5 Surprising Mother's Day Cakes

Food coloring–dyed cake mix is layered into Mason jars for a vibrant holiday dessert and, even better, the cake can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to 5 days. Top the Mother's Day cake with whipped or ice cream and sprinkles just before serving. Babble has this free Mother's Day cake recipe.

Cake pops can be nice (via pastel icings and fondant flowers) but consider adding a little naughty to the Mother's Day cake by adding mocha-flavored Kahlua to the baked chocolate crumbles. Or perhaps Amaretto is more to your liking? Head to ominous-sounding Mommy Knows for the complete Mother's Day cake pop tutorial.

A cupcake bouquet is a trendy and easy way to display your Mother's Day dessert. Place a Styrofoam ball into a terracotta flower pot (cleaned, of course) and anchor decorated cupcakes via chopsticks. 52 Kitchen Adventures has more on creating a Mother's Day cupcake bouquet.

Not a baker? Consider making a cake batter milkshake, which uses box mixes and ice cream for a unique alternative to the traditional Mother's Day cake. Choose from vanilla, devil's food or funfetti. A Beautiful Mess has the recipe for this surprising Mother's Day cake milkshake.

Technically a pie (and even more technically a cake), Mother's Day whoopie pies offer a tasty alternative to cake. Sugar pearls adorn the filling while a texture press adds a corrugated cardboard effect to fondant flowers. Customize the "cake" by using macaron-inspired flavors like espresso with fleur de sel caramel filing, like this recipe excerpted from "Les Petite Macaron." Head to Wilton for the complete Mother's Day whoopie pie recipe.