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    Home › Cake Tips › 5 Dessert Recipes to Brighten Up Your Winter

    5 Dessert Recipes to Brighten Up Your Winter

    Goodbye, mittens! Hello, oven mitts!

    Our favorite way to spend a winter day is in front of a warm oven. We put on our coziest cakewear, layer up with an apron, and let the icing sugar fly. And while no one should see the flurry of pots and pans piling up in our kitchen, there is one thing you should see: the sweets that are helping us make it through the season. 

    These are the five dessert recipes we're obsessed with right now. These treats might not be able to bring back the sun, but they do taste great in front of a warm fire (or space heater!). Each one is easy to make and even easier to eat — they're the perfect way to brighten a dark winter day!

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    5 Dessert Recipes to Brighten Up Your Winter
    • Instructions

    Valentine's Day Cookies

    Love is for all seasons, but Valentine's Day comes smack-dab in the middle of winter, which makes sense to us. After all, cuddling is a winter sport. In fact, it's our second favorite winter sport behind frosting. 

    Frosting your own decorative Valentine's Day cookies is a great way to keep your baking skills in shape through the season. You don't need the dexterity of an olympic athlete to pull off a pretty piped finish. With our Valentine's Day Cookies Digital Activity Book, you can practice your decorating skills on a dessert everyone loves — the classic sugar cookie. 

    Just mix up a soft and sweet sugar cookie recipe. Then make your royal icing and color it to pretty shades of pink. 

    As you work, you'll learn to recognize when royal icing is the right consistency. Then, you'll practice key cookie skills like outlining and flood icing your cookies, adding fine lines and details, and lettering without a projector. You'll be amazed at how pretty your cookies can be with just a few pointers. 

    Valentine's Day cookies are a kid-friendly creative project that can help the whole family while away the winter hours. When you're done, you'll be able to hand out cookies as V-day gifts. And cookies are way better than cards. 


    Carrot Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

    When it comes to winter produce, there's not a lot to choose from. (Trust us, no one wants to make a Brussels sprouts cake.) But carrots are one staple veggie that's available through the entire season. And, carrots are one of the best — if not the best — veggie for baking. Sorry, zucchini bread, but there's nothing like a good carrot cake. 

    And if you're in need of a good carrot cake recipe, look no further than Yo's ultimate carrot cake topped with her four-ingredient cream cheese frosting. This recipe has been tested and perfected so you can avoid the pitfalls that can come up when you add veggies to cake. 

    There are two main things that go wrong with carrot cake: It comes out too sweet or too wet. 

    Carrots are a sweet vegetable, and they release their natural sugars as they bake. Yo's recipe balances these extra sugars with the bright, citrusy flavor or a whole puréed orange so you don't have to worry about tipping over into too-sweet territory. 

    Adding produce to cakes can also make your batter too wet. Carrots release moisture in the oven. If you add too many carrots to your batter, they could release too much moisture and ruin your cake. And while moist cake is normally a good thing, too much liquid can make your cake dense. Yo's recipe has the perfect amount of carrots to create big flavor with a fluffy texture. 

    If you want to learn more about avoiding cake-tastrophes, sign up for Yo's free Cake and Icing Basics Program. In this 4-week program, she'll walk you through the techniques you need to get perfect cake every time. There are even step-by-step video tutorials for her best dessert recipes, including her carrot cake and cream cheese frosting.  


    Hibernation Mega Treats

    All we want for winter is to hibernate like bears. We actually tried it once, but we kept waking up hungry. These Hibernation Mega Treats are our solution. (We might start keeping them under our pillow.) 

    This dessert recipe starts with a layer of rich chocolate brownies, made with cocoa powder, semi-sweet baking chocolate, and whole Oreos. The brownies are topped with mascarpone cheesecake bars that have a classic graham cracker crust. 

    Glue the brownies and cheesecake bars together with chocolate ganache, and top them with all your favorite comfort foods, from cherry pie filling to crushed pretzels, caramel, and Twix bars. Then, throw on your favorite pair of sweatpants and curl up on the couch. You're not going to want to move for the rest of winter — or at least not until the treats run out.  


    Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls

    If you want to get on a roll with your winter baking, sign up to make these Red Velvet Cinnamon Rolls. Our live tutorials are a great way to get your baking into gear. Not only will you make something you've never made before, you'll also master essential baking skills that you can use again and again. 

    Cinnamon rolls are an ideal winter baking challenge — you'll learn to work with yeasted dough to make a classic winter breakfast. We can't think of anything more comforting than a warm cinnamon roll on a cold morning. 

    This recipe features a classic cinnamon roll filling and a one-of-a-kind red velvet dough. You'll roll, fill, and shape your dough, bake it, and top it with gooey cream cheese frosting and Insta-worthy decorations. 


    Vanilla Toffee Cake With Coffee Buttercream

    The rich, butteriness of toffee always reminds us of winter. And when you pair it with the flavor of our favorite warm beverage, you end up with a cake so comforting it's like you're being wrapped in a buttercream blanket. 

    Yo's Vanilla Toffee Cake is a simple cake with complex flavor. It's made with fewer than 10 ingredients and has whole toffee bits stirred into the mix. When you slice it open, you can seem glimmering flecks of toffee throughout your sponge.  

    Top it with Yo's Coffee Buttercream, made from a fluffy Italian meringue buttercream with the easy addition of instant coffee. Spread that buttercream on thick, and enjoy a coffee-toffee creation that could outshine your favorite latte. 




    These Dessert Recipes Will Warm Things Up 

    Dessert is one of our favorite ways to scare away the winter doldrums. Make your winter baking adventure extra fun by sharing it with your baking bestie or with the little baker in your family. You can split a set of baking tools and make your cakes exactly like Yo makes hers (simple syrup bottle and all!). Or you can go all-in on your decorations with sprinkles galore! The most important thing about winter baking is that you have fun. Let baking be a little ray of sunshine in your winter season! 


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