23 Ideas for Easter Dessert

By Food & Wine and Bridget Hallinan
Updated April 07, 2020
Credit: © Eva Kolenko
Carrot cakes are certainly popular for Easter, and we have a few different spins you can try, from carrot and orange cake with sour cream glaze to a cocoa-carrot cake with a touch of chocolate. But we’ve also gathered up more spring desserts for your table, including strawberry-buttermilk cobbler and rhubarb tart. Read on for those recipes and more Easter dessert ideas.

Related: More Easter Ideas
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Raspberry Tart with a Pistachio Crust

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This raspberry tart has a creamy filling and a pistachio-studded crust. If you want to prepare it ahead of time, the pastry cream can be refrigerated for three days and the tart shell can be stored at room temperature for two days.

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Lemon Upside-Down Cake

Credit: © Thomas Heinser
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Cal Peternell likes teaching recipes that are extremely versatile, like this one. The cake is wonderful when it’s made with almost any type of fruit, from figs and blood oranges to pineapple. Peternell usually uses sweet Meyer lemons from his neighbor’s tree. Regular lemons are tasty too and add a bitter note that’s a lovely contrast to the gooey brown-sugar topping.

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Apricot, Almond and Brown Butter Tart

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This dried-apricot tart is crispy and tender, tangy and sweet all at the same time. The recipe also works with fresh apricots; just omit the poaching step.

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Lemon-Curd Cakes with Poppy Seeds

Credit: © John Kernick
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“The lemon—poppy seed combo is classic,” says Vinny Dotolo. “When I was a kid, I ate lemon—poppy seed muffins for breakfast and with ice cream for dessert.” Now he turns the pairing into lovely cakes: They have a tender cakey layer on the bottom, a luscious curd-like layer on top and poppy-seed crème fraîche to finish the whole thing off.

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Rhubarb-Cheese Strudel with Vanilla Sauce

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Strudel is a classic Austrian pastry made by wrapping layers of paper-thin dough around a variety of fillings. This simplified version, made with store-bought phyllo dough, features a cheesecake-like mixture and tangy rhubarb compote. A crème anglaise served alongside makes it extra-decadent.

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Lemon-Citrus Pound Cake

Credit: David Malosh
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Grapefruit juice in the pound cake and lemon juice in the glaze give this sweet, tender cake an especially citrusy taste. Be sure to use cake flour rather than self-rising to ensure a feather-light texture.

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Strawberry Cream Puffs

Credit: © Stephanie Foley
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A sweet glaze made with strawberry preserves and confectioners’ sugar is the finishing touch for these lovely cream puffs.

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Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta with Honey-Glazed Apricots

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Kate Neumann describes this cool, delicate dessert as “just fruit and cream, barely sweetened. It has the qualities of custard without the egginess. Greek yogurt makes it wonderfully tangy.” She tops the panna cotta with dried apricots that she’s plumped in wine and honey, often adding a scattering of crunchy, salty toasted almonds or pistachios.

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Almond, Elderflower and Lime Travel Cakes

Credit: © Kate Mathis
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Inspired by French travel cakes (small sweets meant for bringing to parties, picnics and other events), William Werner created these miniature desserts. He calls them “gussied-up pound cakes.”

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Classic Carrot Cake with Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting

Credit: Tina Rupp
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Jodi Elliot’s take on the classic carrot cake is moist and not too sweet.

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Honey Cake with Citrus Frosting

Credit: John Kernick
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This tender, light honey cake, laced with hints of coffee and orange juice, is perfect with a cup of tea.

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Tiramisu Icebox Pie

Credit: Eric Wolfinger
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If you’d prefer a fruit-free dessert, this icebox pie from pastry chef Mathew Rice includes a dense coffee mousse and salty-sweet coffee crunchies.

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Pear Crostata

Credit: Greg Dupree
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Firm pears are the key to this impressive dessert; look for a thin layer of green under the skin as you peel them. Stir the caramel and pear mixture gently with a wooden spoon to preserve the shape of the pear slices.

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Cocoa-Carrot Cake with Cocoa Crumble

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William Werner likes carrot cake but was curious to experiment with the classic. So he added cocoa to the batter, resulting in this moist loaf with a chocolaty crumb topping.

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Lemon Loaf Cakes with Poached Rhubarb

Credit: © John Kernick
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These moist, lemony cakes are the quintessential spring dessert, but you can omit the rhubarb and simply serve them on their own or with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

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Carrot and Orange Cake with Sour Cream Glaze

Credit: Antonis Achilleos
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Nik Sharma’s carrot-and-orange cake with sour cream glaze celebrates the way oranges trigger our senses—the bright sweetness of the juicy oranges marries perfectly with the equally orange spring carrots.

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Strawberry-Buttermilk Cobbler

Credit: Eva Kolenko
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A mixture of spelt and almond flours, gently combined with cold butter and creamy buttermilk, creates tender, fluffy biscuits that cover this juicy strawberry cobbler filling.

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Strawberry-Honey Cake with Sour Whipped Cream

Credit: © Eva Kolenko
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This floral, honey-inflected strawberry cake from Eli Dahlin, the chef at Dame in Portland, Oregon, is his fruity take on a sticky toffee pudding.

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Rhubarb Tart

Credit: © Andrew Montgomery
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Spring rhubarb is wonderfully pink and tender, so you can pile the uncooked stalks straight into a pastry case with a little brown sugar before putting it in the oven. The sugar caramelizes to give an almost toffeelike flavor. Make it the day before so that the flavors have a chance to soak into the pastry, or eat it immediately. Either way, it goes well with cream, custard or ice cream.

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Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

Credit: Abby Hocking
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This Lemon Meringue Cheesecake brings together a crisp graham cracker crust, a luscious lemon-mascarpone filling, and loads of pillowy Italian meringue.

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Gluten-Free Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Credit: © Emily Farris
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These dense, gluten-free carrot cake cupcakes are topped with an easy cream cheese frosting and can be made up to two days in advance.

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Four-Layer Coconut Cake

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Coconut oil and toasted ground coconut are baked into the batter of this beautiful cake, which is then layered with bittersweet marmalade and fluffy white frosting.

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Strawberry and Mascarpone Trifles with Riesling Syrup

Credit: © JAMES BAIGRIE
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These elegant trifles come together in just 25 minutes.

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By Food & Wine and Bridget Hallinan