20 Desserts Inspired by Literature

You, my dear readers, have by now probably picked up on the fact that I’ve got quite the passion for both books and baking (no way, really?!), which is why I was immediately fascinated when Shari’s Berries approached me about a cool graphic they’d made.

It’s a book and dessert pairing guide, including some of my favourite novels and some very delicious desserts! I definitely wanted to share this with you because it’s obviously straight up my alley. Instead of just posting this cool visualisation, however, I thought it’d be fun to look for some great recipes to go along with the graphic, so that you can use this as a sort of reference post for some lovely literary desserts.

If you want to see the graphic on the original site, here’s the link!

1. Have some jam-filled cookies to fancy yourself in Wonderland, like Alice.
2. Although A Tree Grows in Brooklyn mentions cherries, this raspberry Charlotte Russe will most likely be quite the treat as well.
3. I’m sure we all wondered about the taste of butterbeer while reading Harry Potter. Now you can try it yourself!
4. An iconic Italian desserts and one of my personal favourites: try some tiramisu!
5. Jack Kerouac probably envisioned a traditional American apple pie, but my recipe for a Dutch apple pie is definitely worth a try as well.
6. These mango ice pops look absolutely mouthwatering.
7. Let’s be honest, we don’t really need anyone to tell us how to make s’mores, do we? So here’s a post with 21 different s’mores inspired recipes.
8. For anyone who’s ambitious enough to actually make Turkish Delight themselves, here’s the recipe!
9. I haven’t read The Corrections, but I do know that these chocolate cupcakes with peppermint buttercream look absolutely scrumptious.
10. This simple seed cake seems very much in line with Jane Eyre’s simple lifestyle.
11. In Chocolat, Vianne creates the most delicious chocolate-y (and magical!) treats and these chocolate covered strawberries look like they fit right in.
12. While I know I wouldn’t enjoy it myself (don’t like cheese *gasp* I know), this apple and goat’s cheese tart based on Peeta’s in The Hunger Games actually looks quite delicious.
13. After looking at the pictures of these banana waffles for a while, I now actually have quite the craving.
14. I have no idea if this honey cake is anything like the one in the book (haven’t read it), but it looks pretty darn good to me.
15. Another recipe by yours truly! This is a simple lemon cake and again I have no clue if it’s anything like the one in The Great Gatsby, because I still need to read the book…
16. These vanilla cream-filled doughnuts look SO good and I want to eat them now, please.
17. I couldn’t find actual peanut butter soup, but this African peanut soup looks quite yummy to me.
18. I couldn’t find a recipe for fimi milk custard, unfortunately. There seems to be one recipe on the web for it, but I couldn’t access it due to an error of some sort.
19. Gone Girl was far from sweet, unlike these vanilla crêpes with raspberry compote.
20. We’re ending on a good one, guys! This pecan pie cheesecake looks positively mouthwatering.

This post was so much fun to make! I love it when books have elaborate descriptions of food – that just makes them even better still. One of my favourite bloggers, Cait from Paper Fury, recently wrote a post on why books should always copiously mention food, which I would definitely recommend reading if you enjoyed this post!

Does this list miss any of your favourite bookish desserts? Let me know!