Our Best Easter Dessert Recipes

By The editors of MidwestLiving.com
Updated March 03, 2021
Credit: Greg Luna

Family and guests will love these Easter dessert recipes including Easter cakes, cupcakes, cookies and pies.

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Carrot-Spice Cake with Coconut-Pecan Filling

Credit: Greg Luna
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This recipe kicks carrot cake to elegant new heights. Tender layers of carrot-tinted spice cake are sandwiched with a luscious coconut-pecan filling—and it's all covered in swirls of classic cream cheese frosting. It's an event to make (plan for some dish-washing), but well worth the effort. To spread the work over two days, make the carrot puree and start the Coconut-Pecan Fluff Filling on Day 1 and let them chill overnight. Then finish it all off on Day 2.

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Double-Malted Easter Snack Mix

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Malted milk powder and chopped malted Easter egg candies give this festive sweet-and-salty springtime snack mix a double hit of malt-shop flavor.

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Strawberry Charlotte

Credit: Blaine Moats
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This old-fashioned cake holds up to slicing after 6 hours, but the cookies soften more with a longer rest, making it a make-ahead dream.

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Cutie-Pie Carrot Cake

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Cream cheese frosting is always the answer, especially when it's on a 6-inch cake that's perfectly sized for life's celebrations.

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Prettier by the pound

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

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Sunny-Side Up Pavlovas

Credit: Cameron Sadeghpour
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Perfect farm-fresh eggs are the inspiration for these crisp, mini meringues topped with cream and lemon curd. Serve au naturel or scatter them with fresh mint leaves, if you like.

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Carrot and Honey Upside-Down Minis

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Sweetly vying for a spot on your Easter brunch table, these cinnamony whole-wheat cakes bake over nests of glazed carrots. Serve warm with extra honey for drizzling.

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Lemon Curd Tart

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"The lemon curd is one of our favorite workhorses," says Patrick Groth of Incredibly Delicious in Springfield, Illinois. "My mother, who has worked for us for the last 16 years, is the only one who makes it. Hers is perfect, tart and smooth."

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Vanilla Bean Crepe Cake

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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.

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Easter Egg Cookies

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Get creative with your cookie-making for Easter! Try piping your designs with our Easter Egg Cookies recipe.

Wheat grass makes a cozy resting spot for spring cookies. Look for it in the produce section of major supermarkets, or check at large health food stores.

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Raspberry Cream Tart

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

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Peach Cordial Mini Bundt Cakes

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The memory of a childhood orchard trip inspired Melinsa Murphey of Olathe, Kansas, to create this recipe. The cakes are moist and sweet and quite generously proportioned, so you may want to serve a half-cake to each person (or bake them in muffin cups instead).

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Pistachio Pavlova with Fresh Berries

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Mildly nutty meringue cradles fresh berries in this classic dessert named for a ballerina. Use your favorite nut to flavor the meringue. Our Test Kitchen recommends pistachios, almonds or pecans. Any fruit works: blueberries, kiwi, bananas.

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Baby Citrus Cheesecakes

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These cupcake-size treats are a fantastically simple alternative to a full-size cheesecake. You could also garnish them with fresh raspberries or blueberries.

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Tres Leches Cake

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A Mexican standard and guaranteed backyard crowd-pleaser, our brown-sugar sheet cake is soaked in milky syrup, chilled, then topped with whipped cream and berries.

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Lemon Curd and Shortbread

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Make eating cookies an interactive experience by serving them alongside a jar of sweet-tart homemade lemon curd. The recipes come from Andy Schudlich of Epicure Catering and Cherry Basket Farm in Michigan.

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Kansas Sunflower Cupcakes

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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.

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Best Carrot-Pineapple Cake

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Cream cheese frosting crowns a rich, moist and nutty carrot cake. Cinnamon and allspice add just the right spiciness.

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Triple Lemon Pie

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This pie earns its triple-lemon name from lemon zest, lemon juice and lemon extract. (You can add lemon slices and whipped cream on top of the baked pie for even more lemony goodness.) A store-bought piecrust speeds prep time.

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Apricot Stack Cake

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Layering flapjack-like cakes in a springform pan is an easy way to prep this one-of-a-kind dessert. Hints of lime and honey enhance sweet, juicy apricots. Freshly whipped cream tops this potluck star.

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Chocolate Pavlova

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

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Peach Cake Roll

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Based on a recipe from Michigan Peach Sponsors, this cake roll is a flavor chameleon. Swirl in any ice cream you like, and top the cake with any complementary fruit.

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Strawberry-Chocolate Cake

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Do you love strawberries dipped in chocolate? This recipe puts the same flavor combination into a beautiful, easy-to-make layer cake.

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Apricot-Rosemary Streusel Bars

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A rich, fruity filling bakes in a rosemary-infused crust, then gets drizzled with a powdered sugar icing.

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Key Lime Coconut Cake with Marshmallow Frosting

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

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Best-Ever Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

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

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Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

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

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Lemon-Pecan Shortbread Cookies

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Irresistible tangy lemon and rich pecans flavor one of the easiest cookies around: buttery shortbread. Serve with a cool dish of ice cream in warm weather or a hot cup of tea when it's chilly outside.

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Coconut Cake

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This three-layer wonder stays extra moist thanks to butter and buttermilk. The blue-ribbon recipe is from Teresa Reese of Osceola, Nebraska.

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Lemon-Cream Cheese Pie

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This longtime reader-favorite recipe makes two pies; if you like, freeze one. To thaw, let the frozen pie stand in the fridge overnight.

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Lemon Drop Cupcakes

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Lemon liqueur and lemon zest flavor these cupcakes, while swirled lemon frosting adds an elegant topping. Finish with glazed lemon slices or crushed lemon drop candies.

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By The editors of MidwestLiving.com