Father’s Day is a holiday that doesn’t seem to be tied to any specific food. A nice BBQ, perhaps? But the lack of a traditional meal is kind of nice because it means you can make exactly what your dad loves. To help, I’ve put together this guide of Father’s Day desserts for every kind of dad or father figure. From brunch to ice cream to cookies to cakes, I have a recipe that fits every kind of sweet tooth.
Looking for more summer dessert ideas? Try these recipes:
Father’s Day Desserts
For A Special Dad Brunch
These jelly filled doughnuts are served during Hanukkah. The pillowy fried dough can be filled to your liking, and jelly is the classic option. Dip them in ganache or glaze for a little extra sweetness and a picturesque look.
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Cinnamon rolls are a classic breakfast treat for any special occasion. You'll be surprised how easy this recipe is to make, and the resulting cinnamon rolls are pillowy and delicious, with the perfect amount of cinnamon and sweetness.
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Beautiful little puff pastries with a tasty fruit filling are perfect for dads. Who doesn't love a little eclair treat?
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A Dutch Baby is the perfect breakfast. This puffy pancake is filled with caramelized peaches and topped with fresh peaches and cream.
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Classic bananas Foster takes traditional crepes to a decadent new level.
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This Apple Almond Galette is just an apple pie without the plate or a top crust. So, it’s even easier to make than pie and, I think, just as beautiful in a fruit forward, rustic way. The pie crust recipe makes two galettes, but you can always freeze one disk for later. I have also made this tart in a tart pan using my tart dough or even sugar cookie dough (great way to use up scraps).
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With its perfectly moist texture, soft crumb, and depth of apple flavor, this apple cider bundt cake is perfect for any occasion. I like to use a variety of apples in this cake such as Honey Gold, MacIntosh, Haralson and Prairie Spy. Drizzle with a simple honey-cider glaze and serve.
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For the Cookie Connoisseur
These coconut oatmeal rum raisin cookies are a family favorite. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!
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These gigantic cookies are best served warm and slightly underbaked, so you get the feel of toasty, just shy of raw, cookie dough. The secret to this recipe lies in the giant balls of dough; if you make them smaller, they won’t have the same consistency.
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These chocolate chip cookies are the result of what I learned making countless batches for decades. I also explain what the ingredients do to a cookie and how baking can change them. You can tweak your cookies to be just how you like them using my cookie guide toward the bottom of the post.
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These delightful peanut butter sandwich cookies are a perfect lunch box snack! Two peanut butter cookies with chocolate and peanut butter mousse sandwiched between them.
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This cookie always makes me nostalgic and brings up memories of the holiday season, but it’s wonderful any time of the year.
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For The Dad Who Can’t Get Enough Chocolate
These chocolate macarons are both light, as a macaron should be and fudge-y, like a brownie. The chocolate macaron shells are made with cocoa powder and then they’re filled with a chocolate ganache, so they’re super deep chocolate fantastic flavor.
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This Guinness Chocolate Cake with White Knight Buttercream based on recipes from Zoë Bakes Cakes, was inspired by my trips to Ireland and features amazing Irish butter.
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A simple chocolate cake can be beautiful and can serve as the base for all kinds of wonderful flavors, if you so choose. I love this recipe for its simplicity, and a classic chocolate cake is just plain delicious.
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With hot chocolate as its inspiration, this hot chocolate cake has layers of Devil’s food, slathered with a deep, dark, luscious chocolate icing, that is like whipped ganache, but better, then I topped the whole thing in homemade marshmallows.
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These darling chocolate peanut butter mini cakes are inspired by many recipes from Zoë Bakes Cakes – just another way to use the recipes in creative ways.
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These are the brownies I made for a care package for my son, Charlie, and his roommates at college. I made four different kinds because each of the boys wanted their favorite brownie. It's an easy way to please a crowd!
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For The Dad Who Always Chooses Ice Cream
The no-churn ice cream in this recipe is what makes this dessert such a favorite. The coffee flavor is intense in the best way, and the ice cream is truly easy to make. It is sandwiched between two dark chocolate sugar cookies for a combination that is sure to please ice cream fanatics of all kinds.
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Layers of strawberry, blueberry and coconut ice cream, covered in meringue and torched to perfection. A beautiful dessert and no oven required!This recipe requires you to plan ahead! You'll need to make three different ice cream recipes, freeze the ice cream layers in between, and macerate the strawberries two hours ahead of time. You can watch me assemble this in my Instagram story.
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The honey flavor is mellow and delicate with just a subtle hint of saffron in the ice cream. My family loved this recipe and I hope you do too! My ice cream inspiration came from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.
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For The Dad Who Wants His Own Cake
This carrot cake is perfectly spiced, moist and unbelievably good! Using candied carrot peels as decoration (optional), cream cheese frosting and sweetened shredded coconut, this cake is simply the best — I make it all the time! A half batch can be made in three 6-inch round cake pans and it only needs to bake 20-25 mins.
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This lemon Bundt cake is perfect. It is the most delicate texture and rich flavor. I had rather small lemons and wanted it to be an intense flavor, so I added more zest. I also had a chunk of ginger on hand, so I added it to the lemon soaking syrup, but otherwise the recipe is all Sarabeth.
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What list of desserts would be complete without cheesecake? I couldn't choose just one, so instead, you should use my cheesecake guide to find the flavor your dad will love. There are so many ways to make cheesecake, from rich and decadent to light and delicate. A little fresh fruit always helps, too.
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The story of my life with sweets started with an auspicious meeting with Twinkies. I would never presume to create anything as iconic as the original, but these homemade Twinkies are freakin' delicious.
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Simple Chocolate Cake image – What is it topped with? Image is gorgeous but recipe doesn’t state what’s on top.
Great question and glad you asked. I fixed the link so it goes to Zoë’s Vietnamese coffee whipped cream topping now. Enjoy!
Boston Cream Pie recipe is not included. It looks really good. I miss your show on Magnolia Network. I’m old and have no clue how to do streaming.
Hi Susan! The Boston Cream Pie recipe is included in the Substack newsletter for paid subscribers. We’re so glad you enjoyed Zoë’s show. Cheers!
Fabulous!!