.
33. 4-Ingredient Lemon Cookies
You had us at four ingredients (and again at ready in 15 minutes).
35. Lemon Curd with Whipped Cream
This unfussy, elegant dish can be refrigerated for two weeks and frozen even longer. Make-ahead dessert has a nice ring to it.
37. No-Bake Cheesecake with Raspberry Compote
No oven, no problem. The simple topping can be made with any type of berry; just adjust the sugar to taste.
38. Easy Cherry Skillet Cake
Swap the cherries for strawberries to make it spring-ready.
39. Pineapple Sheet Cake
The cake itself is just five ingredients. That means there’s no excuse to skip the luscious cream cheese frosting.
40. Birthday Cake Petit Fours
You don’t need a birthday to make these adorable bites. Just saying.
41. Pistachio Drop Cookies
The green color practically screams spring, and the brown butter glaze means you’ll have to eat at least two. We don’t make the rules.
42. Rhubarb Cobbler with Mint
Imagine a biscuit-based shortcake, only with all the flavor of a fruit pie. The fresh mint is the cherry on top.
43. Strawberry-Glazed Old-Fashioned Doughnuts
Just look at the color of that strawberry glaze and try to resist. We know you can’t.
45. Neapolitan Cookies
They’re matcha, vanilla and strawberry all in one. We like to save our favorite bite (strawberry) for last.
46. Roasted Strawberry Shortcake Shakes
The secret ingredient is white balsamic vinegar, which gives the berries a little oomph while they roast in the oven.
47. Lemon Crumb Cake
Hidden beneath the lemon crumb (!) are swoops and swirls of gorgeous homemade lemon curd.
48. Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
If this flavor combination doesn’t scream “warmer weather,” we don’t know what does.
49. Blackberry Lemon Bars
The magenta-colored filling is tangy, fruity and too pretty to pass up.
50. Mini Carrot Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Everything can be prepared a day or two ahead, making assembling—and devouring—these tiny treats even sweeter.
51. Lucky Charms Treats
If we’re being honest, there’s nothing particularly “spring” about Lucky Charms. But we feel compelled to make a batch of these sticky-sweet treats for St. Patrick’s Day, so we couldn’t skip ’em.
52. Passionfruit Pie with a Coconut Graham Cracker Crust
This tastes like a vacation in the best way possible.
53. Mini Coconut-Lime Tarts with Sugar-Soaked Strawberries
Coconut is rich and creamy; lime is tart and zippy. They’re the perfect pair.
54. Pistachio Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting
These cupcakes are softer and fluffier than a marshmallow, thanks to cake flour, egg whites and sour cream in the batter.
55. Banana Pudding Pie
The most difficult part is waiting for it to chill before you can dig in with a spoon.
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