From cookies and cakes to ice cream and pie, there is something for everyone in this round-up of Labor Day desserts.
Labor Day is a celebration of your hard work, so you deserve a special treat. Now is not the time to count your calories!
Whether you’re throwing a big end-of-summer party or just have a hankering for something sweet, I have you covered.
You be in charge of the ingredients, I’ll take care of the recipes.
These Labor Day desserts will give you another thing to look forward to besides the long weekend.
What are you waiting for? Preheat your oven and grease those pans. Let’s get baking.
1. Bisquick Strawberry Shortcake
This first recipe is for all the inexperienced bakers out there.
Thanks to the dependable Bisquick baking mix, you don’t have to be a pro to create a stunning strawberry shortcake!
But don’t be fooled, either. Just because you’re using a shortcut doesn’t mean this shortcake is mediocre.
I mean, look how gorgeous it is. Filled with whipped cream and strawberries, this shortcake is nothing short of amazing.
Each component is already tasty, but together, they’re even more delicious.
2. Fresh Berry Cream Cake
This dessert features all your favorite summer berries.
With layers of white cake, whipped cream, berries, and a dusting of powdered sugar on top, this cake is the epitome of summer desserts.
It may look minimal, but don’t be fooled. This refreshing dessert is bursting with flavor.
Berries and cream are the dream team. But the cake itself is a stunner, as well. It’s insanely soft and fluffy, light and airy.
Together, this trio creates a beautiful harmony of textures and flavors.
3. Punch Bowl Cake
With layers of yellow cake, pudding, bananas, pineapple, cherry pie filling, flaked coconut, and chopped walnuts, this punch bowl cake means serious business.
Can you imagine all those amazing elements in one bite? What a wonderful explosion of flavors, textures, and colors!
Here’s the best part – it’s a beginner-level recipe.
There may be a handful of layers, but since the ingredients are either pre-made or ready to use, it calls for very minimal effort.
4. Blueberry Pie
When life gives you blueberries, make pie! Nothing beats the deliciousness of a warm, freshly-baked blueberry pie.
With a buttery and flaky crust and a sweet, tart, and juicy blueberry filling, it’s everything you can ask for in a pie.
Topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it sure hits the spot.
Store-bought crust is fine, but if you’re going for homemade goodness, make your own! I promise you, it’s easy as pie.
5. Cheesecake Brownies
This 2-in-1 dessert is perfect if you can’t decide between the two iconic sweets.
Fudgy brownies with swirls of creamy cheesecake filling, these brownies are both a treat for the eyes and the taste buds.
If you think it calls for a lot of work, think again! Surprisingly, this recipe only calls for four basic ingredients. How awesome is that?
They’re so good, you can easily fool anyone into thinking they were made from scratch. What a fantastic way to elevate a box of brownie mix!
6. Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
Chocolate cookie ice cream sandwiches – what a wonderful mouthful. These sandwiches combine two beloved desserts, because why not?
In one bite, you’ll get a crunchy and chewy chocolate cookie and luscious ice cream. I’m drooling just at the thought.
The great thing is that these taste phenomenal no matter what ice cream flavor you choose.
I highly recommend butter pecan, but feel free to make them your own.
7. Old-Fashioned Whoopie Pies
Here’s another cookie sandwich you’re guaranteed to fall in love with.
Soft chocolate sandwiches are filled with fluffy, marshmallow-like centers.
Whoopie pies are so incredible, I didn’t think I could make them myself.
As it it turns out, they’re not hard at all. From the cookies to the filling, it’ll only take you 30 minutes.
The hardest part is resisting the urge to eat them all.
8. S’mores Cupcakes
S’more in cupcake form? I won’t say no to that!
Here’s how it goes down – a graham cracker crust (yes, these cupcakes have a crust), moist and fudgy chocolate cupcake, marshmallow frosting, and chocolate syrup on top.
These are perfect is, but here’s a tip to make them even better: toast the marshmallow frosting with a kitchen torch.
It really amps up the flavor and gives the cupcakes that lovely campfire vibe.
9. Peach Cobbler With Cake Mix
Want cobbler but not in the mood to bake? I feel you, and I have the perfect solution.
This peach cobbler is deceiving! The recipe calls for a boxed cake mix and canned peaches, but I kid you not, it tastes as if it were made from scratch.
It’s so easy you don’t even need to make a batter. Just sprinkle the cake mix over the peaches, and into the oven, it goes.
10. Lemon Ice Box Pie
Ice box recipes are the culinary world’s gift to non-bakers. Ice box cakes or pies can rival baked goods, but there’s no baking involved.
This lemon ice box pie gives you the goodness of a real lemon pie.
You’ll get the combo of buttery crust and sweet and citrusy filling, but with this recipe, you won’t have to turn on the oven.
It’s so easy the most challenging part is waiting for the pie to chill!
11. Trisha Yearwood Key Lime Cake
I always look up to Trisha Yearwood when it comes to southern desserts.
Her singing is amazing, but her cooking skills are also just as impressive. Her recipe for Key lime cake is proof.
This dessert has three amazing layers of deliciousness: a soft and fluffy key lime cake, a sweet key lime sugar glaze, and a decadent cream cheese frosting.
There’s only one word to describe it: WOW.
12. Star-Spangled Brownie Pizza
Looking for a patriotic and fantastic treat to round out your Labor Day festivities? This Star-Spangled brownie pizza perfectly fits the bill.
Apart from the iconic red, white, and blue, hue, the flavors and textures make this brownie pizza a party-worthy dessert.
With a fudgy brownie for the crust, a cream cheese frosting for the sauce, and blueberries, strawberries, and white chocolate chips for the toppings, this brownie pizza is as delicious as it sounds.
13. Pineapple Dream Cake
In the mood for a light and refreshing treat? This pineapple cake will make your tropical dreams come true.
First of all, look how pretty. It’s bright and golden as the sun! It’s perfect for the summer, for sure.
Then there’s the flavor. Nothing screams more tropical than the pineapple!
This dessert has pineapple both in the cake and the frosting, giving you maximum delight.
14. Cherry Pie Bars
These bars are more than just a simple cherry pie variation. Personally, I think they’re better than the classic pie.
I can’t get enough of how adorable they are. Just by looking at them, you can tell it’s impossible to stop at one.
They’re soft, chewy, and oozing with sweet cherry pie filling. But wait, there’s more!
Topping them off is a sweet sugar glaze flavored with almond and vanilla extracts. It’s heaven in a bite.
15. Philadelphia 3-Step Cheesecake
As plain-looking as cheesecake is, it’s not the easiest dessert to whip up. Prone to cracks and sinking, one wrong step, and your cheesecake will be a disaster.
Enter, this 3-step cheesecake recipe. It’s easy to follow and almost impossible to mess up.
Not only that, but it also only calls for 5 ingredients! It also comes with a ton of tips and tricks to arm you from potential cheesecake mishaps.
16. Pink Lemonade Cake
This pink lemonade cake is pretty and pretty amazing. If you love the refreshing, citrusy flavor of pink lemonade, you’ll fall for this dessert as well.
The cake is wonderfully light and fluffy and flavored with pink lemonade. The buttercream frosting is also bursting with pink lemonade goodness.
They’re great apart, but together, they create an epic lemony and berry-filled flavor combination.
17. Banana Cake
If you’re an experienced baker, I’m sure you already have a recipe for banana cake. Still, I highly suggest you give this one a try.
This recipe uses a unique technique to get an outrageously moist crumb. It’s strange, but it works.
If you’re still undecided, maybe this will convince you: with this baking method, you won’t need to wait long for the banana cake to cool.
Intrigued? Give it a go and let me know what you think!
18. Easy No-Churn Homemade Ice Cream
Did you know that you only need three ingredients to make ice cream?
At its base, ice cream is just a simple blend of cream, condensed milk, and vanilla.
It’s up to you how you want to flavor it. I like using seasonal fruits and berries in mine. It’s a great way to showcase all your strawberries and blueberries.
This recipe gets major bonus points for being a no-churn ice cream recipe.
This means you won’t need an ice cream machine to make the magic happen.
19. Grilled Angel Food Cake With Rhubarb Sauce
You might be wondering – what’s the point of grilling cake? Let me explain.
First of all – just look at this dessert. Don’t the grill marks look amazing against the white cake?
More importantly, though, it’s delicious. Grilling gives the cake a delicately crispy crust and a mild charred flavor.
It offers a nice contrast to the soft and sweet dessert.
Topped with rhubarb sauce and whipped cream, this grilled cake is sure to please at your end-of-summer celebration.
20. Heath Bar Cookies
Love toffee? I do too! That’s why I find these Heath bar cookies impossible to resist.
While chocolate chip cookies are the widely accepted king of all cookies, these are my personal favorite.
They’re soft and chewy, and every bite gives you that delicious, sweet-n-salty toffee combination.
The contrast between crunchy and chewy is exceptional, as well.
21. 5-Layer Ice Cream Cake
With this ice cream cake, there are five amazing layers to look forward to.
Each one is incredible on its own, but together, they’re even more divine.
This stunning cake starts with a buttery Oreo cookie crust. We’re off to a great start.
It’s followed by two layers of ice cream, the flavors of which are up to you.
That’s what I love about this recipe. You can totally make it your own.
Then, it’s drizzled with thick and gooey hot fudge and finished off with fluffy whipped cream and sprinkles.
If this isn’t decadent, I don’t know what is.
22. Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
These cupcakes look delicate but don’t be fooled. Each bite is packed with big flavors.
The cupcakes are flavored with lemon, and the frosting is infused with strawberries. Together, they make a dessert version of strawberry lemonade.
They literally taste like strawberry lemonade, but instead of sipping, you bite and chew. It’s amazing!
23. Fantasy Fudge
This fantasy fudge will make all your fudge fantasies come true. Each morsel is soft, chewy, and fudgy.
The crunch from the chopped walnuts gives them a lovely textural variety.
Fudge has an impressive shelf-life, making it a perfect homemade present. They’re also impossible to fudge up, to boot!
24. Pina Colada Poke Cake
Whoever came up with poke cakes is a genius.
Poking a cake and drizzling it with syrup is a brilliant way to infuse flavor and improve the cake’s texture.
The cake absorbs whatever liquid you’re pouring over it, making it insanely delicious and ridiculously moist.
Even if your cake turns out dry and rubbery, the poke method will still make it irresistible.
Speaking of irresistible, say hello to this pina colada poke cake.
Drizzled with coconut cream and topped with crushed pineapple and whipped cream, this cake is the epitome of tropical flavors.
25. Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
Oatmeal cookies are filled with pumpkin cream cheese frosting, creating the perfect fall cookie sandwiches.
Flavorwise, these cream pies get a 12/10. Sweet and perfectly spiced, they encapsulate the goodness of autumn flavors.
The texture contrast between the soft and chewy cookies and creamy filling is magnificent, to boot.