Best Dessert and Cake Recipes for May

May's perfect offering of Delectable Delicious Desserts for you to drool over, make, bake and eat!

..... and you can find more of my favorite recipes on my Pinterest recipe page

Go-To Vanilla Cupcakes: I dare people not to smile when you bring out a plateful of these gorgeous little pink cupcakes, crammed with vanilla seeds they are just bursting with flavor, and the taste of vanilla is enhanced by the fudgy taste of almonds and they really complement one another - any cake with ground almonds in it has to be a winner in my book it creates such a wonderful texture as well as taste that I cannot eat just one of these cupcakes, luckily for me there are always lots of friends and family on hand to help me eat them.

Triple Layer Peanut Butter Krispie Treats: I cannot resist anything with peanut butter in it, now this triple-layered mixture of chocolate, peanut butter and puffed rice just means that I can have lots of my favorite things in one bite, yes my mouth really is that big, and in this case a little can go a long way, most puffed rice treats are insubstantial little bites of air but these luxurious morsels of happiness will have you heaving sighs of delight. I'm smiling just thinking of biting into one of these treats at the weekend - well what are weekends for!

Fancy something a little more classy to serve your guests than cookies? Then these will be just perfect, crisp little honey wafers bedecked with Chocolate and Hazelnuts, I think hazelnuts are definitely one of my favorite things, if I'm faced with a box of chocolates then anything with hazelnut is going to be my first choice. They are incredibly easy and quick to make and if hazelnuts are not your first choice then why not ring the changes - I've also made these with cherries and pecans, and coconut and white chocolate all three versions were divine - I think pistachios and caramel are going to be my next creation.

A message from the Earth Day 2012 website:

"Our planet, our home is being neglected. Climate change continues unabated. It seems there's a new ecological disaster happening almost daily. This Earth Day it's time to mobilize the planet from the ground up to send a message that the Earth won't wait!"

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If you do end up with any left over mint I have a couple of suggestions for you, you can either freeze mint and use straight from the freezer in casseroles, crumbled into peas or potatoes, and it's great in pea risotto mmm.

Our family favourite is finely chopped mint pounded together with caster sugar using a pestle & mortar, it's one of those jobs that is mindlessly relaxing, just watching the mint turn green as you work them together, the beautiful green sugar can be stored in an airtight jar / kilner jar for use later on in cakes or sprinkled on top of muffins - and if you haven't tried it yet (and you must) we sprinkle it over fresh pineapple, leave it for a short while for the sugar to melt and mix with the pineapple juice and then we devour it for breakfasts and lunches - and it just vanishes at parties, it's one of the easiest party desserts I've ever made (see the link on the right for the full recipe and explanation of the method used).

These cute Sunflower Cookies are almost too cute to eat - almost! One of the best things about this cookie recipe and tutorial is that even if you're just learning to decorate then these simple sunflowers are easy to make and sure to impress all your friends and family - they really are beautiful!

These cupcakes were originally designed with St. Patrick's Day in mind but I think they're perfect for any time of the year and especially after dinner as a light dessert after a heavy meal - perfect with a cup of frothy coffee, you could also add some mint to some freshly whipped cream and pop it on the top of your coffee to alongside these heavenly cupcakes.

If you love mint and chocolate then you're going to love these, dark chocolate sponge with a creamy mint topping and to top it off use one of your favourite mint chocolates - the recipe here uses a candy called Andes Mints which we don't get in the UK, I have used halved After Eight Mints and also those lovely dark chocolate sticks with the white mint cream in the middle that a lot of the supermarkets make, they look so delicate I use 2 or 3 crisscrossed on the top of the cream, whatever you choose I'm sure these will be a hit with your family and friends.

I love, love, love Sticky Cinnamon Buns and this easy recipe takes them to a whole new level of deliciousness by adding Vanilla and Apple. They taste incredible - I think you can tell from the photograph just how good they taste, and the smell as they bake in the oven is practically unbearable, I've never seen my family hover around the kitchen quite so much as when these are in the oven - definitely one of my overall favorite things to eat and I am absolutely sure you will agree with me, one bite and you will be smitten.

From the moment I saw the photograph of this cake I was mesmerised, not only does it have a beautifully crisp base underneath that deep dark luxurious chocolate tart, but to top it off as if it needed anything else there was the dazzling golden brittle with those bright green pistachios peaking out at me. Oh my - there's truly no hope for me - I want this cake and I want it all the time!

This is truly a dessert to amaze your guests and trust me you will hear gasps when you place this on the table - yes you really should share this - I wouldn't advise anyone to eat this all on their own - this will be a joy to share. After this has been served people will talk about it and no-one will ever want to miss a dinner party of yours ever again.

These delicious and amazing sugar cookies were devised by the very talented Sandra Denneler and you can find the recipe on her website (see the link on the right). Her recipe, directions and photographs make this so simple to follow and this is definitely going to be some weekend fun for my daughter and I to make.

They are designed in the image of a colourful piñata and just like the traditional piñata they have candy hidden inside, Sandra suggests using mini M&Ms and I have to say I can't think of a better candy as the wonderful colours match the piñata beautifully and everything I'm convinced is going to taste just as good as it looks.

You can find out more about the Cinco de Mayo Festival at http://cincodemayo.org/

This wobbly little delight is one of my husband's favourite treats, this vanilla laden smooth creamy little flan is sometimes overlooked for more decadent looking desserts but one mouthful of this glorious little pud and you wonder why you don't eat it more often. It's ability to go sit happily drenched in any fruit that your heart desires and to be all the more perfect with it, or to just to be eaten spoonful by marvellous spoonful all on it's own is simply divine.

This is one of those desserts where I don't want anyone to interrupt me, I have to give it my full attention, just let me sit in a warm place full of sunshine and pillows with a beautiful plate and this beautiful pudding and to be able to savour every little bit in perfect peace.

This is a seriously indulgent cake, this is not a cake you can make for someone watching their weight, it is a serious sugar hit of Dulce de Leche and creamy icing wrapping and layered inside a light moist vanilla sponge.

There's not much more I can say about this dessert - make it for someone and you have a friend for life who will know that you obviously treasure them.

Want to impress your future relatives? ............................................. This will do it!

Want to capture the attention of the man of your dreams? ................ This will do it.

You know that book "how to influence people etc."? Did they mention this cake - nope? In the words of Pretty Woman - Mistake! Big mistake!

I always have some cooking apples floating around in the fruit drawer of my fridge, or if it's the right season they are at the end of my garden hanging on a wonderful tree that shades me from the sun when I'm reading a book by the pond. If you fancy something fruity and filling this is the dessert for you (and me) - as this is a rather heavy pudding I wait until I'm having a light salad for dinner, in fact I have been known to forgo dinner and just have this instead, there are people that think that is wrong but it's fruit, fruit is good for me, it fills me up, I don't then go looking for something sweet to eat after my 'dinner' and it makes me happy - what more could you possibly want in a meal?!

The only change that I make to this is that I prefer my Apple Dumpling with some ice cream or double/heavy cream, but it is a sensational caramel sauce and well worth the washing up to make it.

I love gingersnap biscuits, in fact if there's a packet in the house I find it really hard to concentrate on anything other than the fact that they're in the cupboard, no-one else in the family likes them but for me some fiery hot gingersnaps along with a hot cup of tea and my mouth is quickly set on fire and I want for nothing else in the world - I am perfectly contented - or so I believed.....

UNTIL I saw the recipe for this cheesecake wrapped in a thick gingersnap and chocolate set ganache - a cool, creamy, hot and spicy, chocolatey dream - it ticked all my boxes and hopefully as my last offering for this month's desserts I hope that you will feel the same and let me know if you try it.

I have to say when I first found this on the internet, as the photograph slowly opened up (yes I have lousy internet coverage) it literally took my breath away, and every time I have gone to it since I still get the same kick out of watching it unfold before my eyes. It is a beautiful written piece of cookery on the web and enjoyable to read as the cake is to make and eat - thank you so much to Aida Mollenkamp for sharing this gorgeous dessert - taste hunters we all are and I am so glad I hunted down your website.

This has to be one of the kid's favorite desserts, and this has been requested by a few friends on their respective birthdays and been devoured each time - all I can tell you is it's not difficult to make and it's certainly not difficult to eat.

What I would love to know is where it got it's crazy name - if anyone knows please tell me.

This might seem a bit like simple home cooking in comparison with some of the other desserts that I have featured, but for me there is nothing as delectable as 'CHERRIES', I love them, I remember on my 18th birthday my best present, by far, was a 3kg bag of dark sweet Morello Cherries that my boyfriend arrived with, people thought he was quite mad, I on the other hand realised just how well he knew me and was a very happy 18 year old with darkly stained cherry-red lips for just over a week - yes I ate nearly every single cherry - sharing? Only sometimes, and it was my birthday.

So yes I will unashamedly include this beautiful Cherry Bubble Cake - love the name by the way - and if sense didn't stop me - I no longer have my 18 year old figure - so although I couldn't, shouldn't, eat the entire cake - I still know that I would like to - and, I'm probably better at sharing now. So make this, share it, love it as much as I do.

I love the taste of lemon, one of my favourite cakes is my recipe for a zesty Lemon Drizzle Cake that you can find on this website using the link on the right. Recently I came across this lemony piece of heaven on a website that is normally filled with healthy food but as she explains it was her birthday and we should all treat ourselves on our special day. The great thing about this, thing? What am saying? The things, elements of this cake that make it special for me is the zesty lemon cream cheese frosting which lights your mouth up, the delicious explosions of biting into gorgeous fat little blueberries, a supreme superfood that is so good for you - so you see this is a cake with added benefits, healthy fruit and sublime taste all rolled into one.