190 iced cake recipes

Cherry cream frosting made with maraschino cherries and juice for natural pink color and sweet cherry flavor. A 5-minute powdered sugar icing for cakes, cupcakes, or cookies.

Two-ingredient cream cheese icing sweetened with maple syrup and blended smooth. No powdered sugar needed. Ready in 10 minutes and pairs with carrot cake, banana bread, and more.

Cherry chocolate baked Alaska stacks devil's food cake with frozen cherry yogurt filling under a flash-baked cocoa meringue. Retro dessert drama with hot meringue and ice-cold center.

Maple mocha topping made from whipped egg whites, maple syrup, instant coffee, and vanilla. A light, fluffy no-cook sauce for ice cream or angel food cake with zero fat.

Chocolate fudge icing, the old-fashioned cooked kind made from just milk, sugar, and chocolate boiled to soft-ball stage, then beaten until thick and glossy. Sets to a rich, fudgy frosting on cakes and brownies.

Friendship brandied fruit is a perpetual fermented fruit compote built over months by adding peaches, pineapple, cherries, sugar, and brandy to a starter. Spoon over ice cream, pound cake, or yogurt for an instant dessert.

A light, springy chocolate sponge cake made with just six pantry staples and absolutely no eggs or dairy. Two layers sandwiched with fudge icing, dusted with grated chocolate and powdered sugar. Vegan baking at its most unfussy.

COMMENT: What makes this dessert so irresistible? As it bakes, a pudding sauce forms beneath the cake layer. Cocoa-based and made without eggs, its an old-fashioned treat that should be served with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and a big spoon.

Strawberry oatmeal muffins built with instant oats, cake flour, fresh diced strawberries, and egg whites for a low-fat, breakfast-friendly muffin sweetened with brown sugar and warmed with cinnamon.

This Punjabi dish, with some variation in spices, is eaten over all of northern India. Paneer is a fresh milk cheese with an interesting, slightly chewy consistency. It's easy to make, but requires planning ahead. You can substitute a diced 6- or 8-ounce cake of pressed tofu for it in this recipe.

Crab cakes with tomatillo salsa bind lump crabmeat with bread and egg white for a light crust, pan-seared and topped with tangy diced tomatillo-lime salsa. Southwest-style seafood dinner.

Persimmon pudding cake, a moist autumn loaf with ripe persimmons, brandy, warm spices, raisins, and walnuts. Served with a brandy ricotta topping for fall holiday gatherings.

Flaky Chinese onion pancakes stuffed with chicken, Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, and barbecued pork. Crispy outside, savory layered inside. Northern dough meets southern filling.

Half-whole-wheat apple nut cookies with diced fresh apples, walnuts, raisins, and warm spices. Cake-like, soft-textured drop cookies that taste like apple pie filling baked into a cookie. Makes 48.