Delicious Mother's Day Desserts Your Mom Will Love

Ngoc Minh Ngo
Satisfy your mom's (and everyone else's) sweet tooth on her special day. Treat her to one—or more—of these special desserts.
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Vanilla Sponge Cake with Strawberry-Meringue Buttercream

Ngoc Minh Ngo
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For the mom who loves strawberries and tall layer cakes, there's this light-as-air chiffon cake that has strawberries sandwiched between its layers, in its ethereal whipped frosting, and piled atop for decoration.

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Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

Bryan Gardner
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A double hit of fudgy flavor in this easy skillet cookie is sure to please any chocolate-loving mom. 

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Strawberry and Apricot Crisp with Pine-Nut Crumble

John Kernick
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In this crisp, the apricots hold their shape. The strawberries, in contrast, bake down into a thick, delicious sauce.

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Chocolate-Flecked Layer Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting

Chris Court
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Sophisticated yet easy to make, this tall, tender beauty is one of our favorite go-to special-occasion cakes. What saves the lush milk chocolate frosting from being cloying is the addition of tangy sour cream.

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Strawberries with Creme Fraiche and Sugar

Jonathan Lovekin
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Indulge Mom with one of the world’s great finger foods. The elements are thick creme fraiche, confectioners’ sugar, and the most fragrant, perfectly ripe strawberries you can find. Let her dip, sprinkle, and eat to her heart's content.

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Chocolate-Glazed Raspberry Cream Puffs

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These ethereal pastries are filled with raspberry-infused whipped cream and topped with the easiest chocolate glaze. They are sure to impress on their own but are also spectacular piled on a cake as in our Jam-Filled Cake with Chocolate Glaze.

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Mango-Coconut Cream Tart

Jonathan Lovekin
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Two whirls collide on our mango-coconut cream tart: squiggles of barely sweetened whipped cream and corkscrews of slightly tart mango. Underneath it all is a chewy coconut filling and a flaky pate brisee crust.

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Coffee Meringue-Ice Cream Cake

Jonathan Lovekin
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Store-bought ice cream is ramped up with almonds, ground coffee beans, and a little flaky salt, and is then sandwiched between coffee-swirled meringues to form this coffee meringue-ice cream cake. It's a cappuccino lover’s dream.

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Rhubarb Pie

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This classic rhubarb pie recipe will remind your mom of pies her mother used to make. For best results, make this pie the day before you plan to serve it. 

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Rhubarb-Raspberry Cheesecake Squares

Con Poulos
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A ruby-red gelee of rhubarb and raspberries tops the creamy filling and graham-cracker crust in this easy cheesecake. Serve it for dessert at your Mother's Day brunch.

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Raspberry-Almond Financiers

Victor Schrager
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These petits fours conceal a honeyed, cakey interior beneath a crisp, crackly surface embellished by hand with hearts of jam. They're perfect as a homemade gift for Mom or for serving to guests at a Mother's Day celebration.

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Coconut-Sugar Hummingbird Cake

Jonathan Lovekin
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Mom will be delighted and impressed when you serve this magnificent cake. It's moist and sweet thanks to fresh banana and pineapple but not as over-the-top sweet as some versions of this Southern classic. This recipe appears in our cookbook, "A New Way to Bake."

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Baked Alaska with Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Ice Cream

Nigel Cox
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Would you be a fool to place ice cream in a 500-degree oven? Not as long as it's bundled up in a thick layer of insulating meringue. The outside caramelizes, turning warm and crisp like a toasted marshmallow; the inside (chocolate cake layered with chocolate ice cream) remains brr-illiantly chilly.

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Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake

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A twist on the traditional rhubarb pies Mom loved growing up, this cake has a crumb "topping" that actually ends up on the bottom. Each bite has a surprisingly crunchy texture.

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Meyer Lemon Crepe Cake

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Endless layers of delicate crepes and creamy citrus curd are beautiful to behold and burst with the irresistible flavor of Meyer lemons, which are more fragrant and less acidic than other varieties.

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Mini Eclairs with Strawberries and Cream

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These airy eclairs are simple to make, thanks to choux (cream-puff) pastry, which can be mixed, piped, and frozen ahead, then baked on the day of your Mother's Day dinner or brunch. The ethereal whipped cream inside is infused with fresh vanilla bean. Macerating the strawberries with mint and a bit of sugar heightens the berries' sunny flavor. Artful pastry paper cradles each eclair for a decorative touch.

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Tipsy Affogato

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The marriage of robust coffee and sweet ice cream will have Mom and your Mother's Day guests spooning up every last drop.

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Mini Chocolate Souffles

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These airy chocolate souffles are made as individual portions. Pop them in the oven as you're finishing dinner, and they'll be perfectly timed for dessert.

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Chocolate-Peanut-Butter Tart

Jonathan Lovekin
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All it takes to create the marvelously marbleized look of this chocolate-peanut butter tart is a wooden skewer. It's used to swirl warm peanut butter atop chocolate ganache.

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Lemony Angel Food Cake

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Take Mom back to her childhood with this delicious recipe for lemony angel food cake. Ours has the same cloud-like texture as the traditional recipe but with an invigorating burst of lemon flavor, thanks to fresh juice and zest. Fluffy citrus cream frosting and pretty candied-lemon "daffodils" make it even more memorable.

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Walnut Shortbread

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This traditional shortbread recipe is updated with the flavor and crunch of walnuts.

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Chocolate-Raspberry Tart

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Satisfy Mom's sweet tooth with this simple, decadent tart that will keep overnight in the refrigerator. Top with raspberries just before serving and try it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

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