Dessert/9 recipes

Quick peanut butter cookies from a yellow cake mix, peanut butter, egg, and water. Four ingredients, no mixer needed, with that classic fork-pressed crosshatch pattern.

Friendship cake made with brandied fruit starter, cake mix, and instant pudding for a moist, boozy tube cake with nuts. Endlessly customizable with different mix and flavor combos.

Chinese mixed fruit dessert with grass jelly cubes, lychee, and mandarin oranges. Refreshing 3-ingredient cold dessert, perfect for hot summer days.

Julekake is a traditional Norwegian Christmas bread with cardamom, candied fruits, and raisins, topped with confectioners icing, almonds, and candied cherries.

Four ways to shape holiday butter cookie dough: cutouts with egg paint, spritz cookies, chocolate caramel marbles, and coconut macaroon wreaths. One dough, endless options.

Double-deck chocolate cake with a devil's food crust, melted chocolate chip layer, chocolate-spiked white cake, and whipped cream topping. Two cake mixes, one show-stopping dessert.

Twinkie cake with strawberries layered with Jello, vanilla pudding, and whipped topping. A no-bake icebox cake that uses Twinkies as the base and chills overnight into a creamy, fruity dessert.

No-bake mini burger cookies made from vanilla wafers, chocolate mint patties, dyed coconut lettuce, and white frosting. A fun kids party treat that looks like tiny hamburgers.

Sleigh Belles are angel food cake mix cookies in three festive flavors: chocolate chip walnut, coconut, and chopped date. Light, airy holiday cookies from one box of cake mix.

A frozen no-bake cookies and cream pie with vanilla pudding, whipped topping, and crushed chocolate wafers in a chocolate crust. Five ingredients and zero oven time.

No-bake fruit and nut energy balls with dates, raisins, walnuts, sunflower seeds, and cocoa powder. A naturally sweetened snack with no added sugar, ready in 10 minutes.

No-bake lemon poppy seed tarts with vanilla pudding filling, graham cracker crusts, and lemon whipped topping. A light, low-calorie dessert that sets in the fridge.

Easy mocha fudge cake doctors a butter fudge cake mix with hot fudge topping and instant coffee folded into whipped cream. A 4-ingredient layer cake that tastes like a fancy bakery special.

Slow cooker cherry pound cake bakes a flour-tossed maraschino-studded cake mix batter inside the crockpot for an unbelievably moist crumb. A no-oven dessert for hot summer days.

Fresh berry tarts: a pair of giant 10x15 inch sheet tarts with vanilla cream over sweet pie crust, one tart piled with glazed cherries, the other with glossy blueberries.

Giant chocolate chip cookies made with hand-chopped milk chocolate bars instead of chips. Flattened to saucer size and baked until barely set for a chewy, gooey center.