HELLO BAKE IT IN A CAKE USERS

Whimsy & Spice has acquired the old domain from Simply Taylor (simply-taylor.com). If you were looking for Simply Taylor, sadly the website no longer exists. We did create an archive of some of the best bits of content that you can find here...

While we have you... let us introduce you to Whimsy & Spice...

Hi, my name is Jenna and I have been a professional chef for almost the entirety of my adult life. What started off as a hobby in college quickly turned into a passion that I surrounded my life with. 

I remember my mother’s impressive cookbook collection, which my siblings and I would sit and read for hours around the kitchen table. But we were never allowed to actually help with the cooking - that was my mother’s happy place. 

So, when I was able to start my own adventure into the world of cooking, my mother took me under her wing. We would spend hours together in the kitchen, cooking up a storm! 

Once she had trained me up to her satisfaction, I was awarded the most precious prize of all - her own personal cookbook that she had been jotting down her recipes in for decades. 

Now, I won’t share them with the world - they’re a family secret. However, I want to use this website to inspire you all to pick up a recipe and make it for yourself. Most people I talk to think that they can’t cook. I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong.

Cooking is great for your mental, physical, and emotional health. What’s the worst that could happen? Find a recipe that you like the sound of and cook it along with me. You might even unlock a new passion!

Keep Baking No Matter The Season - Different Recipes To Match The Occasion

Some desserts can be eaten all year round, while others will make you even colder as the snow settles in. Just because the seasons have changed, doesn’t mean you can no longer enjoy a sweet treat.

To help you serve delicious desserts no matter the season, we will show you a restaurant load of treats to try along with links to recipes to get started. All of our recipes are easy and can be made at home!

Before we bring the mixing bowl out, we first want to say a massive hello to all the readers from BakeItInACake.com. We have recently acquired the website and are overjoyed to welcome you into our growing community!

Ready, steady, Bake!

Summer Dessert Ideas

In the summer you want your desserts to be refreshing and light. This is because the heat during this time forces your body into doing extra work to keep your temperature regulated. Having a cold dessert helps your body reach the temperatures needed to keep you cool, making the overall process easier and giving you a little more energy.

If you eat foods that are hot or dense, then your body has to work harder to keep you at the right temperature which in turn makes you feel groggy or bloated.

Keep this in mind when you think of desserts to serve to your friends and family. If you find this concept too complicated, don’t worry. You can always pick through the ideas below instead!

Ice Cream

If I ask you for your favorite summer dessert, what comes to mind? For many of us, the answer is obvious. Ice cream!

Ice cream is both a home comfort and a vacation delight. You can keep the flavors plain, add on some scrumptious toppings or even create a sandwich using cookies as your bread.

If you have your own ice cream machine, you should try to create the unique and unusual flavors found in the links provided. From matcha to mocha, cheese to pizza. Our list of 33 ice cream flavors ranges from your standard fun flavors to ideas you haven’t even thought of before.

Of course, not everyone has access to an ice cream machine, but that doesn’t mean you have to forgo the cooling dessert. Instead, you can buy branded ice cream to store in your freezer. To help you find a company worth spending money on, we have gathered the top 15 ice cream brands, so you can pick out the flavors that best suit your taste buds.

Jell-O

Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble, Jell-O is the funniest dessert you could ever eat! Most of us make Jell-O by buying a packet of pre-made jelly and mixing it with water. But did you know you can make the same consistency without having to use a branded packet?

We have recipes to help you make your own Jell-O concoction, including changing the flavors to suit your taste. You could make a peach and cream Jell-O dessert, a pineapple pretzel concoction, or even a Jell-O slushie!

Our recipes are easy to follow and allow you to become a little creative during the summer vacation experience. 

Strawberries On Anything

A classic dessert in the summertime will normally include strawberries. Strawberry cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, and even strawberry tiramisu will be an instant hit at a summertime cookout.

Bringing these light delights to your friends and family is a no-brainer. They are delicious and a classic crowd-pleaser, knowing that everyone enjoys the taste of strawberries.

We have 27 strawberry dessert recipes for you to look through, so keep scrolling until something catches your eye!

4th Of July Inspired

Of course, in the height of summer is a special day for all Americans. The 4th of July. During this time, you still want to stick to the idea of light and airy recipes, but you can be a little more fantastical with your designs. 

Take a look through our 50 fun ideas, and find recipes for firecracker milkshakes, firework cookies with cream, a 4th of July-inspired ice cream cake, or even red white, and blue crackle cookies!

We’ve mentioned cookies twice in that paragraph, and although we know that the recipes for those batches are delicious, we understand that some people worry about the amount of sugar needed to bake them. If you want a sugar-free recipe for a cookie, click on the link provided. We also have a number of other desserts with sugar-free recipes in the link too, so browse through to find something you like!

Fall Dessert Ideas

During the fall, the wind starts to pick up, and the heat dies down. We still have a decent amount of light, but as the chill sets in, we need something warm to keep our body temperature up.

This is why hot deserts are perfect during fall! To make them seem even more magical, you can add cinnamon or nutmeg to the ingredients to give a warming and festive flavor.

Almond Cookies

Almond flour is a deliciously nutty ingredient that can easily be substituted from plain flour. Adding this change to your cookies can help them create that fall feeling of sweetness and depth all in one go.

We suggest adding them to your cookies before trying them on other baking recipes. This way you can learn how this flour can affect the flavors and density of your baking while knowing that your cookies will be tasty no matter their texture.

Churros

The Mexican community has authority over this next dessert, but because of the cinnamon flavors, we couldn’t put this treat in any season other than a chilly one. 

Have you guessed it yet? Of course, we are talking about the delicious churro! They are a warming yet sweet dessert which originated in Mexico but is loved around the world. This treat is especially enjoyed in Spain where diners would eat this sweet dessert in the morning for breakfast!

Making churros is easy, but you will require a home deep fat fryer to create the right textures.

Fudge

Fudge is a perfect autumnal snack, as it’s rich in flavor but doesn’t need to be hot to enjoy. This means you can pack your bag full of the desert, and take it on your fall-themed trips like pumpkin picking or seeing the Halloween decorations around town.

There are lots of different types of fudge you can make. From simple flavors such as coffee to more complex designs such as tiger butter which allows you to make elegant swirls. Try experimenting with your recipes to produce something new this year. 

Pears

The pear is so versatile, that you can prepare it in a multitude of ways and come up with something new each time. 

We’ve put this as a fall dessert, simply because the most popular pear desserts are the classic cobbler, poached pears in red wine, and vanilla baked pears. All of these create a warming sensation with a rich flavor however they are too light to really be considered wintery. 

Because of the pear shape, cooking with this ingredient often means creating an elegant dessert. If you want to try your hand at baking with pears, try one of our 26 easy pear recipes.

Anything Pumpkin

If we went through the whole of our fall suggestions without mentioning pumpkins, then you’d have to shut us down. During this season you can expect to see pumpkins in everything. Your food, your drinks, your decorations. It’s everywhere.

And the same thing can be said for your baked goods. Pumpkin pies, pumpkin and chocolate cookies, pumpkin cheese pops, there is so much you can do!

For a full list of how to add pumpkins to your fall dessert menu, go through our 60 best pumpkin desserts!

Winter Dessert Ideas

Just like fall, the cold temperatures of the season allow us to dip into hot desserts. However, as the sun is also fading away, this means we can eat denser meals without worrying about feeling bloated. This is because our need to move around in the sun is dramatically reduced and instead the comforts of indoor activities become more interesting.

Apple Pie

A classic thanksgiving pie is an apple pie. Apple pies can come in many different forms, from a bottomless top to a crumble. You can do so much with apples, as they are a sturdy and subtle flavor that can be easily enhanced with cinnamon or overcome by adding toffee flavorings.

For a classic taste of winter, create an apple dessert. Use our links above to find the perfect one for your event.

Cheese

Before we start heading down the sweet ideas for wintertime desserts, let's first dive into the world of savory. In the winter you want to stay warm, and eat rich foods to help you feel all cozy inside.

One of the best ingredients to kick-start this feeling is cheese. You can eat cheese by itself, pair it with crackers and wine, or do something a little more experimental.

We are talking about the cheese ball! A cheese ball is exactly what it sounds like. You mix cheese, breadcrumbs, and other ingredients together and then bake them in a ball to create a delicious and decadent snack.

Mix them with nuts, chocolate, ham, or whatever you desire! Go crazy with your experimentation. 

Chocolate

Chocolate is a rich and creamy dessert. It can serve as a snack all by itself, or you can use it in a multitude of recipes to create a dreamy mouthful. 

Desserts such as brownies, pots de creme, cookies, and cheesecake can all be enhanced and turned into a rich flavor by adding chocolate to the mix. This ingredient is so versatile, that its uses are almost limitless. To help you get started browse through our 27 quick and easy dessert recipes for chocolate lovers.

Christmas Themed

For a Christmas-themed dessert, you either need to lean into the feeling of woodlands, coziness, and herbal scents, or you should embrace bright colors, campy decorations, and all things red and green.

This could mean creating a cartoon-like melted snowman on cookies or baking a delightful yule log.

To help you figure out which direction you want to go in, scroll through our 35 Christmas-themed desserts to find something that relates to your family atmosphere.

Marshmallow

When the cold nights set in and you’re huddled around a campfire, the classic snack to start eating is the humble s’moore. But there are so many marshmallow-related desserts, that you shouldn’t limit yourself to just one!

Marshmallow brownies, marshmallow slices, and marshmallow fruit pizza are just a few recipes that we suggest you try. Each of them is light and fluffy, which is exactly what you’d expect from a mallow dessert, but they also contain unique flavor combinations for you to experiment with. Go through our list of 31 Best Marshmallow Recipes to find the perfect one for you.

New Year’s Eve Themed

If your desire for a seasonal snack comes from the need to create during a holiday season, then you can mix up the warmth of the season with the theme of the occasion.

New Year’s Eve is the perfect example of this - the winter suggests eating warm and dense desserts to match the mood of blankets and a fire. However, New Year’s Eve brings forth ideas of champagne, dancing, and decadence. 

This means making champagne cupcakes decorated with icing bubbles, or grand Marnier and raspberry parfait served in a champagne glass.

Look through our 75 Insanely Delicious And Fun New Year’s Eve Desserts to help you find the perfect showstopper.

Sweet Bread

During the winter months, you may want the taste of something sweet after your dinner, however, the idea of a cake might seem out of place. In moments like these, you want to eat something which matches your savory supper but adds a little lightness to end your day.

We present to you, sweet bread. Sweet bread is just like savory bread, but it has an added sweet taste. This could mean sprinkling sugar on top or adding a sweet ingredient like plum into the recipe.

Getting the balance right can be difficult, so go through our list of recipes. With these you will know that the end result says firm yet sweet, preventing a soggy bottom.

Spring Dessert Ideas

Spring flavors should include light ingredients that have a little tartness to them. One of the best ingredients to use for that tarty taste is a raspberry! However, as you’ll see from our list of suggestions below, there are many ways to recreate that tarty flavor.

During this time the weather is warming up, but there is still a little chill in the air. Although the clouds should be moving on, we can still expect a couple of colder days.

Cream Cheese Desserts

Cream cheese is a soft and mild version of cheese that is made by mixing milk and cream. The flavor resembles cheese, while the texture resembles heavy cream. This ingredient is so smooth that it works perfectly with tart toppings like fruits and chocolate.

This means you can mix fruit and cream cheese together to create a dessert all on its own, or you can add it to already-known puddings to bake a new flavor. Go through our list of 28 delicious cream cheese dessert recipes to help you find something that matches your tastes.

Dump Cake

As the season changes, we move away from lazy days indoors, to walks in the woods and playing games on the green.

Switching from lazy to active can feel like a huge change, which is why we suggest making dump cakes in spring. Dump cakes are another name for a cobbler, and they get this moniker for the method in which you create it. Simply dump your ingredients into the pan and carry on with your day.

To make it even simpler, we suggest using tinned fruits such as peaches to bring another layer of ease to your baking. Peach, blueberry, and cherry are the best ingredients to use during the spring, as they are all light enough to match the sun’s mood, but tart enough to break through the chilly winds.

Phyllo Dough

Around the world, you will find phyllo pastry desserts that make your mouth water. Yes, you may normally expect these pastries to be filled with beef or cheese, but many Eastern European countries prefer to use pistachio nuts or a mixture of brie and cherry.

If you haven’t made a dessert with this type of pastry before, use this moment as a chance to try something new! Who knows it might end up being your next favorite thing!

Puff Pastry

Puff pastry used to be a difficult dessert to make, as the creation of the dough needed expert hands to handle. However, because we can buy sheets of pre-made pastries in your local store, there is no need to fret about how many folds you need to complete!

If you like to make your pastries from scratch or prefer to use a pre-made alternative, you can still create a beautiful dessert perfect for springtime. A blueberry galette, brown sugar pear puff, or cherry pastry pie would be a treat during a spring picnic, and they aren’t as difficult to make as they seem.

Use our links above to help you create something light and filled with flavor.

Trifle

When it comes to spring desserts we have already discussed how the fillings need to be both tart and smooth. One of the best desserts which naturally create this flavor mixture is the classic trifle. In a trifle, you often expect fruits, cream, and some kind of breaded extra. You may even find Jell-O mixed into some recipes too.

Methods to create a trifle are super easy, and you can even allow your kids to join in with the fun. 

It’s safe, simple, and super versatile, and our collection of 32 tasty trifles can attest to that!

All Year Round Dessert Ideas

Of course, many desserts cannot be contained in just one season. Simply changing the flavors of the sweet can turn it from summer to winter! If you’re new to baking or dessert making, we suggest learning one of these recipes first. This way you can create your plate without worrying about which time of the year you’re serving it.

Cake

A classic dessert is a cake. These well-known and well-loved sweets are made of flour, eggs, and sugar. But it’s the additional ingredients that make it stand out as special. Ice cream cake, Nutella cake, cheesecake, and carrot cake all have their place on our tables, and arguably most can be served all year around.

However, just like all of the others suggestions in this subheading, it will be the ingredients that make the cake feel more closely connected to the seasons. Look through our 20 flavors of cakes to help you find the perfect palate for your upcoming events.

If the idea of making a cake from scratch seems like too much effort, or outside your wheelhouse, then you should try using a cake mix instead. Cake mixes already have the dry ingredients measured out for you. All you need to do is mix them together with wet ingredients (like water and eggs), and then bake! It’s cake making, made simple.

Candy

Candy can be made at any time of the year, however, most people choose to make these treats around Halloween time. Sure you can create these as your Halloween snack, but why limit yourself? 

Create honeycomb candy when the mood strikes, whip out those chocolate caramel pecan turtles for a friend’s birthday or bake some classic hard candies like your grandma used to.

If you want to learn how to make candy, pick one of our 33 simple recipes which can be made at home with simple equipment.

Donuts

Donuts are delicious fried dough rings, which are served either hot or cold. Each donut will be coated in some kind of additional flavor which includes ingredients as basic as sugar, or as complex as a chocolate glaze.

Around the world, you will find different versions of this simple dessert. Some prefer to let the dough speak for themselves, while others create elaborate designs to set on top.

Either way, the flavors you choose to dress your donut in will determine which season they fall into. Anything that is simply sweet will fit easily into a summer or spring menu, while cinnamon or chocolate would work wonders in the winter and fall.

Muffins

One of the best examples of these universal desserts is the humble muffin. Muffins themselves can be eaten hot or cold, and contain a soft texture to bite into. However the flavors range from lemon to cinnamon, carrot flavored to blueberry.

Using the right flavors can help you match the taste to the season, but everything else about the dessert stays exactly the same. 

Popcorn

Some people like their popcorn salty, others like it sweet. Some prefer it cheesy while others like to experiment with any type of flavor that can come up with 

It doesn’t matter if you're the former or the latter, as we have 28 different popcorn recipes to share with you. No matter which one you pick, you don’t need an expensive machine to get the process going. Most of the time, you simply need to cook your popcorn as normal, and then mix it with the ingredients you prepared earlier.

Take our bacon and truffle popcorn recipe as an example. You simply need to add in the cooked extras on top once your corn has popped.

Instead of crunching on real slices of bacon, it’s the meat’s fat that does all the work. This means the fat gets absorbed by the corn allowing it to seep into every bite!

Summary

Keep this page bookmarked for when the baking fever starts to take over. Then you can either scroll down until you find the right subheading for your current season, or you could simply browse through the whole collection until something speaks to you.

Desserts are arguably the most fun meal of the day, so experiment with what you can create, and try something new!