61 Easter Desserts, Each One Better Than a Chocolate Egg
Choosing the right Easter dessert (or Easter desserts—nobody said you had to stick to just one) can be a challenge. You could go the classic route with coconut or carrot cake or cap your Easter dinner with something more contemporary, like a burnt sweet potato cheesecake. Or maybe you’ve been snacking on jelly beans and marshmallow bunnies from your Easter basket all day and want to continue the candy train with a chocolate-egg-inspired tart.
Below you’ll find an array of Easter dessert ideas for any celebration. If it’s light work you’re after, there are plenty of no-bake options, plus easy cake and cookie recipes. For those eager to take on a baking project, we have fluffy homemade honey buns, a multilayered chocolate-hazelnut showstopper, and an Italian lemon tart to star on your brunch spread. Scroll down for all the sweet, delicious Easter treats.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne2/61Marjolaine
Reminiscent of a candy bar, this cake, made with nutty meringue, rich chocolate ganache, and vanilla and hazelnut buttercreams, is perfect for special occasions.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne7/61Capirotada
Capirotada is a classic Mexican bread pudding usually served during Lent. This version combines raisins, nuts, coconut, and bananas in a sweet custard with torn bolillo rolls. Serve it as a sweet dish for Easter brunch.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Lillian Chou8/61Banana Pudding Cheesecake Bars
The only thing better than banana pudding is banana pudding layered with cheesecake. Make these easy bars for your own Easter celebration or bring them to a friend’s, where you’ll be the most popular guest at the party, guaranteed.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Lillian Chou9/61Tahini Chiffon Cake With Burnt Honey Cream and Poached Rhubarb
This 6-inch cake is ideal for a small celebration. The poached rhubarb and honeyed cream are deliriously good accompaniments to earthy sesame, but plain whipped cream and macerated strawberries would also be excellent partners for this Easter dessert.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Kat Boytsova11/61Coconut Cream Pie
This version of the classic Easter recipe relies on a few new tricks: infusing the milk with toasted coconut and folding the whipped cream into the custard instead of just piling it on top. The result is the most ethereal coconut pie imaginable.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Lillian Chou12/61Golden Beet Cake With the Best Cream Cheese Frosting
Think carrot cake but with beets and a trio of spices (coriander, cardamom, and fennel seed) that lend themselves to spring baking. Plus, the dreamiest frosting of all.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne13/61Honey Buns
This jazzed-up version of classic honey buns has caramelized edges, pillowy-soft centers, and floral notes of honey, making it the perfect pastry for Easter brunch.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, food styling by Rhoda Boone18/61Our Favorite Key Lime Pie
A splash of lemon juice is uh…key to balancing the bracing acidity of fresh Key limes in our take on this classic recipe.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne19/61Chewy Flourless Pistachio Cookies
Crispy, chewy, and naturally gluten-free, these Easter cookies get their vibrant color from pistachios.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Erika Joyce20/61Coconut-Cardamom French Toast With Raspberry-Rhubarb Compote
Photo by Tara Fisher21/61Toasted Marshmallow Cupcakes
These Easter cupcakes are filled with a dark chocolate ganache and topped with a squishy toasted marshmallow topping. If you can’t find digestive biscuits, graham crackers work just as well.
Photo by Andrew Purcell, Prop Styling by Paige Hicks, Food Styling by Carrie Purcell22/61Easter Egg Cake With Strawberry Frosting
One of our favorite Easter cake ideas, the malted milk powder in the cake batter gives the sponge rich flavor and creaminess. The pastel-pink Swiss buttercream is flavored with roasted strawberries, and the white chocolate nest on top couldn’t be cuter.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton24/61Basque-Style Sweet Potato Cheesecake
This subtly spiced, sweet potato-based marvel borrows from the Basque cheesecake tradition. It’s baked until its exterior is a deep copper, with a pale, tender interior.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton25/61Tre Latte Olive Oil Cake
This Italian-influenced tres-leches-meets-olive-oil-cake has a lemony light-as-air chiffon base that soaks up an avalanche of sweet milk.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne26/61Banoffee Pie
This recipe from The British Cookbook by Ben Mervis features a digestive biscuit crust, condensed milk caramel, and freshly sliced bananas.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by M. Pearl Jones27/61Grated Shortbread Bars With Rose Jam
These delicate-but-chewy cookies are made with a shortbread dough that you freeze and then grate into the pan, which gives them a very light and crumbly texture. If you can’t find rose petal jam, substitute raspberry gilded with a splash of rose water.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell28/61Swirl Spice Cake
This is not your everyday snacking cake. A fragrant mixture of dried orange peel, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel, and ground coffee is swirled through the batter, leaving you with a deeply flavored dessert.
29/61Chocolate “Creme Egg” Tart
Is it an Easter celebration without a Cadbury egg–inspired dessert? This elegant tart encapsulates the flavor of the beloved Easter candy, making it a crowd favorite.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Kate Buckens30/61East 62nd Street Lemon Cake
We love Bundt cake recipes for their ease and effortless beauty. This one has the zest of two lemons in the batter and a lemon glaze on top. It’d be a bright and refreshing end to any Easter dinner.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Olivia Mack Anderson31/61Poppy Seed and Pecan Strudel
It’s not a Ukrainian Easter celebration without makoviy rulet, a poppy-seed-and-nut roll. Here, cookbook author and Epi contributor Olia Hercules simplifies the process using store-bought phyllo instead of the traditional yeast dough.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Nathaniel James, Food Styling by Simon Andrews32/61Chocolate Mousse
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Michelle Gatton33/61Pistachio-Rose Shortbread Squares
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Bill Clark35/61Berry Cream Cheese Cake
No time for a layer cake? Not to worry. This one-bowl, one-pan recipe comes together quickly and gets richness from dollops of cream cheese spread throughout the cake.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Judy Kim36/61Banana Pudding Custard Pie
Don’t feel like making meringue? This pie would be just as delicious topped with whipped cream.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Kat Boytsova38/61Coconut Custard and Rhubarb Tart
This spring-ready tart is made with a macaroon-inspired crust filled with creamy coconut custard. A syrupy rhubarb compote makes the elegant dessert pretty in pink.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Michelle Gatton39/61Classic Crème Brûlée
Sure, you can caramelize sugar for your crème brûlée under a broiler, but it’s not as effective (or fun!) as using a kitchen torch. We prefer turbinado sugar for the topping, because it melts easily and forms a crisp, easily shattered cover.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton40/61Bibingkang Cassava (Cassava Cake)
This chewy Filipino dessert, made with frozen grated cassava and coconut milk, boasts a luscious sweetened condensed milk topping.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks41/61Pecan-Orange Baklava Pie
Layer flaky, buttered phyllo with cinnamon-spiced pecans, then brush the baked tart with a fragrant honey-bourbon syrup before cutting it into Easter candy–size pieces.
Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Susan Spungen42/61Cardamom-Pistachio Carrot Cake
Inspired by South Asian gajjar ka halwa, this spin on carrot cake has warm notes of cardamom and gets crunch from pistachios. The finishing touch? A vibrant orange glaze made from carrot juice.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, food styling by Anna Stockwell44/61Flourless Pistachio Cake With Strawberry Meringue
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Katherine Sacks45/61Lemon-Blueberry Poke Cake
Easter surprises can go beyond candy eggs: Slice into this lemony poke cake, and you’ll be greeted with bold stripes of bright blueberry filling.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Rhoda Boone48/61One-Bowl Milk Chocolate Cake With Chocolate-Caramel Frosting
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Alex Brannian, Food Styling by Grace Parisi49/61Rustic Lemon Tart (Torta Della Nonna al Limone) With Pine Nut Lace Cookies
Photo by Chelsea Kyle50/61Almond-Apricot Food Processor Cake
Thanks to the food processor, this tender cake is a breeze to whip up. A combo of puréed and chopped apricots in the batter ensures bright, springy flavor in every bite.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, prop styling by Brian Heiser, food styling by Rhoda Boone51/61Coconut Milk Custard With Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Food Styling by Anna Stockwell54/61Strawberry Shortcake With Thyme and Whipped Cream
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton55/61Crunchy, Creamy Key Lime Pie Bites on Ice Cream
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Bill Clark57/61Pear and Hazelnut Frangipane Tart
Finish an elegant Easter meal with a delicate pear-frangipane tart. Though it sounds pretty fancy, frangipane (a nut-based custard) is actually quite easy to make. Top it with the sliced fruit of your choice.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Beatrice Chastka, Food Styling by Olivia Mack Anderson60/61Monkey Bread
A super-speedy bread dough—which comes together in the food processor—forms the base for this sticky, chai-spiced, eminently-sharable Easter dessert. It’s a perfect choice for anyone who has little hands willing to help out in the kitchen.
Photo by Chelsea Kyle, Prop Styling by Astrid Chastka, Food Styling by Olivia Mack Anderson61/61Classic Carrot-Coconut Cake
