Full disclosure, I read this right after I did a no added sugar challenge. I wasn't sure if I'd crave it even more or react with "eh I can live without having sweets all the time" and it was somewhere in between.

I have never been to the bakery but have heard great things so wanted to check this book out. Some looked really good and some I went meh. It took me down a nostalgic path where I remember in high school I made these icebox desserts with Nilla wafers and pudding. I was surprised to see that some recipes were pretty similar to that just a little fancier. When I saw box pudding mix, I was like wait what?? But I know there were caveats at the start to say this was a faster option if people didn't want to make everything from scratch. A lot of it felt like just the same thing but slight variations so it didn't feel like there were a ton of different recipes. All the pages could've been condensed down to say you can choose other alternatives like different fruit, spices, toppings or mix ins. With that said, I'm excited to try some and have bookmarked quite a few!

"Indulge in 100 delightful no-bake desserts from the iconic New York bakery. Explore classic treats like banana pudding; icebox cakes, pies, and cheesecakes; as well as all-new icebox sweets from Magnolia Bakery's Chief Baking Officer Bobbie Lloyd.

Magnolia Bakery, once a small corner shop in New York's West Village, now a global phenomenon with 40+ stores around the world, shares a new collection of recipes in The Magnolia Bakery Handbook of Icebox Desserts.

An icebox dessert is a no-bake or low-bake dessert that comes together with time to set in the refrigerator, meaning these recipes are simple, classic, easy to make, and of course, completely delicious. The book features 100 recipes - each with a gorgeous photo - of icebox cakes, icebox pies, cheesecakes, icebox bars, and puddings, including variations on Magnolia Bakery's famous and beloved banana pudding, plus recipes that cover the prep work (and require a bit of baking) for crusts, crumbs, fillings, and cookies. Advice on kitchen staples and supplies, with tips and tricks to become the ultimate baker are also included, so you're ready to go before you start. Recipes include:

-Banana Pudding Icebox Cake
-Triple Chocolate Pudding Pie
-Cold Brew Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
-Strawberry Shortcake Bars
-Cannoli Icebox Bars
-Peach Crisp No Bake Bars
-Chocolate Wafer Cookies
-Pumpkin Spice Pudding with Cookie Butter Swirl

So make some room in the fridge, turn off the oven, and enjoy these mouthwatering flavors at home!"

Because we're about to enter Summer, and who wants to turn their oven on, right?

Besides a few classic favorites like German Chocolate Cake, Red Velvet Cake, and Carrot Cake, my all-time favorite desserts are cream pies and cheesecakes—so when I saw The Magnolia Bakery Handbook of Icebox Desserts by Bobbie Lloyd, I knew I was in for a treat!

This cookbook is a dessert lover’s dream, packed with over 100 mouthwatering recipes. It starts with helpful background info on key ingredients, utensils, and equipment needed to create these delicious desserts. Then, it takes you through each step to make everything from rich icebox cakes and pies to creamy cheesecakes and Magnolia Bakery’s famous banana pudding. The best part? These treats are no-bake and set in the fridge, making them as easy as they are delicious.

My favorite part? Definitely the cheesecake recipes! The book breaks it down step-by-step, helping you make the creamiest cheesecakes that will melt in your mouth. And every recipe is paired with a gorgeous photo of the finished dish, so you know exactly what to expect. If you’re craving unforgettable, no-bake desserts that will have everyone coming back for more, The Magnolia Bakery Handbook of Icebox Desserts is a must-try! You won’t regret it!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with an advance copy to read!

The Magnolia Bakery Handbook of Icebox Desserts is a gorgeous cookbook full of no-bake and low-bake sweet treats. I adore the concept of icebox desserts, which goes back to the 1920s, originating from “back of the box” style recipes that require little to no baking. With summer just around the corner, these cool and creamy icebox desserts will be the perfect end to summer BBQs and potlucks!

This cookbook is well organized, with sections for cakes, pies, bars, and puddings. There’s even one whole section for Magnolia Bakery’s famous banana pudding, with lots of yummy variations like peanut butter, sweet and salty, and carrot cake. Yum! There’s also a section with base recipes for various cookies and cakes, pie crusts, and fillings and sauces that go into the dessert recipes but that would also make handy staple recipes.

Every single recipe is accompanied by a mouth-watering photo perfectly styled to Magnolia Bakery’s aesthetic. The ingredients are very accessible, and the recipes should appeal to bakers of all abilities. The icebox cakes are the easiest with the fewest ingredients, but I sure do love the way those layers look like you put in a ton of work! I can’t wait to whip up some of these delicious recipes!

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Love love love this book!! Can’t wait to buy it. I love a cake that doesn’t have to be baked and love Magnolia.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book and the opportunity to review.
This was a great book with a bunch of amazing recipies. I made the pudding and it was amazing!!
I can not wait to try more!!

Thanks NetGalley for the digital copy to review. This is a nicely put together cookbook. Besides the obvious banana pudding, I’m looking forward to making the coconut cream pie and the peace crisp cheesecake.

Really nice cook book. Filled with lots of yummy looking recipes. The pictures are great and the recipe instructions are great.

I haven’t had the chance to try the Magnolia bakery since there isn’t one near me. Can’t wait to try myself.

Can’t wait to make them.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy to review

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this hand/cookbook because I am such a huge fan of the desserts from Magnolia Bakery and love purchasing their cupcakes, cakes, and banana puddings. I loved looking through this handbook and seeing recipes and breakdowns of so many delicious recipes from Magnolia Bakery. I am looking forward to trying out so many different recipes from this handbook, especially the ones for all of the various flavors of banana pudding like mocha and strawberry. They all sound so delicious. I really appreciate how much work went into this handbook and how easily the recipes were broken down for us readers. All of the ingredients seem relatively easy to attain, and the methods of creating the different desserts also seem relatively easy to do. I think a lot of people will enjoy this handbook as it gives us a way to recreate Magnolia Bakery's iconic desserts at home!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

As a fan of Magnolia Bakery in NYC, I was excited for the chance to review this cook book. On our you will find a variety of ice box pies, banana puddings, cheesecakes, and more. Many recipes call for minimal or no baking, but ones like the cheesecakes will required oven use as well as prep for interviews like oven roasted strawberries. If you have a favorite flavor combo, the book likely includes 3-5 recipes featuring flavors like various fruits (strawberry, blueberry, peach, key lime), cookie butter, peanut butter, cold brew, chocolate, and more. Many of the cheesecakes and banana puddings have a base recipe and you may need to flip around a bit to reference other recipes. I can't wait to get busy trying some of these out.

Thank you to William Morrow - Harvest for an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. This book was published on 4/22/25.

This is a beautiful collection of tried, trusted, and delicious recipes inspired by the acclaimed Magnolia Bakery. This volume is focused on icebox desserts, including icebox cakes/pies/bars, cheesecakes, puddings, and get this - an entire chapter dedicated to the famous Banana Pudding and different variations. The cookbook is beautifully designed with accessible recipes for every home chef and gorgeous pictures. There is something for everyone in this cookbook, whether you're a fan of Magnolia's banana pudding or are looking for tart/tangy pie or chocolate-peanut butter or fruit based. The biscoff cookie cheesecake and banoffee pie recipes will be on repeat in my house. Thank you to #NetGalley and HarperCollins for the opportunity to review an ARC.

A must-have for summer! The Magnolia Bakery Handbook of Icebox Desserts brings you effortlessly cool, no-bake treats perfect for warm-weather celebrations. With easy-to-follow instructions, this book is manageable for all skill levels—whether you’re a beginner or an old hand in the kitchen.

Featuring irresistible icebox cakes, pies, cheesecakes, bars, and multiple variations of Magnolia’s famous banana pudding (a personal favorite!), it’s packed with delicious inspiration. Plus, the stunning photography makes every dessert look as good as it tastes. No oven? No problem!

Thank you to the author, William Morrow and NetGalley for the digital copy of this cookbook in exchange for an honest review.

This is the single best book I have read!
The recipes are terrific ice box desserts, cheesecakes and puddings but it also a no fail primer for anyone…novice or experienced bakers will enjoy..
The author has provided an extensive list of tools and ingredients that are used for the recipes along with many base recipes used in them. There are recipes for lemon curd, caramel sauce, fudge frosting. And chocolate wafers, shortbread pie crusts. Multiple pudding recipes.
And a great number of photos.
Each recipe is detailed and includes tips and hints. I have tried a couple of the recipes and am happy to say that the directions produced a delicious item , no tweaking needed.
I highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC.

This cookbook is extremely user friendly. It uses a lot of easy to acquire ingredients and very low stress assembly. I like the way the recipes are organized by type, while also keeping the theme throughout. For me, the recipes are a little too easy with boxed pudding mix and store bought cookies. It's definitely something that is good for the movie baker or to use when wanting to do a really quick and easy recipe for a potluck or an event. Also, the blank pages in the back for putting your own recipes was nice touch.

This Book was provided by NetGalley but all opinions and reviews are my own

There are some things I really, really enjoy about this book. The fact that there are photos for every single recipe is incredible. Gorgeous photos too! This book is incredibly well-styled. It makes you want to try every single recipe—even things that you normally wouldn’t look twice at because maybe they’re not to your taste. There’s also something for everyone in here, as far as types of flavors. Fruity, chocolate, caramel, coffee, etc. you’re covered! There’s enough information at the beginning and end to help a beginner cook as well.

The fact that this book really takes what they do well and capitalizes on it—banana puddings and puddings in general? That’s going to be the big selling point for people. That being said, this is my main issue with the book. Many of the pudding recipes have the first step as basically to make the vanilla pudding from their banana pudding. That’s such a big pet peeve of mine for cookbooks. I don’t want to have to flip back and forth through the pages. Just put the necessary steps and ingredients for each recipe for each recipe on the pages! I don’t want to forget to buy things because I only grabbed the ingredients that were on the page for the recipe I want to make and didn’t flip back to the banana pudding recipe. It’s just so lazy on the part of the author and publisher.

This is such a good dessert cookbook for anyone who likes cheesecakes and puddings.

The Magnolia Bakery Handbook of Icebox Desserts is exactly that- the very best ice box recipes from the Magnolia bakery. These now or low bake recipes are great for a quick and refreshing dessert.

The introduction and layout of the book is very easy to read- the intro is particularly detailed, discussing the different tools, techniques, and standard ingredients that will be round throughout the entire book. It really helps the baker feel knowledgeable and support about each recipe in the book.

The recipes are in both metric and imperial, which is very helpful for bakers who use both volume and weight measurements. There are a few recipes that will not be translated to an international audience since cookies like Nutter Butters and Nilla Wafers are not available in every country.

The pictures are great. Each picture features a really pretty cake with serving suggestion. It was easy to see how each recipe should be formed within each pan.

What I liked most about this cookbook is that there are a few flavors that get repeated into different forms, which makes it feel like there are so many opportunities with each flavor. If someone falls in love with the peanut butter recipes, there are multiple ways in which that same recipe can be arranged and made.

Loved these recipes! Can’t wait to add the real book to my kitchen. A few recipes are pretty basic but it’s a great guide to the whole category.

Wow, this book is absolutely gorgeous! The beautiful photos of the recipes really make it come alive, and it's super easy to follow along. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and William Morrow | Harvest for this ARC.

#MagnoliaBakeryHandbookofIceboxDesserts #NetGalley.

Magnolia Bakery: Handbook of Icebox Desserts is a stellar cookbook. I was initially concerned that it would be limited since it only focuses on Icebox desserts, but I was definitely wrong. It is a book chock full of different and unique recipes. It’s a great cookbook to have because most recipes are simple to make, but look very professional and complicated. There are so many delicious recipes throughout the book. The photos were beautiful and really helped show off the recipes. I know this is a book I will turn to often especially when I have company and want to impress them. I also think this would be a great gift for bakers of any level. I would recommend this book.

Beautiful and delicious looking picture.
This book is definitely not for beginning bakers!
A somewhat confident middle ground baker would find this book very useful!
No recipes that are low on the sugar but this is a dessert cookbook.
Nice sections. Banana pudding fans out there are going to love the fact there is a whole section to dressing up Banana pudding!
Tips and tricks in the back of the book are well written and useful.