Sparkling Spring Dessert Recipes

Our double-decker version of a Wisconsin supper club classic stacks two semisoft meringue "cake" layers, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and fruit. You can make the whipped cream and meringue layers 24 hours ahead (tightly cover the latter). But wait to assemble the torte until right before serving--and invite plenty of friends. It's a quick-to-melt, eat-it-all-at-once kind of dessert.

Schaum Torte

The malted whipped cream in these fruity cream puffs is a revelation--make it alone to top pies, sundaes or hot cocoa, and be sure to lick the beaters!

Malted Strawberry Cream Puffs

St. Louis pastry chef Nathaniel Reid gives pound cake a chic, patisserie-style makeover. Your trusty loaf pan never had it so good.

Double Chocolate Pound Cake

Candied Lemon Pound Cake

Earl Grey and Raspberry Pound Cake

Yogurt Pound Cake with Apricots and Coconut

Hazelnut and Milk Chocolate Pound Cake

Strawberry-rhubarb pie filling gets a touch of zesty ginger flavor, then goes into a slice-and-bake crust.

Best-Ever Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Billowy Meringue Frosting tops a moist and buttery lime-flecked cake whose subtle coconut flavor comes from canned cream of coconut.

Key Lime Coconut Cake with Marshmallow Frosting

Minneapolis-based Instagram star and pro baker Zoe Francois shared this recipe for a gorgeously shaped pavlova that rises higher than all the competition. It's filled with whipped cream, lemon curd, raspberries and—if you are feeling tropical and adventurous—passion fruit, too.

Towering Pavlova

These lemon bars are less sturdy and more lusciously creamy than their classic bake-sale cousins. You may want to eat them with a fork.

Puckery Lemon Bars

The family behind Illinois' Rendleman Orchards has amassed some great peach recipes in 135 years of growing peaches. This cake is no exception. Peach slices and brown sugar form a moist base for the tender, square cake--and when flipped over, that base becomes the topping.

Peach Upside-Down Cake

Peanut butter lovers, rejoice. This pie is so good, and it has a twist: Melba toast replaces graham cracker crumbs for a crisp, salty foil to the decadent filling.

Peanut Butter Chiffon Pie

In all our years of testing, we've rarely found a cookie recipe as crazy-simple as this reliable crowd-pleaser. These cookies taste great au naturel--but dipping the bottoms in chocolate adds easy decadence (and looks eye-catching on a cookie tray).

Coconut Macaroons

Michigan's fruit belt inspired our Cherry-Berry Rich Shortcakes. We played up the sweet cherries grown in the Great Lakes State, along with blueberries and raspberries. A shortcake biscuit base and sweetened whipped cream complete the dessert.

Cherry-Berry Rich Shortcakes

This beginner-level candy is made by spreading meringue thinly and baking it until shatteringly crisp (so much simpler than piping into kisses). Eat it plain, or sprinkle it on berries and whipped cream or an ice cream sundae, like shards of nutty toasted marshmallow.

Almond Meringue Bark

This creamy lemon pie, a longtime reader-favorite recipe, is a signature dessert at Al's Oasis, a family restaurant along the east bank of the Missouri River in Chamberlain, South Dakota (135 miles east of Rapid City).

Lemon-Cream Cheese Pie

Capturing all the flavors of an afternoon at the neighborhood coffeehouse (and using both yolks and whites, but in different ways), this glam tart features a biscotti-like crust made of almondy amaretti cookies, smooth espresso filling and “foam” made of soft meringue.

Cappuccino Meringue Tart

The math on these homey bars couldn’t be simpler: one pan, one ripe banana and less than one hour from start to finish.

Maple-Walnut Banana Bars

Fresh berries work best in this elegant dessert (frozen berries get too watery). Keep fruit refrigerated and dry, and plan to use it within a couple of days of purchase.

Raspberry Cream Tart

The creamy lemon puddings look and taste sophisticated but are actually quite simple to make, and they can even be prepared in advance.

Meyer Lemon Pots de Crème with Honeyed Kumquats

This crunch-topped cobbler calls for 3 cups of blueberries, but if you'd like a double-fruit version, reduce the blueberries to 2 cups and add 2 cups fresh or frozen tart cherries.

Berry Easy Cobbler

The Sunflower State's wheat crops and native state flower inspired our cupcakes. Frosting piped like petals turns the individual Kansas Sunflower Cupcakes into pretty treats. Wheat germ adds a hearty touch to the buttermilk-vanilla cakes.

Kansas Sunflower Cupcakes

Fresh fruit tops crispy-chewy meringue and whipped cream in this luscious dessert traditionally served at summer celebrations in New Zealand and Australia.

Chocolate Pavlova

Finely shredded lime peel and lime juice combine in this light, airy and easy-to-make dessert from Petersen's Pantry in Emporia, Kansas. The recipe gives instructions for an orange variation, too.

Kansas-Style Lime Pie

Layers of cheesecake, raspberry filling, almonds and coconut form dessert bars perfect for summer picnics and potlucks.

Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

Sweet and tart, these moist, powdered-sugar-topped dessert bars will disappear fast.

Luscious Lemon Bars

When did being vanilla become an insult? This stack of golden crepes and creamy mascarpone is simple, elegant and deceptively delicious. Supermarket crepes are larger than homemade ones, so if you use purchased, you'll need to make an extra half batch of filling, or just make a cake with fewer layers.

Vanilla Bean Crepe Cake

Strawberries and rhubarb flavored with ginger make an appealing combo in this dessert. Drizzle just before serving with Ginger Icing, if you like.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Bars

Dried cherries make oatmeal cookies even more memorable in this recipe from American Spoon Foods, which has locations in the Traverse City, Michigan, area. We like the cookies' crisp edges and chewy centers.

Oatmeal Cherry Cookies

The many colors of Kool-Aid, a Nebraska invention, give an array of choices for this angel food cake that starts with a mix. Pink lemonade Kool-Aid adds pastel prettiness and a delicate flavor to Tinted Angel Cake. The tropical punch version gives the cake flavor that's as intense as its color.

Tinted Angel Cake

Blend just four ingredients to create this easy sauce from a Wausau, Wisconsin, reader. Serve over fresh fruit such as raspberries, blueberries or strawberries.

Cool Cheesecake Sauce

Fresh raspberries, blackberries, strawberries or blueberries star in our Honey-Berry Frozen Yogurt Sundaes, which take only 15 minutes to make from start to finish.

Honey-Berry Yogurt Frozen Yogurt Sundaes