6 Pretty No-Bake Desserts Anyone Can Make

Good news for hot days: You can (not) bake your cake and eat it too with these easy summer dessert recipes.

Blueberry Angel Food Trifle Serves 8 or more
• 8 cups cubed angel food cake, from a 12- to 16-ounce store-bought cake
 • 4 cups prepared vanilla pudding
 • 4 cups blueberries
 • 2/3 cup heavy cream
 •1 tbs. powdered sugar
 •1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

  Spread one third of cake cubes in bottom of large trifle bowl (or any deep 3- to 4-quart bowl). Spread one third of pudding over cubes; top with one quarter of blueberries. Repeat twice, finishing with third layer of pudding.

 Whip cream with sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Spread whipped cream over top; garnish with remaining blueberries. Refrigerate trifle for at least 2 hours, or up to 24, before serving.


Retro Cake
Serves about 20
• 30 chocolate wafer cookies
• 3 tbs. cold water
• 1 packet (1 tbs.) unflavored gelatin
 • 3/4 cup frozen raspberries
• 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
 • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups cold heavy cream
•1 tsp. vanilla extract

 Line 8-by-8-inch pan with aluminum foil. Cover bottom of pan with cookies (about 20), breaking them as needed to cover pan. Pour cold water into small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over water; let sit for 2 minutes.

Combine raspberries, blueberries, and sugar in medium heavy saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm to the touch. Stir in gelatin mixture. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Mix heavy cream and vanilla in large bowl; beat using electric mixer until stiff peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes. Gently fold in cooled berry mixture, taking care not to deflate cream.

Pour half of berry filling into prepared pan; smooth with rubber spatula. Insert remaining cookies into filling vertically (for a pretty cross section when you slice cake later). Spread remaining filling over cookies; smooth with spatula. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze overnight.


Deepest Chocolate Mousse
Makes six 1/3-cup (75-ml) servings. Gluten-free.
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup freshly brewed strong coffee
• 6 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten 2 tablespoons dark rum (optional)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt Unsweetened whipped cream, to serve
 In a small saucepan, warm the milk and coffee over medium heat until the mixture just comes to a simmer.

Place the chocolate in a heatproof glass or metal mixing bowl and pour the milk and coffee mixture over it. Stir once, then let stand for 5 minutes.

Scrape the mixture into a blender and add the eggs, rum, vanilla, and salt. Blend until well combined. Pour into six small cups or a 1-quart dish and chill for 2 hours, or until set. Serve with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream.


Key Lime Pie 
Makes 24 treats

Crust
• 2 cups (4 ounces) salted pretzel sticks
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

 Filling
• 3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened (try light or reduced fat)
• 1/4 cup fresh Key lime juice
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon Key lime zest, plus extra for garnish
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup homemade whipped cream or store-bought

Line a mini muffin tin with foil or paper liners and set aside. To make the crust, combine the pretzels and sugar in a food processor and process until medium crumbs form (do not overprocess into a powder), about 30 seconds. Add the softened butter and process until the mixture begins to thicken.

Transfer to a clean bowl. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Press the mixture against the bottom and sides of the cups to form pie shells.

Place in the freezer for 30 minutes. For the filling, combine the cream cheese, Key lime juice, condensed milk, lime zest, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix well with an electric mixer or food processor for about 4 minutes, until completely combined.Spoon the mixture into the prepared shells. Tap the pie pan against a hard surface to even out the filling. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Garnish with the whipped cream and the lime zest.

Star Bursts
Serves 8 or more
• 2 cups Greek yogurt
• 3 tbs. fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 15 ice-pop sticks, cut in half
• 30 Starburst candies

Put yogurt, lemon juice, and orange juice in bowl. Stir with rubber spatula until evenly blended. Spoon mixture into ice cube trays, filling each slot about three quarters.

Tap tray on hard surface to even out mixture. Insert blunt end of each ice-pop stick into a Starburst; place one in each ice cube slot. Tap tray against hard surface again to even out. Freeze for 4 hours or until solid. Carefully flex tray to release pops.

Gingersnap and Cinnamon Icebox Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes.
• 48 crisp gingersnaps
 • 1 1/3 cups cream
 • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
 • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
 • 1 teaspoon cinnamon, plus more to garnish
 • Pinch salt

Set out twelve paper or foil muffin-cup liners and place a gingersnap in the bottom of each one. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl, using a hand mixer), whip the cream with the sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon until the mixture holds medium peaks.

Spread a spoonful of cream over each gingersnap, and top with a second cookie. Repeat until you have four gingersnaps and four layers of cream in each paper liner.

Dust with cinnamon (tap it through a fine-mesh sieve) and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. The cookies will almost certainly have softened to a cakelike texture, but you can test one by inserting a knife in the center to make sure it goes in easily.

10 Weird Reasons You’re Getting Bitten By Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes buzz: Whom they love to bite, where they like to hang out, and which repellents they hate the most.
By Lauren Gelman

 We love when you work up a sweat.
 You think we’re drawn by the aroma of your “sweet blood,” but it’s really the carbon dioxide you exhale that makes us beeline toward you. The harder you breathe, the more CO2 you emit, so you’re especially attractive after a jog.

Hate getting bitten up? Blame the ladies. We don’t like to admit this, but male mosquitoes do not eat human blood: They get all their nutrition from plant nectar. We females need your blood, which contains a protein that helps our eggs develop. After we have a blood meal, we can lay anywhere from 100 to 400 eggs.

Love beer? So do some of us. It’s crazy, but we can tell when you’ve been drinking because your skin chemistry changes, and it lures us in.

Smelly feet are simply delicious. In fact, scientists have shown that we find your tootsies ten times more alluring than Limburger cheese (but really our favorite body part is your hand).

To evade us at a party, don’t be a wallflower. When we smell a huge mass of carbon dioxide, we fly toward it; after we get there, it’s easier to attack the people on the perimeter of the group than those smack-dab in the center.
If your home’s landscaping is well tended, we won’t like it as much. We like to hang out in thick, overgrown vegetation. The darker and more humid, the better. If you keep your lawn mowed, pool skimmed, and bushes trimmed, your backyard won’t be very appealing. Removing puddles of stagnant water is also a great way to repel us—that’s where we like to lay.

We’re thrilled when you buy DEET-free repellent. DEET, along with picaridin, is among the stronger types that help keep us away. Each type blocks different receptors that allow us to track you down. We’re also not big fans of lemon eucalyptus and the compound IR3535, although these are a little weaker than DEET and picaridin.

Got those CO2-emitting traps in your yard? Great! You may think you’re outsmarting us with these devices, which emit carbon dioxide to lure us into a trap. But they may attract more of us than they are able to trap, increasing our presence in your yard. UV bug zappers aren’t effective either: Only a fraction of the pests they kill are mosquitoes.

Pregnant? Yum. If you’re a woman who’s expecting, you emit more carbon dioxide and your abdomen has a higher temperature than when you’re not pregnant, drawing some of us right to you. Sorry, baby.

When it comes to West Nile, end-of-summer bites may do more harm. It’s simple logic: We bite birds who have the West Nile virus; then we bite humans and spread it. By summer’s end, we’ve had more chances to bite infected birds.