Don’t think of it as abandoning your pantry, you’re just on a break. And your desserts are about to get a lot more exciting. No more canned pureed pumpkin, no stale nuts, no more freaking apples (seriously, why are apples the only thing around ALL WINTER LONG?). There’s color in the world again, and fruit to be found! With a world of new produce on the horizon, you can finally breathe a little life back into dessert. Here are MUNCHIES’s best sweet recipes for when the ground (and your cold, dead heart) start to thaw.Hot cross buns are the quintessential British Easter dessert, but they’re just as delicious for all you heathens out there looking to celebrate spring time.If the grocery store display is suddenly a big pile of mangoes, great: Make this quick and easy pudding. Corn isn’t in season yet, but that’s fine—this recipe uses frozen, anyway.It’s above freezing temperatures outside again! Celebrate with a frozen dessert studded with the first ripe berries and fruit you can get your hands on and garnish with herbs and pretty, pretty flowers.Kinda like a pie, but for the folks who struggle with perfectionism. Keep it “rustic,” and fill it with whatever fruit looks the best at the grocery store.Fine, there’s nothing at all seasonal about confetti cake, but with rainbow sprinkles, it’s as colorful as the flower garden you wish you could plant but don’t have space for and would definitely kill anyway.Another twist on your favorite rainbow-hued birthday cake, this time drenched with three sticky-sweet makrut lime leaf-infused milks. Garnish with crumbled ice cream cones and whipped cream to complete the birthday bash.Sure, you can get crappy strawberries year-round in the grocery store, but the good ones start to come into season in the height of spring. So don’t waste time on the too-short berry season with boring-ass shortcake. Balance out the peak-season sweetness with a little sour cream.With berries, Greek yogurt, and nuts, this recipe has all the things you like about a yogurt parfait, but even better… because it’s cake.Or keep it super simple and let the berries steal the show. (Fresh whipped cream and toasted macadamia nuts are the backup singers.)Pistachios just lend your desserts a little je ne sais quoi that screams “spring.”
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Did you know you can eat spruce needles? Sounds like something you do only if you're pulling an Into The Wild, but hear us out. New-growth spruce tips—the lighter-colored little buds of needles you see at the very end of a branch in the spring—are softer and taste almost like pineapples. Pick a few and give this unusual ice cream a try.This recipe makes a super fluffy spongecake the super cheffy way—with a whipped cream gun and a microwave. Garnish with fresh raspberries and whipped cream for a millennial-pink dessert.Sheep—lambs—spring! Is that close enough? Whatever, sheep’s milk ricotta is perfect for baking, and you can certainly only improve a cheesecake by adding a pistachio crust. Top this sucker with the rest of your spring fruit of choice.Did you eat a lot of heavy, custardy, super sugary pies over the winter? Try a light, airy meringue with some bittersweet chocolate for something different.Mouth-puckering lemon curd with a toasted meringue topping, all layered on top of a cheesecake. Bright as the sun you haven’t seen in months.