19 Easter Desserts for a Sweet Springtime Celebration

Sweeten your special occasion with these impressive desserts.

By
Genevieve Yam
Genevieve Yam headshot
Genevieve Yam
Senior Editor
After graduating from the International Culinary Center, Genevieve cooked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Per Se. Prior to joining Serious Eats, she was an editor at Epicurious. She grew up between Toronto and Hong Kong and is a graduate of the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She currently lives in New York with her husband and two cats.
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The Serious Eats Team
The Serious Eats Team
At Serious Eats, we’re a team of self-proclaimed food nerds who are ever-curious about the “why” behind cooking. The staff has worked in restaurants, test kitchens, bakeries, and other notable publications, bringing extensive culinary and editorial expertise to the table.
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Published April 09, 2025
Overhead view of Lemon Tart

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Between all the Cadbury eggs, chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and marshmallow Peeps, Easter offers no shortage of opportunities for eating sweets. But a fancy holiday meal may call for a homemade dessert that's a little nicer: You could go all-out with a layer cake, take it easy with a batch of cookies, or even go the no-bake route. Below, you'll find plenty of impressive desserts—including a tender brown butter carrot cake, stunning lemon tart, and delicate panna cotta—that will sweeten any Easter or springtime celebration.

  • Brown Butter Carrot Cake

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    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Nutty brown butter highlights the natural sweetness of carrots and the earthiness of the whole wheat flour. Spread the fluffy layers with a tangy cream cheese buttercream frosting, and for an extra-special touch, top the whole creation off with decorative (but edible!) roses made from twisted carrot curls.

  • Effortless Angel Food Cake

    Vicky Wasik

    This cloud-like angel food cake is shockingly easy to prepare: All you have to do whip up egg whites, sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and salt for a fluffy meringue, gently fold in cake flour, then bake. Cooling the cake upside down allows gravity to stretch—rather than compress—the cake's tender crumb.

  • Lemon Meringue Icebox Cake

    Overhead angle of 2 slices of Lemon Meringue Icebox cake on a marble plate. In the top right corner, there is a spoon with a bite of lemon meringue pie on it

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Layers of sweet, tangy lemon curd and savory Ritz crackers come together in this no-bake dessert that evokes lemon meringue pie. Make it the night before you have a party, and your dessert will practically be done by the time you wake up.

  • Fresh Fruit Tart

    Overhead view of fruit tart

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Filled with luscious pastry cream and topped with glazed fruit, this fruit tart—a staple at French pâtisseries—makes for an impressive and celebratory dessert.

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  • Chocolate Cherry Layer Cake

    Vicky Wasik

    Inspired by the classic combination of cherries and chocolate, this rich cake features high-quality cocoa powder and just enough tart cherry juice to bring out the chocolate's fruity side. Plus: The frosting, a super-thick and fruity whipped cream made with freeze-dried cherries, takes just five minutes to make.

  • Lemon Tart

    Overhead view of Lemon Tart

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    This zesty lemon tart gets bold citrus flavor from both lemon juice and zest, while honey gives the filling a subtle floral note. Bonus: A simple pat-in-the-pan dough means there's no need to roll or chill the dough, making this an even easier dessert to whip up.

  • Eton Mess

    eton mess hero

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    With heaps of whipped cream, ripe berries, and crisp-tender meringues, this easy-to-assemble dessert is everything you want in a light dessert. Briefly macerating the strawberries with sugar draws out the fruit's juices, resulting in more flavorful fruit layers.

  • Sour Cream Pound Cake

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    Vicky Wasik

    Pound cake is a staple at many potluck family gatherings, and this one is as dense and buttery-soft as they get. Sour cream replaces a portion of the usual fat and eggs, providing lactose that results in a beautifully browned crust, while a combination of vanilla beans and extract produces a more nuanced vanilla flavor. Serve it plain, with ice cream, fresh fruit, or whipped cream.

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  • Dark Chocolate Easter Cookies

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    Vicky Wasik

    If you have more candy than you know what to do with come Easter, set a few handfuls aside for making these cookies. Thanks to Dutch-process cocoa, the chocolate dough mixes up dark as night and slightly bitter, making it perfect for balancing out the sweetness of the candy bits. Use whatever chocolate-friendly candy you have on hand—this recipe is especially great for using up those big, hollow chocolate bunnies that never seem to get eaten otherwise.

  • Sunny Lemon Bars

    Vicky Wasik

    These velvety, rich lemon bars get a double dose of citrus: Lemon zest flavors the tender crust, while juice brightens the curd. Making the tart curd with equal parts whole eggs and egg yolks results in a thick, creamy custard—no cornstarch required.

  • Double Strawberry Cake

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    Vicky Wasik

    This strawberry layer cake gets its pretty pink hue from a combination of fresh strawberry purée and powdered freeze-dried strawberries. Frost this light and fluffy cake with Swiss buttercream, strawberry whipped cream, or—our favorite—tangy cream cheese frosting.

  • Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie

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    Vicky Wasik

    Our version of a retro grasshopper pie incorporates Fernet Branca instead of crème de menthe for a bitter, herbaceous edge that tempers the dessert's sweetness. A bittersweet cocoa-nib fudge and crisp chocolate throughout the pie ensures crunch in every bite.

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  • Lemon Meltaways

    Vicky Wasik

    These sugar-dusted meltaways are almost impossibly delicate, and taste like a cross between lemon shortbread and cotton candy. Here, some of the flour that you'd find in a typical cookie dough gets replaced with powdered sugar and tapioca starch, giving the cookies their crumbly texture.

  • Light and Easy 5-Minute Fruit Mousse

    Nila Jones

    Desserts don't get much simpler than this refreshing fruit mousse: All you need are three ingredients, five minutes, and a food processor. Mixing an egg white with frozen fruit (any kind you'd like) and sugar turns what would otherwise be a plain fruit purée into a fluffy treat.

  • Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta

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    Vicky Wasik

    Creamy, delicate, and sophisticated, this panna cotta is delicious on its own or topped with fresh or lightly macerated fruit. For an aromatic and deeply flavored pudding, steep hot cream with Tahitian vanilla beans for at least an hour and up to 24 hours. No vanilla beans? Consider using lemon zest, cinnamon sticks, lavender, or fresh ginger for a different flavor profile.

  • Cranachan (Scottish Whipped Cream With Whisky, Raspberries, and Toasted Oats)

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    Vicky Wasik

    A traditional Scottish dessert that's delicious, pretty, and easy, cranachan consists of raspberries layered with toasted oats, honey, and whipped cream spiked with Scotch. Soaking the oats in the cream you'll whip later helps tenderize them so they turn crisp—not tough—when toasted in the oven. An optional addition of mascarpone in the whipped cream makes the final product richer and more mousse-like.

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  • No-Bake Cookies With Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Chewy Oats

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    Vicky Wasik

    These chewy oatmeal cookies aren't really cookies at all: Rather, they're a type of creamy peanut butter fudge. Made by boiling sugar, butter, milk, and cocoa, then incorporating peanut butter and rolled oats, these fudgy bites are pleasantly salty-sweet and rich, with a flavor that evokes a Reese's cup.

  • Meringue Nests With Orange Curd Cream and Easter Eggs

    Nila Jones

    In this delightful spring treat, each delicate meringue "nest" holds a swirl of tangy, bright orange curd and cradles a pair of store-bought candy-covered chocolate eggs. The nests and curd can both be made several days ahead of time—just don't combine them until right before serving, lest you enjoy soggy meringues.

  • No-Bake Chocolate-Nutella Cheesecake

    Nila Jones

    These parfait-style individual desserts look highly sophisticated, but they're a snap to make. Just layer an Oreo crumb crust, dark chocolate and Nutella-cheesecake fillings, and homemade whipped cream in a little glass, then sprinkle on more crushed Oreos and toasted hazelnuts—no baking necessary.

April 2019

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