Dessert 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hunter's buns made with pastry dough kneaded with currants and brushed with milk before baking. A simple British-style tea bun that can be filled with jam for a sweeter treat.

Gold medal caramel bars layer a chocolate cake mix base with caramel topping and chocolate chips, then crumbled cake mix streusel. Four-ingredient potluck bars for the cookie swap.

No-fuss chocolate cake mixed right in the baking pan with a fork. Chocolate cake mix, instant pudding, and chocolate chips create an ultra-moist, triple-chocolate cake with zero bowls to wash.

No-bake stained glass cookies made with melted chocolate chips, marshmallows, and chopped nuts rolled in coconut. Slice from frozen for a colorful, fudgy treat.

May use fresh or frozen strawberries, or may substitute other fruit of choice such as blackberries, peaches, etc.