23 simple dessert recipes for Memorial Day (or all summer long)
After all the barbecues, burgers, beach trips, and backyard hangouts, what’s the best way to end Memorial Day weekend? With a sweet treat, of course. But not just any sweet treat — one that’s easy enough to put together in the hubbub of the big weekend; one that’s tasty and carefree enough to help you ease back into the most dreaded of Tuesdays.
These 23 simple dessert recipes fit the bill, for Memorial Day and, frankly, all summer long. Check ’em out and let us know if you give any a try.
Best Memorial Day dessert recipes
You know that old saying, “When there’s a will — plus a nine-inch cake pan, a whisk, and two rental house mixing bowls — there’s a way?” Yeah, that’s about this olive oil cake. True story: I once made it in a particularly sparse rental kitchen without any cup measurers, and it was still gone in 15 minutes.
Just when you needed another excuse to open more rosé, this sophisticated — yet wildly simple — dessert blows into town, and steals the show. It’s excellent topped with whipped cream, or you can swap in your favorite ice cream flavors. Oh, and save any leftover rosé syrup for cocktails.
3. One-Step, No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream
This brilliant Nigella Lawson recipe is basically magic: It yields creamy, airy ice cream with zero cooking, zero churning, and zero fussing. Your wand to wave? A whisk. Serve the ice cream as-is, straight from the freezer, or make like a three-day weekender and crumble cookies over the top.
For a juicy, berry-filled bread pudding that tastes like it took all day to make, look no further than a loaf of sandwich bread. In this recipe from Food52’s Merrill Stubbs, you’ll use it to line a bowl, which you’ll then layer with barely cooked fresh berries, and more bread. Weigh the whole thing down to chill overnight, and as Merrill writes, “The result is the essence of summer: The bread absorbs the juices and melts into a sweet, fragrant sponge, and when you cut into the pudding, the berries tumble out like so many rubies and sapphires.”
5. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Maple and Olive Oil
These caramel-ly, rich cookies are studded with pools of chocolate, and just so happen to require little more than a whisk, bowls, and some baking sheets to whip up. Oh, and did we mention they’re vegan? They’re vegan.
Whipped cream and chocolate wafer cookies to the rescue! If you can stack, you can make this festive chocolate icebox cake. It’s equal parts summery and simple.
7. Swedish Gooey Chocolate Cake
This deeply decadent, fudgy chocolate cake takes just five ingredients and 20 minutes; no sifter, stand mixer, or double boiler in sight.
If there’s a more straightforward vanilla pudding recipe around, we haven’t met it! This one — which asks only for a whisk, a saucepan, gentle heat, and something to stir — is the perfect blank canvas for toppings.
9. Totally Homemade, Ridiculously Easy Hot Fudge Sundae
These stunning ice cream sundaes with hot fudge require merely a whisk, plus a pan and spoon for the fudge. Psst: Don’t skip the cherry on top.
10. Blueberry Pecan Oat Thumbprint Cookies
Slightly fruity, slightly nutty, all easy-as-heck. Sohla shows us how to make nut butter from scratchto fashion these cookies with, but no pressure — use your favorite store-bought brand (may we recommend the selections from Big Spoon Roasters?).
11. Salty-Tangy Preserved Lemon Bars
Upgrade your classic lemon bars by using funky, pleasantly salty preserved lemons. Though the ingredient is typically used as a savory condiment, it plays very nicely with the buttery-sweet shortbread crust that acts as the base of this dessert.
12. Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Salty Peanuts
The definition of “looks hard; actually isn’t.” Want a layer cake, but don’t want to wait for baking and cooling and cutting of a thicker circular cake? Use two sheet pans to create them instead.
13. No-Churn Chocolate Soft-Serve
And if you haven’t gotten your chocolate fix yet (us either!), try your hand at this no-churn soft-serve. It’s got enough of a boozy kick to wake up your taste buds, so choose a liqueur whose flavor you love (we’re partial to Kahlua or amaretto).
14. Miso Peanut Butter Cookies with Sesame and Chocolate
Stuffed with what feels like all things savory and sweet, these cookies have a ton going on, but that’s why we love ’em. The recipe makes a big batch, so freeze half the dough for a rainy day and thank yourself later.
15. Sohla’s Go-To Vanilla Pound Cake
And for the epitome of simple, streamlined, and so-good, look no further than Sohla’s A+ pound cake. Her recipe also happens to be chock-full of secrets for pound-cake success, so go on, take a peek, won’t you?
16. Erin McDowell’s Strawberry Not-So-Short Cake
Instead of making a bunch of little strawberry shortcakes, make one giant one! An entire pound of butter and a pint of buttermilk are used to make the biscuit dough, so it’s flaky and moist (unlike the dried-out dough of your nightmares). It’s the ultimate crowd-friendly dessert for a Memorial Day picnic.
17. Valencia Orange and Aperol Ice Pops
The zest and juice of California Valencia oranges, plus a little bit of orange flower honey, bring a bright, citrusy flavor to these refreshing ice pops.
18. Saltine Cracker Brownie Ice Cream Sandwich
This icebox treat lands somewhere in between brownie a la mode and traditional ice cream sandwiches. The recipe serves 25, which should be more than enough to go around at your Memorial Day fête.
19. Strawberry Coconut Ice Pops
These totally vegan ice pops require only four ingredients — fresh sliced strawberries, full-fat coconut milk, sugar, and vanilla extract.
20. Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Fresh Open-Faced Blueberry Pie
Hear us out — we know it’s a little controversial to serve a blueberry pie without a double crust, but this recipe allows you to appreciate the full bounty of juicy summer blueberries waiting for you on the inside . . . err, outside, I guess.
21. Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Cake
There’s no question that this caffeinated ice cream cake is destined to be served for dessert on Memorial Day. It will keep everyone awake (even after they’ve eaten a few too many burgers or sticky barbecue ribs) and cool off as the summer rays kick in.
22. Effortless Angel’s Food Cake
Bake this light-as-the-air angel’s food cake and dress it up any which way. Might I suggest a berry compote with freshly whipped cream and a teeny-tiny bit of lemon zest?
23. Strawberry Buttermilk Gelato
Even if the ice cream truck makes the rounds on Memorial Day, how fun will it be to set up your own DIY ice cream bar with this extra-creamy, extra-silky gelato at the center of it all? The sweet berries are a delicious contrast to the slight tang you get from the buttermilk — and the pinkish-red color is festive as can be for the holiday.