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48 St. Patrick’s Day Desserts, from Guinness Brownies to Irish Cream Tiramisu

Save room for Irish potatoes

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st patricks day desserts
Photo: Mark Weinberg/Styling: Erin McDowell

Can’t make it to Dublin to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day? No worries: You can still claim the luck of the Irish in your own kitchen. Even after you’ve had your fill of soda bread and corned beef, you’ll want to make room for sweet treats like green doughnuts, chocolate stout cake, Guinness brownies and a potato candy that has nothing to do with spuds. Here, 48 St. Patrick’s Day desserts that are better than a pot of gold.

33 Easy Irish-Inspired Recipes to Try at Home


st patrick's day desserts: baileys cookies and cream parfaits
Erin McDowell

1. Baileys Cookies and Cream Parfait

  • Time Commitment: 35 minutes
  • Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, special occasion–worthy

Save the yogurt and fruit parfaits for Easter. These layered desserts are just boozy enough, thanks to a generous splash of Irish cream. (Sorry, kiddos, this one is adults only.)

st patrick's day desserts: potato candy
Photo: Mark Weinberg/Styling: Erin McDowell

2. ‘Potato’ Candy

  • Time Commitment: 20 minutes
  • Why I Love It: no cook, crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly

This regional confection is popular in Philadelphia around St. Patrick’s Day. The sweet bites are called potatoes because they look like potatoes—but they taste like a fancy Mounds candy bar coated with cinnamon instead of chocolate.

st patrick's day desserts: chocolate stout cake recipe
Erin McDowell

3. Chocolate Stout Cake

  • Time Commitment: 2 hours, 15 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion–worthy

Sure, Valentine’s Day gets all the love when it comes to decadent desserts, but let’s not overlook the fact that Guinness and chocolate make a delightful pair. Luck of the Irish, indeed.

st patrick's day desserts: baileys coffee granita
Erin McDowell

4. Baileys Coffee Granita

  • Time Commitment: 3 hours, 20 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly

Essentially an “adult” slushy, we love the idea of serving this frozen treat as an alternative to after-dinner espressos. Even better, it calls for just six ingredients.

st patrick's day desserts: baileys chocolate truffles
Erin McDowell

5. Baileys Chocolate Truffles

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 40 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly

Requiring only five ingredients and two hours of your time, you’ll be set with a gourmet dessert and still have time to binge watch Darby O’Gill and the Little People.

st patrick's day desserts: no-churn mint chocolate chip ice cream
Photo: Mark Weinberg/Styling: Erin McDowell

6. No-Churn Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

  • Time Commitment: 5 hours
  • Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, kid-friendly, gluten free

No one will pinch you if you present them with a bowl of this minty green ice cream. And FYI, if you can make whipped cream, you’re halfway there.

st patrick's day desserts: irish apple cake with whiskey creme anglaise
A Cookie Named Desire

7. Irish Apple Cake with Whiskey Crème Anglaise

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 20 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly

If you’re keen on celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in a more traditional way, this cake has your name on it. It’s a popular dessert served in Irish households, and you can top it with confectioners’ sugar, a creamy whiskey sauce or both.

st patrick's day desserts: guinness brownies
Sally's Baking Addiction

8. Guinness Brownies

  • Time Commitment: 3 hours
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly, special occasion–worthy

Before you diss a brownie made with beer, allow us to explain. Guinness stout is commonly paired with chocolate in baking for its deep, coffee-like flavor. (In other words, it doesn’t taste like beer in the slightest.)

st patrick's day desserts: shortbread cookies
Two Peas & Their Pod

9. Shortbread Cookies

  • Time Commitment: 2 hours, 30 minutes
  • Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients, kid-friendly

These crumbly cookies made from sugar, butter and flour were actually invented by the Scottish (and leavened with yeast). Over time, the yeast was swapped for butter—an Irish staple—and that’s how shortbread as we know it today came to be.

st patrick's day desserts: spicy chocolate stout cake
Spoon Fork Bacon

10. Spicy Chocolate Stout Cake

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 15 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion–worthy

We were so entranced by the swoops of peanut butter frosting, we almost forgot there’s a rich, cinnamon-spiked chocolate cake underneath there.

st patrick's day desserts: double dark chocolate marshmallow mint chex bars
What's Gaby Cooking

11. Double Dark Chocolate Marshmallow Mint Chex Bars

  • Time Commitment: 10 minutes
  • Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, kid-friendly, <15 minutes, <10 ingredients

You don’t have to be Irish or a pro baker to whip up this quick, sweet snack. Make a batch for your kids’ lunches, your office party or just to hoard at home.

st patrick's day desserts: homemade irish cream
Cupcake Project

12. Homemade Irish Cream

  • Time Commitment: 2 hours, 10 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, no cook, beginner-friendly

It might only take ten minutes to make your own Irish cream, but once you try the homemade version (made with sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream), you’ll understand why it’s a dessert.

st patrick's day desserts: guinness floats
Gimme Some Oven

13. Guinness Floats

  • Time Commitment: 2 minutes
  • Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, no cook, <10 ingredients, <15 minutes

Behold the easiest St. Patrick’s Day dessert ever: Just scoop, pour, drizzle and sip. If you're not convinced or you've never had stout, know that it tastes a little like coffee and chocolate combined.

st patrick's day desserts: carrot cake doughnuts with cream cheese glaze
Photo: Nico Schinco/Styling: Erin McDowell

14. Carrot Cake Doughnuts with Cream Cheese Glaze

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly

St. Paddy’s Day means spring is on the way, and nothing says spring like a moist carrot cake doughnut with a tangy cream cheese topping. Plus, what better way to start the day?

st patrick's day desserts: irish cream tiramisu
How Sweet Eats

15. Irish Cream Tiramisu

  • Time Commitment: 6 hours, 35 minutes
  • Why I Love It: make ahead, special occasion–worthy

Swap the usual booze for Irish cream and voilà, a festive dessert. It tastes so good we want to dive in with a spoon, but that’s neither here nor there.

st patrick's day desserts: snickerdoodle lucky charms cookies
I Am a Food Blog

16. Snickerdoodle Lucky Charms Cookies

  • Time Commitment: 20 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <30 minutes, kid-friendly, beginner-friendly

Hearts, stars, horseshoes and the gang are teaming up with chewy, cinnamon-y cookies for the cookie of our childhood dreams. (Psst: Did you know you could buy a bag of *just* the Lucky Charms marshmallows?)

st patrick's day desserts: gluten free matcha cupcakes with matcha frosting
Snixy Kitchen

17. Gluten Free Matcha Cupcakes with Matcha Frosting

  • Time Commitment: 44 minutes
  • Why I Love It: gluten free, special occasion–worthy, crowd-pleaser

They’re as green as the rolling hills of Ireland. The cupcakes are sweetened with honey, which tames the bitter notes of the matcha and adds a ton of moisture.

st patrick's day desserts: baileys mint chocolate cream pie
Grandbaby Cakes

18. Baileys Mint Chocolate Cream Pie

  • Time Commitment: 30 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <30 minutes, beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser

It looks super impressive, but the press-in cookie crust and easy pudding filling make it entirely foolproof. No water bath, no problem.

st patrick's day desserts: guinness sheet cake with candied pecans
So Much Food

19. Guinness Sheet Cake with Candied Pecans

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, sheet pan recipe

It’s a little bit southern, a little bit Irish and extremely decadent, thanks to a rich combination of dark chocolate and stout beer. The candied pecans are a delicious touch, but you could also swap in green sprinkles for a festive addition.

st patrick's day desserts: stout chocolate brownies
Foodie Crush

20. Stout Chocolate Brownies

  • Time Commitment: 2 hours, 10 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly

Psst: You don’t have to use Guinness when the recipe calls for stout. These brownies are made with Murphy’s, but you can use any dark beer.

st patrick's day desserts: yogurt and olive oil pistachio cake with lemon buttercream
The Modern Proper

21. Yogurt and Olive Oil Pistachio Cake with Lemon Buttercream

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 20 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion–worthy

Nothing against green food dye, but there’s something much more appealing about the springy hue of a real pistachio. Greek yogurt in the batter keeps the cake moist…and also makes it suitable for breakfast, no?

st patrick's day desserts: brown butter braided cinnamon roll cake
Spoon Fork Bacon

22. Brown Butter Braided Cinnamon Roll Cake

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 45 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly, special occasion–worthy

The key to making it holiday-ready (and mouthwateringly good) is to use the best Irish butter you can find. Thank us later. If making the dough is too intimidating, try using store-bought pizza dough instead.

st patrick's day desserts: pistachio cookies
Also the Crumbs Please

23. Pistachio Cookies

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 35 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly

Kiss us, we just made you a batch of these chewy, gooey, chocolate-studded cookies. Pistachios add a subtle green hue without incorporating food coloring.

st patrick's day desserts: lucky charms cereal milk confetti cupcakes
How Sweet Eats

24. Lucky Charms Cereal Milk Confetti Cupcakes

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 25 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion–worthy, kid-friendly

Plan ahead when steeping your cereal milk so the rest of the recipe comes together in a flash. The edible gold leaf is optional, but we like the way it takes things over the top.

st patrick's day desserts: miniature banoffee cobblers
Photo: Nico Schinco/Styling: Erin McDowell

25. Miniature Banoffee Cobblers

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 45 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser

This dessert is technically English in origin, but it’s also popular throughout Ireland. And why not? It checks every texture box: gooey caramel, soft bananas, airy whipped cream and crisp graham cracker crumbles.

st patrick's day desserts: irish apple cake doughnuts with whiskey glaze
The Modern Proper

26. Irish Apple Cake Doughnuts with Whiskey Glaze

  • Time Commitment: 40 minutes
  • Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser

Traditional Irish dessert, but make it doughnuts because why not? If you don’t already have a doughnut pan, you can find them online.

st patrick's day desserts: green velvet doughnuts
Upstate Ramblings

27. Green Velvet Doughnuts

  • Time Commitment: 20 minutes
  • Why I Love It: kid-friendly, crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly

And if apples aren’t your thing, maybe green velvet (aka mildly chocolate cake with plenty of green dye) is.

st patrick's day desserts: banoffee pie with honeycomb
Lomelino's Pies

28. Banoffee Pie with Honeycomb

  • Time Commitment: 40 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion–worthy

Here’s another take on banoffee, this time with a crispy, caramel-like honeycomb topping for even more texture. Bananas not ripe enough? Here's how to speed up the process.

st patrick's day desserts: guinness chocolate glazed doughnut holes
Sweet Peas and Saffron

29. Guinness Chocolate Glazed Doughnut Holes

  • Time Commitment: 25 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly

Hot tip: Anyone can make baked-not-fried doughnut holes if they have a mini muffin tin on hand. Glaze them while they're still hot to let some of the sugar sink in.

st patrick's day desserts: baileys irish cream cake
Noble Pig

30. Baileys Irish Cream Cake

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 30 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion–worthy

This pretty cake contains Irish cream in both the batter and the glaze for a double-dose of flavor. (Your guests don't need to know that it starts with a boxed yellow cake mix.)

st patrick's day desserts: homemade shamrock shakes
The Recipe Critic

31. Homemade Shamrock Shakes

  • Time Commitment: 5 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, no cook, kid-friendly

Those golden arches don’t know what’s coming. You can make your shake plain or add cookie crumbles and chocolate syrup for a major upgrade.

lucky charms marshmallow treats
Show Me the Yummy

32. Lucky Charms Marshmallow Treats

  • Time Commitment: 12 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <15 minutes, kid-friendly, crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly

Sometimes making a festive snack is as easy as swapping in marshmallow cereal in an already-simple recipe. Pretty ingenious, if you ask us.

st patrick's day desserts: no bake irish cream cheesecake
A Classic Twist

33. No-Bake Irish Cream Cheesecake

  • Time Commitment: 3 hours, 30 minutes
  • Why I Love It: no cook, crowd-pleaser, special occasion–worthy

You had us at no-bake. This creamy cake doesn’t require a fussy water bath or an oven, and while the texture is lighter than a classic New York cheesecake, it’s no less delicious.

st patrick's day desserts: beer truffles with crushed pretzels
A Cookie Named Desire

34. Beer Truffles with Crushed Pretzels

  • Time Commitment: 40 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser

You already know what we’re going to say: Use a stout-style beer (preferably an Irish one, like Guinness or Murphy's) to stick with the theme.

st patrick's day desserts: boozy lucky charms cereal milkshakes with marshmallow frosting
How Sweet Eats

35. Boozy Lucky Charms Cereal Milkshakes with Marshmallow Frosting

  • Time Commitment: 30 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <30 minutes, <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly

Sip responsibly: These cute shakes are made with marshmallow vodka for a kick. Of course, if you’re making them for the kids you can just leave the alcohol out.

st patrick's day desserts: pistachio drop cookies
Sally's Baking Addiction

36. Pistachio Drop Cookies

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly

We’re a little bit obsessed with this simple recipe. The cookies come together in one bowl and call for just six ingredients, and they taste like heaven thanks to a brown butter icing.

st patrick's day desserts: one bowl eight ingredient irish coffee fudge brownies
Half Baked Harvest

37. One-Bowl, 8-Ingredient Irish Coffee Fudge Brownies

  • Time Commitment: 35 minutes
  • Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser

There’s coffee. There’s Baileys. There are pools of melted chocolate. What more could you need? (Maybe a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream—just a suggestion.)

st patrick's day desserts: chocolate stout macaroons
A Cookie Named Desire

38. Chocolate Stout Macaroons

  • Time Commitment: 30 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <30 minutes, <10 ingredients

Coconut and stout sounds unusual on paper, but one bite of these sweet, chewy, chocolatey cookies and the combination makes total sense.

st patrick's day desserts: pistachio shortbread cookies
Saving Room for Dessert

39. Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

  • Time Commitment: 33 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly

It’s not easy being green…unless you’re a buttery, nutty, obsession-worthy shortbread cookie. To make these ahead, roll the dough into a log and stash it in the freezer until you're ready to slice and bake.

st patrick's day desserts: peanut butter chocolate stout cake
Broma Bakery

40. Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout Cake

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour
  • Why I Love It: special occasion–worthy, crowd-pleaser

Pull out all the stops and make a towering, decadent chocolate cake spiked with beer this St. Patrick’s Day. After all, what are holidays for if not for eating and drinking?

st patrick's day desserts: rainbow waffle cake
Photo: Liz Andrew/Styling: Erin McDowell

41. Rainbow Waffle Cake

  • Time Commitment: 10 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <15 minutes, crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly

We can’t promise a pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow, but we can promise you’ll be making waffle cakes for every occasion here on out.

st patrick's day desserts: frozen irish cream cappuccinos
How Sweet Eats

42. Frozen Irish Cream Cappuccinos

  • Time Commitment: 15 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <15 minutes, <10 ingredients, gluten free

Top of the morning? On second thought, we’ll save these for dessert. Luckily, you don’t need an espresso machine to make these indulgent drinks, just a blender.

43. Vanilla Bean St. Patrick’s Day Cookies

  • Time Commitment: 3 hours
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly

You simply can’t go wrong with a classic (and festive) sugar cookie. These are flavored with vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds, so they’re lightyears ahead of any store-bought biscuits.

44. The Luckiest Rice Cereal Treats

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 25 minutes
  • Why I Love It: kid-friendly, crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients

By using the classic puffed rice cereal, these bars maintain the crisp texture of the original (with plenty of festive flair from the Lucky Charms ’mallows). Take your treats OTT by arranging individual marshmallows in a layer on top.

45. Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour, 35 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion–worthy

The stout adds depth and moisture to the deeply chocolate cake, so it’s a no-brainer addition. But if you’re looking for even more boozy flavor, it’s also in the ganache.

46. 3-Ingredient Lucky Charms Bark

  • Time Commitment: 1 hour
  • Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly, kid-friendly

You only need white chocolate, cereal marshmallows and lots of rainbow sprinkles to make a magical treat that sweet tooths will adore. The swirls of pink are optional, but easily achieved with a drop of red food coloring. (Oh, and if this is too sweet for your tastes, try swapping in melted dark chocolate instead.)

47. Baileys Irish Cream Mug Brownie

  • Time Commitment: 6 minutes
  • Why I Love It: <15 minutes, beginner-friendly

St. Patrick's Day dessert for one? It's a thing, especially when you can forgo making an entire batch of brownies and instead mix one up that you don't have to share. Top it with vanilla ice cream while it's still hot and dig in.

48. Salted Pistachio Shortbread

  • Time Commitment: 30 minutes
  • Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, <30 minutes, <10 ingredients

One of the reasons we adore shortbread? It requires very few ingredients (here, six, to be precise) and can be customized to your heart’s desire. This version features pistachios and flaky salt for an almost savory twist that also happens to be green.


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Former Senior Food Editor

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  • Studied English Literature at the University of Notre Dame and Culinary Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education