29 Insanely Decadent Desserts You Should Probably Only Make Once Every 4 Years
Celebrate Leap Day with super-rich desserts.
Leap Day only happens once every four years, so use it as an opportunity to make something so crazy-indulgent that you’ll be totally satisfied until the next Leap Day rolls around. Here, our best, butteriest, chocolatiest, most frosting-packed dessert recipes to make on Leap Day.
1. Chocolate Blackout Cake
Pastry star Gale Gand layers her phenomenal, high-rising cake with an intensely chocolaty custard and coats it with cake crumbs.
2. Once-A-Year Cheesecake Ice Cream
With cream cheese, sour cream and heavy cream, this is perhaps the most decadent ice cream you can make.
Related: 100 Best Recipes Ever: Desserts
3. Salted Caramel Pie
Yup, that whole upper layer is whipped cream.
4. Butterscotch Sticky Buns
Described by its creator as "over-the-top, sticky, gooey goodness."
5. Peanut Butter Pound Cake S'mores
No explanation needed.
6. Chocolate-Peanut Butter Brownie Banana Splits
Caramelize your bananas for better splits.
7. Chocolate-Caramel Sandwich Cookies
These are ACTUALLY better than Oreos.
8. Hazelnut, Nutella and Caramel Ice Cream Sandwiches
Bonus: Alain Ducasse invented these things.
9. Hazelnut-and-Chocolate Meringue Cake
The pastry chef who created this gorgeous thing calls it "the beast."
10. Miracle Peanut Butter Crunch
When the Test Kitchen was working on this recipe, F&W staff gained many pounds.
11. Caramel-Croissant Pudding
Think bread pudding—only so much more luxurious.
12. Chocolate Truffle Layer Cake
This super-fudgy cake is layered with dark chocolate and white chocolate ganache.
13. Chocolate-Glazed Boston Cream Whoopie Pies
Go ahead, give these pies a double-hit of chocolate glaze.
If your mom’s a seafood-lover, there’s really no excuse not to take a roadtrip to Boston. The list of fantastic restaurants is nearly endless, with B&G Oysters, Eastern Standard Kitchen & Drinks, Via Matta, Hungry Mother, Toro, and so many more options waiting for you. Hoping to impress with something a little fancier? Try Blue Ginger, Craigie on Main, or Oleana—all will leave your mom feeling truly celebrated and loved. With all the awesome deals on hotels being offered right now, you really have no excuse not to make the trek.
14. Chocolate-Cookie Crunch Trifle
Any cookie will do in this messy, gooey dessert.
15. Banoffee Pie
Banana plus toffee equals banoffee!
16. Caramel Cream Pie with Crispy Rice Topping
Humble ingredients like puffed rice cereal and graham crackers are the core of this surprisingly luxe dessert.
17. Chocolate Cream Squares
This super-rich dessert contains chocolate whipped cream between layers of bittersweet chocolate cake topped with a fudgy chocolate glaze.
18. Chocolate Pots
Chef Jamie Oliver likes to serve this silky dessert in espresso cups. But it’s Leap Day, so go crazy and opt for a full-sized coffee cup instead.
19. Jumbo Brownies
If you love chocolate, butter and walnuts, you’ll love these magnificent brownies.
20. Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding with Espresso Whipped Cream
Doughnut bread pudding? It doesn’t get better.
21. Brownie Cake Sundaes with Pecan-Ice Cream Balls
Instead of making his brownies in one big pan, Atlanta chef Ford Fry bakes them in muffin cups, so each one has the perfect ratio of crusty outside to moist, fudgy interior.
22. Double Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Filling
These tender chocolate cupcakes have a gooey, creamy, salty peanut butter filling.
23. Chocolate-Peanut Butter Swiss Rolls
Fudgy cake, fluffy peanut butter filling and a chocolate ganache coating combine to form the perfect sweet indulgence from pastry.
24. Seven-Layer Dobos Torte
When chef Jonathon Sawyer first added this dessert to the menu at Greenhouse Tavern, the old ladies of Cleveland rejoiced.
25. Giant Black-and-White Layer Cake
This is a giant, crowd-pleasing cake.
26. Sacher Torte
An Austrian classic that anyone will love.
27. Icebox Chocolate Cheesecake
Here’s a great recipe for a cheater’s cheesecake.
28. Chocolate-Buttermilk Snack Cakes
In her update of the classic chocolate Hostess cupcake, Chicago pastry chef Mindy Segal uses mascarpone in the rich and creamy filling.
29. Puff Au Chocolat
This dessert gets a double-dose of chocolate from both dark- and milk-chocolate ganache.