Over the past few years, I picked up a few hobbies, one of them being baking. While I am no expert, I have used my past experiences to curate a list of some of my all-time favorite recipes I found online that you should try out if you ever need a dessert to bring to dinner, want to test out a new recipe, or even just have a craving for something sweet!

Red Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Filling (Tastes Better from Scratch)

Recipe: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/red-velvet-cookies-with-cream-cheese-filling/#recipe

Typically, when I’m baking, I avoid recipes that have filling sandwiched between two cookies because I see them as a waste of calories if the cookie itself isn’t delicious enough on its own. However, this recipe is, obviously, an exception to my rule. The cookies are on the thinner side, so they don’t overpower the fluffy cream cheese frosting, which is the main focus of the dessert. These are definitely a favorite of my friends and family members, and I love to make them near Valentine’s Day!

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (Life, Love and Sugar)

Cupcake recipe: https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/lemon-cupcakes/

Frosting recipe: https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/lemon-poppyseed-cake/#tasty-recipes-36735

Lemon desserts: you either love them or you hate them. Personally, I love all baked goods with lemon as long as they don’t taste like floor cleaner (which these cupcakes definitely don’t). My siblings generally wouldn’t say the same about lemon desserts, and although they complained when I was first making these lemon cupcakes, they still ended up devouring them. The original recipe uses lemon buttercream frosting, but I decided to use the lemon cream cheese frosting from Life, Love and Sugar’s Lemon Poppyseed Cake. My favorite part of the recipe is the frosting; lemon and cream cheese together is an unlikely combination, but an unbeatable one. Since the frosting comes from a cake recipe, I would recommend halving or even quartering the frosting recipe to match the cupcake yield.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake (Sally’s Baking Addiction)

Recipe: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-pizza/

Baking a cookie cake is exactly what you would expect; it’s just a simpler and faster way of making chocolate chip cookies but in pizza/cake-slice form. Cookie cake is a great option if you’re crunched for time because unlike most cookie recipes, which require chilling the dough, you can bake it straight away. It’s also the perfect choice for beginner bakers who are struggling to make their cookies turn out circular but still want to achieve the intended results (you may be surprised, but this is a real issue I’ve seen).

Apple Crumb Muffins (Sugar Spun Run)

Recipe: https://sugarspunrun.com/apple-crumble-muffins/#wprm-recipe-container-8609

This recipe is by far my favorite muffin recipe. I am not a big fan of apples, but these muffins are so moist and tender that even I enjoy them. It is possible to make these without the crumble topping if you want to omit it, but I would argue that the crumble is what makes this recipe so irresistible. Sugar Spun Run is also one of my favorite food blogs as you can’t go wrong with any of its recipes.

Banana Bread (The Salty Marshmallow)

Recipe: https://thesaltymarshmallow.com/best-banana-bread-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-5771

Banana bread was very popular to bake during quarantine, so when I set out to make some myself, I wanted to make sure I found the best recipe online. It’s very versatile—you can mix in different kinds of chopped nuts, chocolate chips, or another add-in—and practically impossible to mess up. The first time I made it, I accidentally forgot the butter until the very end, but it still turned out amazing. If you find yourself craving banana bread but your bananas aren’t ripe yet, you can poke the bananas with a fork and place them in the oven until their peels turn dark. Although the banana bread won’t be as good as when the bananas are naturally ripened, this hack still works very well for when you’re in a hurry.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies (Allrecipes)

Recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9827/chocolate-chocolate-chip-cookies-i/

I don’t usually trust recipes I get from Allrecipes because, well, it’s Allrecipes. Anyone can post a recipe there. However, this recipe in particular seemed much better than the other ones I was finding, and I was very pleased with the results. These cookies are very simple to make and are delicious even if you’re not a huge fan of chocolate.