Easter Dessert Recipes

Whether your Easter features tons of early-spring berries, lots of lemon or frosted cakes galore, we have the decadent desserts to sweeten your celebration.

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Florence's Orange Cake

This dense cake gets its vibrant flavor and color from fresh orange zest and a tangy orange glace drizzle.

Get the Recipe: Florence's Orange Cake

No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Fresh, sweet berries and creamy cheesecake are layered on top of a rich graham cracker crust — no baking required!

Get the Recipe: No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Carrot Cake

Alton Brown's carrot cake is rich and moist with a dense quick-bread-like texture.

Get the Recipe: Carrot Cake

Graham Cracker Toffee

Need an Easter treat in a hurry? Hop to it with this easy take on toffee that uses just four ingredients.

Get the Recipe: Graham Cracker Toffee

Mascarpone Mini Cupcakes With Strawberry Glaze

Creamy mascarpone cheese keeps Giada's bite-sized cupcakes moist and fluffy, and it serves as a perfect complement to her sweet strawberry glaze topping.

Get the Recipe: Mascarpone Mini Cupcakes with Strawberry Glaze

Easter Pie

Giada’s take on the age-old Italian Easter tradition – a rice and ricotta pie – is a breeze to prepare, thanks to phyllo dough sheets that layer the pie dish and are rustically draped across the top.

Get the Recipe: Easter Pie

Strawberry Trifles

Serve individual trifles of amaretto-soaked pound cake, whipped cream and balsamic-tossed strawberries for the perfect finish to your holiday meal.

Get the Recipe: Individual Strawberry Trifles

Lemon Meringue Pie

Alton keeps it simple with his fresh, zesty lemon curd filling and three-ingredient meringue. The flaky, buttery short crust is perfect for bringing these flavors together.

Carrot Cake Cookies

Fill these fluffy carrot cookies with a lemon-flavored cream cheese frosting for a fun twist on the staple holiday cake.

Get the Recipe: Carrot Cake Cookies

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

Few desserts signal the start of spring like a rhubarb-strawberry concoction. The humblest of the lot – a juicy low-maintenance crisp – perfectly balances the sweet-tart spectrum with its chunks of fruit and crispy caramelized oat topping.

Get the Recipe: Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

Carrot Cupcakes

Adding a bit of orange and lemon zest to the cream cheese icing brings out the bright, spiced flavors of these incredibly moist carrot cupcakes.

Get the Recipe: Carrot Cupcakes

Sour Cream Cheesecake

Sour cream adds even richer flavor to Alton's cheesecake, which is baked in a water bath for an evenly moist end result.

Get the Recipe: Sour Cream Cheesecake

Pineapple Rightside-Up Cake with Fresh Thyme

Preserve the best part of a pineapple upside-down cake – the gooey caramelized topping – without the separation-from-the-pan anxiety by baking individual-sized cakes in Mason jars. The topping is actually at the bottom of the jar, making these rightside-up cakes, but they are equally as beautiful served with a dollop of cream on top.

Get the Recipe: Pineapple Rightside-Up Cake with Fresh Thyme

Easter Candy Bark

Why wait until after Easter’s over to put all that colorful candy to creative leftover use? Nestled in a thick white chocolate bark, a rainbow of pastel Peeps, chocolates and jelly candies never looked so festive (or tasted so sweet).

Get the Recipe: Easter Candy Bark

Beatty's Chocolate Cake

 

Ina Garten's chocolate cake has a subtle mocha flavor thanks to the cup of freshly brewed coffee in the batter, but our favorite part of this recipe is the thick chocolate buttercream icing on the top of the cake and between its layers.

 

Get the Recipe: Beatty's Chocolate Cake

Lemon Bars

Is it any surprise that the Barefoot Contessa's lemon bar recipe is just a bit sweeter and richer than the average?

Get the Recipe: Lemon Bars

Chocolate Caramel Monkey Bread Muffins

To give monkey bread a more crowd-friendly twist (read: sparing your floors of sugary-gooey residue), Zoe Francois bakes individual-sized monkey bread muffins with layers of chocolate and caramel. She doesn’t abandon the pull-apart notion entirely, though – each portion contains four little biscuits, ready for sticky-fingered eating.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate Caramel Monkey Bread Muffins

Lemon Madeleines

Chuck's delicate madeleines are made even more indulgent when dipped in a tangy lemon glaze.

Get the Recipe: Lemon Madeleines

Lemon Pound Cake

This rich and tangy pound cake makes for a refreshing dessert on an ordinary weeknight or, when placed on a pretty pedestal stand, a perfect holiday dessert.

Get the Recipe: Lemon Pound Cake

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake With Hawaiian Sea Salt

This classic dessert recipe celebrates the beginning of pineapple season with its beautiful exposed-fruit topping. Pink Hawaiian sea salt adds a unique, briny touch when sprinkled over the finished cake.

Get the Recipe: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with Hawaiian Sea Salt

Lemon-Lime Mousse

The best thing about these sweet-tart mousse parfaits that taste like the inside of a Key lime pie? Most of the work can be done a couple days in advance, so simply fold in egg whites and cream, then top with macerated berries before serving.

Get the Recipe: Lemon-Lime Mousse

A Gooey, Decadent Chocolate Cake

Tyler’s chocolate cake gets its gooey decadence from a dense chocolate-chip buttercream frosting and a drizzle of raspberry liqueur.

Get the Recipe: A Gooey, Decadent Chocolate Cake

Lemon Cupcakes

Top light lemon cupcakes with a sweet-tart lemon butter icing for a refreshing, tangy dessert.

Get the Recipe: Lemon Cupcakes

Carrot Cake

Orange cream cheese frosting gives this dessert citrus fragrance, but it's the moist, rich, raisin- and walnut-studded carrot cake that counts.

Get the Recipe: Carrot Cake

Petal Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream Frosting

Bring a bright burst of color to your Easter dessert spread with these sweet cupcakes crowned with chocolate petals.

Get the Recipe: Petal Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream Frosting

Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie With Almond Crumb Topping

Rhubbard Strawberry Pie with a crunchy almond topping in a red and white dish alongside two forks on three stacked plates

Lemon Ricotta Granita

Prepare this simple, refreshing granita a few days in advance of the holiday – with only six ingredients. Top with strands of lemon zest to add a pop of color and to give the bowls elegant, guest-ready presentation.

Get the Recipe: Lemon Ricotta Granita