8 Dessert Mashups To Drive Your Taste Buds Wild

We will never tire of discovering new dessert fusions. When two desserts fall in love and create a brand-new delicious dessert baby, it is a magical thing. We are so grateful to the pastry chefs and chocolatiers who help make it happen.

Here’s to hybrids made in sweet-tooth paradise—we’ll never quit you, even though sometimes you cost a little extra, like the eight we have here.

1. Cake (Filling + Frosting) + Sandwich Shape = The CakeWich

Home bakers have been coming up with whatever versions of cakewich they please for awhile now, but the basic concept is a snack-sized dessert with layers of cake sandwiching delicious filling and frosting. An inside-out cake, if you will.

Cake Monkey Bakery in Los Angeles has perfected the cakewich and adds extra elements to some varieties – like a chocolate shell coating, or a layer of marshmallow.

2. Tart + Brownie = Townie

There was a hot minute where people thought this pastry fusion might be the “next big thing” to stir up a Cronut-like frenzy. It didn’t—perhaps because people couldn’t eat it for breakfast on the move. It’s still great as a chocoholic treat.

It’s also pretty easy to make at home, using a muffin tin if you’re not fancy enough to keep tart pans around the kitchen.

3. Brownies + Cookies = Brookie

The brownie gets around! Probably because a dense chocolate base works well with many other pastry elements.

In the case of the “Brookie,” people usually bake chocolate chip cookie dough together with brownie batter. Some do a bottom layer of brownie, top layer cookie—but we’ve seen more experienced bakers swirl the two batters together, so the finished product looks sort of like a Yin-Yang symbol. How enlightening.

4. Pudding + Cookies = Pookie

Okay, we made up “Pookie.” Because it’s cute, and also because we want you to remember how easy it is to make these. Simply add a packet of instant pudding mix into the dough, and voila — a softer, chewy-centered cookie.

We’ve seen home bakers do butterscotch chip, chocolate, banana cream, and coconut pookies–and it doesn’t even take extra effort. Options are as endless as pudding flavors + candy + fruit combos.

5. Pancake + Dumpling = Dinkie

We didn’t make this name up. A woman in New York did, and opened an entire shop of the same name—but the concept is a traditional Scandinavian treat.

They’re basically bite-sized stuffed pancakes. The Scandinavians call them ebelskiver and have perfected a muffin tin/frying pan hybrid that makes them relatively easy to cook at home.

Pro tip: By any name, these count as a breakfast food, even when stuffed with chocolate.

6. Strawberry Shortcake + Doughnut = Strawberry Shortnuts

We’re still working on the name. It’s a little awkward. But the concept is so simple and smart, especially if you find traditional shortcake too heavy.

Use a bagel slicer to divide a classic glazed doughnut in half, and sandwich the whipped cream and strawberries between doughnut layers. Some baking ninjas make their doughnuts, but buying them at your favorite bakery and assembling the dessert at home still counts as DIY.

7. Smore + Doughnut = S’MoreNut

The evil chocolate cousin of the ShortNut. Behold–a perfectly toasted marshmallow atop a chocolate-glazed doughnut. With graham cracker crumbles. This is serious sweetness. We need a glass of milk just looking at the photo.

8. Rice Krispie Treat +Ice Cream Sandwich = Ice Krispie

Best warm-weather dessert ever, so make sure you screen-cap this and come back in a few months.

It doesn’t matter whether you use store-bought Rice Krispies treats or make them yourself—the only thing is, make sure they’re not too thick, or you’ll wind up with a four-inch-thick Krispie sandwich monster.

Simple ice cream flavors work the best between Krispie slabs. Treat House in New York uses plain vanilla ice cream, but then dips the whole thing in “magic shell” chocolate or strawberry… and it is glorious.