The 15 best recipes to bake in May
Ruby-red rhubarb bars, strawberry shortcake cookies, and much more.
If you’re looking for a new recipe to try this month, we’ve got you covered. Want to bake a cake? Try our peanut butter cake with seven-minute frosting, a massive raspberry sheet cake layer cake, or gooey, purple-hued ube lava cakes. Cookies more your speed? We’ve got recipes for pillowy ricotta cookies and adorable strawberry shortcake sandwich cookies. And if you’re after something more unexpected, we’ve got a giant pop tart, strawberry babka, and a salty-sweet Key lime pie. Let’s get baking!
1) Swirled Rhubarb Bars
These bars might be the best way to bake with rhubarb this season. In addition to the rhubarb, which gets turned into a ruby-red stovetop jam in roughly 10 minutes, the bars are also studded with chopped white chocolate. To make these bars even easier (and faster), the batter is mixed by hand so you can enjoy these tangy, buttery bars with little effort.
Get the recipe: Swirled Rhubarb Bars
Shop the recipe: Square Pan Liners
2) Glazed Ricotta Cookies
Inspired by a classic Italian recipe, these soft, pillowy cookies are a not-too-sweet citrusy treat perfumed with the elusive flavor of Fiori di Sicilia. The cookie itself is light and tender (but not cakey!) and stays moist thanks to creamy whole-milk ricotta.
Get the recipe: Glazed Ricotta Cookies
Shop the recipe: Semolina Flour and Fiori di Sicilia
3) Raspberry and Honey Sheet Cake Layer Cake
If you’re baking for a big party, this is the show-stopping recipe you need. It takes the basic layer cake formula and super-sizes it: Each cake layer is baked in an 18" x 13" half-sheet pan. This recipe features a fruity filling of raspberry preserves and raspberry whipped cream, with honey-vanilla buttercream to finish. Never made a cake this big? Not to worry; we’ve included helpful tips for assembly (such as cutting the top layer of cake in half to make stacking easier).
Get the recipe: Raspberry and Honey Sheet Cake Layer Cake
Shop the recipe: Half-Sheet Pan
4) Giant Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tart
Speaking of super-sizing: This giant pop tart is made using a sweet dough crust (not a pie crust, like many giant pop tarts out there), which mimics the original crust texture while also being thicker, sweeter, and way more buttery. Inside is a gooey brown sugar filling, while the final flourish is a sweet, simple glaze fragrant with cinnamon and vanilla.
Get the recipe: Giant Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tart
Shop the recipe: Vietnamese Cinnamon
5) Strawberry Cream Cheese Babka
Instead of cinnamon and chocolate, this babka is filled with a vibrant mixture of sweetened cream cheese, strawberry, and lemon. And the bread itself is extra soft thanks to a “super-tangzhong” made with flour, water, and egg — almost like choux paste — that keeps the babka tender and moist.
Get the recipe: Strawberry Cream Cheese Babka
Shop the recipe: Quick Bread Pan and Loaf Pan Lifters Set of 2
6) Giant Ensaymada
Baker Rezel Kealoha offers an imaginative spin on classic Filipino ensaymada. Instead of handheld rolls, she transforms this salty-sweet enriched bread into a giant centerpiece topped with the traditional combination of sweetened condensed milk, shredded cheese, and a grated salted egg.
Get the recipe: Giant Ensaymada
Shop the recipe: Bread Flour
7) Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
This clever recipe turns strawberry shortcakes into a batch of adorable sandwich cookies. Tender cream-based cookies surround a pink-hued filling that gets its flavor and color from freeze-dried strawberries — so if you don’t have a mountain of ripe berries to bake with, you don’t have to worry.
Get the recipe: Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
Shop the recipe: Sparkling Sugar
8) Ube Macapuno Molten Lava Cakes
Typical lava cakes impress with their molten fillings, but this version from Abi Balingit’s book, Mayumu, is even more stunning thanks to its deep purple hue. Ube — a type of purple yam native to Southeast Asia and beloved in Filipino baking — adds flavor notes of coconut, pistachio, and vanilla, while a garnish of gooey coconut, stark white whipped cream, and a bright red cherry completes the ensemble.
Get the recipe: Ube Macapuno Molten Lava Cakes
Shop the recipe: Classic Thermapen®
9) Brownie Cookies
When you can’t choose between a brownie and a cookie … don’t! This mashup requires you to make brownie batter and cookie dough, but because both are made using melted butter, they come together quickly and can be mixed entirely by hand.
Get the recipe: Brownie Cookies
Shop the recipe: Callebaut Semisweet Chocolate Chips
10) Key Lime Pie with a Pretzel Crust
Bookmark this recipe for Memorial Day later this month. Tangy Key lime filling under a cooling cloud of whipped cream screams summer, and this pie has an extra twist: The press-in crust is made with ground pretzels instead of graham crackers for a sweet-salty combination.
Get the recipe: Key Lime Pie with a Pretzel Crust
Shop the recipe: Floribbean Key Lime Juice
11) Famous Department Store Blueberry Muffins
With nearly 600 five-star reviews, this recipe is a must-try. It yields fluffy muffins with a crispy, sugary top, and of course plenty of blueberries inside. Bake it and see what all the fuss is about.
Get the recipe: Famous Department Store Blueberry Muffins
Shop the recipe: Nonstick Baking Cups
12) Peanut Butter Cake
This soft cake contains a full cup of peanut butter, so its flavor fully shines through instead of fading to the background. Pair it with sticky, marshmallow-y seven-minute frosting for a dessert that gives big Fluffernutter energy or lay on a thick blanket of chocolate icing for a candy bar-like cake.
Get the recipe: Peanut Butter Cake
Shop the recipe: Cake and Brownie Pan
13) Strawberry-Rhubarb Galettes
If you’re looking for a way to transform the season’s first berries and rhubarb into an elegant dessert, look no further than this galette recipe. Flaky puff pastry is the buttery base for a filling of sweet-tart fruit; top each galette with a billow of whipped cream to complement its bright flavor.
Get the recipe: Strawberry-Rhubarb Galettes
Shop the recipe: Sparkling Sugar
14) Beautiful Burger Buns
It’s grilling season, which means it’s time to haul out the charcoal and mix up a batch of homemade burger buns. With nearly 1,200 five-star reviews, this recipe is a customer favorite and guaranteed to be better than anything store-bought. Perfect the recipe now so you can make them all summer long.
Get the recipe: Beautiful Burger Buns
Shop the recipe: SAF Red Instant Yeast
15) Mortadella Pizza Sandwich
If you haven’t tried this mind-blowing sandwich yet, you need to fix that ASAP. Not only is the trio of salty mortadella, creamy burrata, and crunchy pistachios impossible to resist, but it all gets folded inside a puffy flatbread made from Neapolitan pizza dough.
Get the recipe: Mortadella Pizza Sandwich
Shop the recipe: ‘00’ Pizza Flour
Short on time? Try one of these super-fast, super-easy spring desserts.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Sheila James.
Additional contributions by Jessica Battilana.
