20 Easy Baking Recipes for Tired People Who Need Something Sweet

Be ready when the craving strikes.

Sometimes baking is about the journey: It’s fun to whisk warm sugar into egg whites for an Italian meringue and then fold it carefully into a batter. And sometimes, it’s about the destination: You want a baked good as soon as possible. That’s when the recipes below come in handy. Rest assured that they’re just as satisfying as those bigger baking projects, but, this time, you can linger over the eating, and not the whisking or kneading.

1. Easy Blueberry Cream Scones

You don’t have to cut butter into flour in this simple recipe, which is easier, even, than a classic cream scone recipe. Here, Genevieve Ko instead drops the batter onto a sheet pan, ensuring there’s no chance of overworking the dough (and practically guaranteeing success). The recipe calls for blueberries, but you can fold in any seasonal fruit — dried or fresh.

Recipe: Easy Blueberry Cream Scones

2. Skillet Chocolate-Chip Cookie

These cookies come together in one bowl, but what’s even better is how Samantha Seneviratne, who created the recipe, lets you skip scooping and shaping individual balls of dough. Just bake all the dough in one skillet. It’s easier, and who doesn’t love a giant cookie? Simply slice it into triangles, and serve it warm with vanilla ice cream on top.

Recipe: Skillet Chocolate-Chip Cookie

3. Lazy Daisy Cake

Lazy baker representation! Melissa Clark’s version of a 1930s recipe yields a light and tender cake that’s simple to make. The titular laziness refers to the icing: a topping of butter, brown sugar and coconut that’s run under the broiler until it’s browned and bubbling.

Recipe: Lazy Daisy Cake

4. M&M Cookies

“This 88-year old foodie has fallen in love with what is considered to be an everyday cookie for kids. Crisp on the edges, chewy in the middle … PERFECT with a glass of cold milk,” one reader wrote about Eric Kim’s fun and nostalgic 30-minute recipe. The dough comes together in one-bowl, no mixer required.

Recipe: M&M Cookies

5. Cardamom Coffee Banana Bread

This quick, easy banana bread recipe from Sheela Prakash levels up the complexity of the original by adding cardamom and coffee, a well-loved combination in the Middle East. A coffee glaze on top drives home its flavor, but it is an extra step, so if you want to keep it easy, just sprinkle the bread with Demerara sugar for added texture.

Recipe: Cardamom Coffee Banana Bread

6. Easy Apple Buckle

Setting aside any lengthy discourse about what makes for a buckle versus a cobbler versus a crumble, this easy dessert from Vallery Lomas really lets the fruit shine. An ultra buttery batter strings together apple slices, which become jammy and caramelized when they bake, for a dessert that isn’t a pie but is still all about apples.

Recipe: Easy Apple Buckle

7. Microwave Sticky Toffee Pudding

We’re in a golden age of microwave desserts: This Ali Slagle recipe is big enough for two, providing double the comforting flavors of sticky toffee pudding. A cool scoop of vanilla ice cream on top is absolutely advised.

Recipe: Microwave Sticky Toffee Pudding

8. Basque Cheesecake

“This is a divine dessert that is uncomplicated to make,” one reader wrote about Marti Buckley’s rustic, crustless cheesecake. The inside is velvety and custardy, while the outside is dramatically caramelized. The six-ingredient recipe, adapted by Tanya Sichynsky, is baked until almost burnt on top.

Recipe: Basque Cheesecake

9. S’mores Brownies

Eric Kim’s 35-minute recipe satisfies that s’mores craving, no campfire required. This fudgy treat has three distinct layers: crispy graham cracker bottoms, chewy brownie centers and toasted marshmallow tops. They taste best chilled, straight out of the refrigerator, but they’re also great (and gooey) after a quick zap in the microwave.

Recipe: S’mores Brownies

10. Vanilla Bundt Cake

This classic cake from Yossy Arefi is a must if you’re looking for an easy, satisfying bake. The batter is sturdy, so it will unmold from even the most elaborate Bundt pan, which, in turn, gives the illusion that you went to more effort than you actually did.

Recipe: Vanilla Bundt Cake

11. Chocolate Dump-It Cake

This chocolate cake from Amanda Hesser tastes so much more complicated than it actually is. Simply mix all of the ingredients over medium heat in a pot, and then you “dump it,” or pour it, all into a cake pan. The icing is just melted chocolate chips stirred together with sour cream. Some commenters suggest choosing high-quality dark chocolate instead, but it’s also perfect as is.

Recipe: Chocolate Dump-It Cake

12. Giant Almond Croissant

Sohla El-Waylly uses store-bought puff pastry for this delightful large-format almond croissant. Simply thaw frozen all-butter puff pastry in the refrigerator and bake crisp. Then, make the almond filling, which goes between and on top of the pastry, and bake it once more, for a showstopping brunch centerpiece.

Recipe: Giant Almond Croissant

13. Stovetop Berry Crisp

Pie is difficult, but crisps? Crisps are easy — especially in this Ali Slagle recipe, which doesn’t even require turning on the oven. You’ll make a topping in the microwave, and then simmer frozen berries on the stovetop until they form a compote, adding a few closer to the end for pops of fresh fruit flavor. Since you add the crisp at the end, you ensure that it stays just that way — crisp.

Recipe: Stovetop Berry Crisp

14. Lemon Bars With Olive Oil and Sea Salt

Lemon bars are a go-to easy dessert, but this Melissa Clark recipe adds sophistication with olive oil and sea salt. An oil with lots of herbaceous, peppery flavor will lend adult complexity to the dessert you made with your mom as a kid.

Recipe: Lemon Bars With Olive Oil and Sea Salt

15. Strawberry Spoon Cake

Strawberries aren’t in season (for now), but the beauty of this simple cake from Jerrelle Guy is how defrosted frozen berries work just as well. The warm, jammy and caky scoops are excellent on their own, or garnished with ice cream or ribbons of fresh basil.

Recipe: Strawberry Spoon Cake

16. Chewy Brownie Cookies

When you want an easy dessert, brownies are an obvious choice (and we certainly have a recipe for them), but get a little more creative by making Vaughn Vreeland’s cross between brownies and cookies. They scratch that itch for a chewy, fudgy dessert — and, great news — they bake in way less time.

Recipe: Chewy Brownie Cookies

17. Whole-Orange Snack Cake

If you’ve never tried a cake that uses a whole orange — yes, including the peel — let this be your sign. The orange is bright and sweet in Samantha Seneviratne’s recipe, but including the rind adds an intriguing and pleasant bitterness, like candied peel or marmalade. An orange juice glaze ensures that you’ll want to slice off a little piece to have with coffee for breakfast.

Recipe: Whole-Orange Snack Cake

18. Vegan Banana Olive Oil Muffins

Make a batch of these banana olive oil muffins from Carolina Gelen on Sunday, and you’ll be in good spirits all week long. They are incredibly moist, accidentally vegan and topped with coarse sugar and flaky salt for a nice crunch with every bite.

Recipe: Vegan Banana Olive Oil Muffins

19. Shortbread Jammers

These cookies, adapted from “The King Arthur Flour Cooking Companion” have all the jammy, buttery appeal of a linzer cookie, but they’re far less complicated. There’s no rolling or stamping out dough. There is, however, rice flour, but if you don’t have any, feel free to use all-purpose.

Recipe: Shortbread Jammers

20. One-Bowl Carrot Cake

Genevieve Ko’s one-bowl version of a classic is the perfect snacking cake to keep around for guests who might drop in (or for yourself, when little treat o’clock strikes). In another twist, instead of cream cheese frosting, the cake gets a sour cream and cream cheese topping baked on top of it for a result that’s a cross between cheesecake and carrot cake and easier to make than either.

Recipe: One-Bowl Carrot Cake

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