How are you preparing for Easter? I feel that any holiday, especially on a Sunday, is a great excuse to put together a brunch table. So I prepared a roundup of great sweet and savory baking recipes and drinks to inspire you. Some are easy and perfect if you need a last-minute addition to your menu. These are our favorites.
This recipe roundup is updated every year with new content.
Every year I gather with family, sometimes old friends, and celebrate around a nice brunch table for Easter.
It's always special and there's always too much food, as pertains to those of us brought up with any type of Italian heritage.
Setting the table: take the time to think about what color palette you want that goes with your food. Easter and Spring are all about light and sunshine (hopefully) so make sure your plates and linens match the spirit you want for the brunch.
The recipes
The great thing about baking is that most recipes are good to eat year-round. We are not as eager to bake in the scorching summer, but spring and fall are perfect occasions. And a holiday is the perfect excuse.
These are, hands down, my favorites for Easter.
Drinks
Rosé Wine Sangria
A wonderful strawberry sangria recipe with rosé wine. It's the perfect light drink that takes 10 minutes to prepare and lasts several hours.
Pink Lemonade
A twist on a favorite classic, our pink lemonade has just the right amount of sweetness and a burst of berry flavor. A quick, fun and colorful drink made with fresh ingredients.
White Wine Sangria
Making white sangria takes 10 minutes and lasts for hours, making it a perfect drink for brunch. It's a great pitcher cocktail to make for special occasions.
Savory
I have to confess that savory baking is one of my favorite things. And eating the results is a big part of why I love it.
Salmon Quiche
Quiche is a fancy tart with a buttery crust and a rich, creamy filling. This variation is easy to make and flavorful, with fresh, smoked or cured salmon.
Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb
It's much easier to make than you might think. Flavorful, moist, and served with gravy from its juices and roasted veggies, it can be made ahead.
BLT Deviled Eggs
Creamy deviled eggs with crispy bacon, lettuce and tomato. These are as cute as they're delicious!
Homemade Gravlax
Gravlax is so easy to make! It's cured fresh salmon. Wonderfully tasty, salty sweet, and a great appetizer.
Easy Baked Ricotta
This simple recipe is quick and easy to make. It can be mixed by hand or in the food processor if you want a smoother texture.
Crustless Quiche Recipe
A simple, flavorful dish great for brunch or a light lunch. It's egg-based and very versatile with fillings. Ready in less than an hour, it keeps well for several days.
Pizza Rustica Pie
This is a classic Italian savory pie made with ricotta, cheese, and cold meats. It's a traditional dish for Easter and a great recipe for leftovers.
Tomato Galette
Galette is the French word for a free-form pie recipe. It's the easiest way to make a pie without a pie dish, and it's so delicious!
Mushroom Quiche
Quiche is a short, fancy tart with a buttery crust and a rich, creamy filling. Mushrooms and leeks make this recipe extraordinary and full of flavor.
Bread, Scones & Muffins
There are some traditional recipes below that I love to include on a holiday table. All brunches should have bread and cookies, of course!
Coconut Muffins
Very easy, bakery-style toasted coconut muffins with a soft, moist crumb that will rise wonderfully. They're plain, flavorful and perfect for Easter brunch.
Hot Cross Buns
These are traditional little sweet Easter buns. They are super soft, tender, with a hint of cinnamon, and studded with raisins. They can be made ahead and frozen.
Glazed Easter Bread
My favorite Italian Easter bread is braided, glazed, and has simple flavors, perfect for brunch or with a cup of coffee.
Raspberry Muffins
This delicious raspberry muffin recipe will rise, crack, and bake to a golden brown. They're moist and soft, with a subtle lemon flavor and bursting raspberries.
Best Strawberry Scones
A fabulous tender scone with strawberry bits that bakes to a golden brown and has the most eye-catching pink drizzle of strawberry glaze.
Blueberry Scones
Scones that are bursting with blueberries, this recipe makes tender, buttery, flaky ones that are ready in an hour and can be frozen.
Crunchy Almond Bread
A gorgeous holiday braid, with a crunchy almond crust and a soft, fluffy crumb. It can be made ahead and frozen.
Cookies and Candy
Easter is not complete without cookies and easy candy recipes. Here are our favorites.
Lemon Ricotta Cookies
These glazed Italian lemon cookies are melt-in-your-mouth good, soft from the ricotta cheese and bursting with zesty lemon flavor.
Easter Bark
Super easy thin chocolate bars with chopped mini eggs and sprinkles. It takes 10 minutes to put together, extra time to set, and that's it.
Lemon Crinkles
These cookies are a crowd-pleaser—simply sensational! They are perfectly tender, easy to make, and have a fresh lemon flavor.
Cadbury Egg Cookies
These are easy, cute, and delicious cookies. Made with chopped chocolate mini eggs and almonds, they're especially great for brunch.
Peanut Clusters
The easiest chocolate candy ever. It's a simple concept of mixing chocolate with peanuts and a little bit of salt. Let the clusters dry, and they're ready to eat!
Snickerdoodle Cookies
These traditional cookies are sweet and soft, with that slight tang that makes them unique. Rolled in cinnamon sugar, they're a crowd-pleaser.
Almond Macaroons
Italian macaroons are naturally gluten-free cookies made with almonds and egg whites. The chocolate drizzle will make almond and cookie lovers swoon.
Peanut Butter Blossoms
Soft and chewy peanut butter cookies with a chocolate center, these cookies are easy to make and loved by everyone.
Chocolate Nut Cookies
These intense chocolate cookies have nuts, a shiny, crackly skin, and a dark chocolate fudgy center with chocolate chips that is gooey and incredibly rich.
White Almond Cookies
Soft, chewy, and delicious, these cookies are a one-bowl recipe full of sweetness from the white chocolate chips and crunchiness from the almonds.
Lemon Cookies
A 5-ingredient recipe for a delicate, crisp cookie with a melt-in-your-mouth quality. It's topped with a zesty powdered sugar lemon glaze.
Buckeye Fudge
These peanut butter fudge squares are super easy to make and a total crowd-pleaser. Topped with a layer of semisweet chocolate, they are beyond amazing!
Bunny Sugar Cookies
The dough is vanilla-flavored and straightforward to make. The cookies and icing can be made ahead as they keep for several days or weeks.
Pies, Bars, and Desserts
Some traditional pies and some wonderful desserts that your pickiest eaters will approve of.
Best Pavlova Recipe
A pavlova consists of a meringue base with a crisp exterior and a marshmallow-like center. It is topped with whipped cream or lemon curd and berries.
Italian Ricotta Pie
The best ricotta pie, with an easy-to-make Italian sweet pastry dough and a lemon filling full of flavor.
Pineapple Dump Cake
An indulgent, simple and easy-to-make recipe that combines the sweetness of the pineapple with the buttery, cakey texture of the cake mix.
White Walnut Blondies
Wonderfully easy to make, these white chocolate walnut bars have a hint of coffee, and taste like the best caramel cookie.
Lemon Blondies
These are sweet, moist, and intensely lemon-flavored bars that are easy to make and glazed to perfection. A mouthwatering recipe that will bring raves!
Cherry Custard Tart
An easy cherry tart with a vanilla custard filling, fresh cherries, and a crust that doesn't require refrigeration or rolling before using!
Hazelnut Brownies
These are fudgy, easy to make, and incredibly rich, one of the best brownies I ever made. And they happen to be gluten-free.
Fig Jam Tart
This is a wonderful fig tart (or an Italian crostata alla marmellata) with a lattice top. It has step-by-step instructions for the sweet dough and homemade fig jam.
Cinnamon Rice Pudding
Creamy, sweet, and with a hint of citrus, this Spanish rice pudding recipe has been in my family for ages. It is easy to make and keeps refrigerated for several days.
Coconut Brownies
Fudgy and gooey chocolate coconut brownies, that keep well and can be frozen.
Cakes
I narrowed down my favorite cake recipes for this time of year, which was difficult. I hope you find them amazing like I do.
Carrot Pineapple Cake
Add pineapple to carrot cake and you have a new favorite! It's very moist, super flavorful, and perfect to make year-round.
Lemon Blackberry Loaf
A quick bread similar to a light pound cake that bakes to a golden brown and is covered with the most eye-catching pink icing.
Ricotta Cheesecake
This fabulous cheesecake with cream cheese and ricotta to create a lighter, slightly rustic texture. It's creamy, sweet, and barely tangy filling.
Hummingbird Cake
Beautiful layers flavored with banana, pineapple, cinnamon, and walnuts are combined with sweet cream cheese frosting. A fantastic vintage cake.
Lemon Curd Cupcakes
Wonderfully lemony, these gorgeous cupcakes are sweet and soft, with a lemon curd center and a lemon cream cheese frosting.
Carrot Layer Cake
This is truly a celebration carrot cake, with a very moist crumb and spiced flavor. Filled and frosted with cream cheese, it's a certain crowd-pleaser.
Maple Walnut Cake
A moist and dense walnut pound cake with maple syrup in the batter and finger-licking maple icing. Two flavors that pair fantastically well.
Crustless Ricotta Cake
This 7-ingredient, no-crust ricotta cheesecake is soft and creamy. It leaves a wonderful aroma in your kitchen, lasts for days, and cuts like a dream.
Chocolate Torte
This chocolate almond torte is a rich and showstopping dessert served with berries and cream. It is flourless, cuts like a dream, and keeps well.
Lemon Almond Cake
Not your typical cake, this one has almond cream swirled into a wonderful lemon batter. The result is moist, perfectly tight, and with a fantastic flavor!
Bonus: easiest Easter Sugar Cookies
A bonus recipe that is more an idea, because it doesn't have a post, only the image below.
We took our favorite sour cream sugar cookie dough and made egg and bunny cookies decorated with chocolate candies in pastel colors. Look for those that are meant to be baked without losing color or form.
Cookie decoration was never easier!
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Jacquie Gariano says
Love all the choices. will be doing 2-3 and pining some for later use. Thanks