It's the Weekend — Make Dessert!

A sweet treat makes any occasion feel like something special. Celebrate with cookies, cake, ice cream and more!

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Dulce de Leche Cookie Bars

With a buttery shortbread crust and creamy layer of dulce de leche, Food Network Magazine's chocolate chip-and-pecan-studded cookie bars will become your new favorite party treat.Bonus: They're extremely packable.

Get the Recipe: Dulce de Leche Cookie Bars

Basic Coconut Macaroons

Crank out a big batch of cookies in less than hour, without even using your mixer. Food Network Magazine’s five-ingredient coconut macaroon recipe yields about 30 perfectly chewy and delightfully sweet treats.

Get the Recipe: Basic Coconut Macaroons

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

You won’t find vanilla ice cream this rich and creamy in the freezer aisle. Calling for 10 egg yolks along with cream and vanilla bean, this decadent home-churned dessert is a worthy weekend splurge.

Get the Recipe: Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Rum French Toast a la Mode

Breakfast for dessert is a playful way to cap a nice weekend dinner. Glam up French toast with crusty baguette slices, spiked maple syrup and rum raisin ice cream.

Get the Recipe: Rum French Toast A La Mode

Chocolate-Hazelnut Icebox Cake

For the person with simultaneous love for cake and fear of baking, icebox cake is the solution — it's as easy as layering graham crackers with chocolate-hazelnut spread and whipped cream. After it spends a night in the fridge, you’ve got a picture-perfect dessert.

Get the Recipe: Chocolate-Hazelnut Icebox Cake

Gingersnap-Mango Icebox Cake

Crunchy gingersnaps transform into a lovely spiced cake when nestled between dollops of coconut whipped cream overnight. Add a pop of color to the coconut-covered dessert with fresh mango tossed with lime zest, sugar and a pinch of salt.

Get the Recipe: Gingersnap-Mango Icebox Cake

Strawberry Napoleons with Prosecco Cream

Frozen puff pastry is the all-star ingredient when it comes to making easy and elegant desserts, like these strawberry Napoleons. Serve each pastry with a glass of bubbly — you don't want to waste that bottle of Prosecco you opened to make the whipped cream.

Get the Recipe: Strawberry Napoleons With Prosecco Cream

Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream

When making homemade chocolate ice cream, go for the bittersweet variety of chocolate. You'll get a rich cocoa flavor that your chocoholic friends will surely appreciate.

Get the Recipe: Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream

Maple-Walnut Cheesecake

The combination of maple syrup and buttery walnuts deserves more credit. Make Food Network Magazine’s maple cheesecake with a walnut graham cracker crust and you'll agree.

Get the Recipe: Maple-Walnut Cheesecake

Watermelon Fruit Basket Cake

Fruit salad is infinitely more appealing when it’s sitting atop a beautiful bowl cake that looks like a watermelon. To make the faux fruit, dye cake batter pinkish red and add chocolate chips to look like seeds.

Get the Recipe: Watermelon Fruit Basket Cake

Lemon Meringue Tartlets

Rather than struggling to make perfect slices from one large pastry, serve individual tartlets. The addition of orange juice and limoncello in this lemon custard seriously raises the bar for all future lemon tarts.

Get the Recipe: Lemon Meringue Tartlets

Lemon-Berry Icebox Cake

Icebox cake is the perfect make-ahead dessert, especially when it's too hot to turn on the oven. This recipe for lemon cookie cake with berry cream cheese filling will come in handy for many future summer BBQs.

Get the Recipe: Lemon-Berry Icebox Cake

Pear-Gingersnap Cheesecake

This creamy spiced cheesecake encapsulates all of the comforting flavors of fall. The caramelized pears and molasses-syrup drizzle make it a worthy challenger to Thanksgiving pie, but no one will complain if it makes an appearance on any given weekend.

Get the Recipe: Pear-Gingersnap Cheesecake