Looking for desserts that start with R? This alphabet food list covers comforting British puddings, quick traybakes, impressive cakes, chilled sweets and a few international favourites worth knowing. It is useful for quizzes, school projects, themed dinner nights, food challenges, menu planning or simply finding something new to make with what you already have in the cupboard.

Quite a few R desserts are wonderfully budget-friendly too. Think rice pudding, rhubarb crumble, raspberry fool, rocky road and roly-poly pudding. They use simple ingredients, stretch well, and often make good use of leftovers or reduced-price fruit.

Desserts That Start With R: Quick List

Here is a quick reference list before we get into the tastier details:

• Rice pudding
• Rhubarb crumble
• Rhubarb fool
• Raspberry fool
• Raspberry ripple ice cream
• Raspberry tart
• Raspberry pavlova roulade
• Roly-poly pudding
• Rocky road
• Red velvet cake
• Rum baba
• Rum cake
• Rum truffles
• Rum and raisin ice cream
• Roulade
• Refrigerator cake
• Rainbow cake
• Ricotta cheesecake
• Rugelach
• Rote grütze
• Ras malai
• Rabri
• Rice kheer
• Rava kesari
• Revani
• Russian slice
• Raisin bread pudding
• Red bean mochi
• Rose pudding
• Rosewater Turkish delight

Classic British Desserts Beginning With R

Rice pudding

Rice pudding is one of the most familiar desserts beginning with R in the UK. It is made by slowly cooking short-grain pudding rice with milk and sugar until creamy. Some people add nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, jam, stewed fruit or a spoonful of cream.

It is also a brilliant cheap pudding. Pudding rice, milk and a little sugar go a long way, and you can make it on the hob, in the oven or in a slow cooker. If you have milk approaching its use-by date, rice pudding is a handy way to avoid waste.

Rhubarb crumble

Rhubarb crumble is sharp, sweet and cosy. The tart rhubarb is cooked beneath a buttery crumble topping, often with custard poured generously over the top. Forced rhubarb, with its bright pink colour, is especially lovely, but garden rhubarb works perfectly too.

Money-saving tip: rhubarb freezes well. Chop it into pieces, freeze flat on a tray, then bag it up. You can bake crumble straight from frozen, although it may need a little longer in the oven.

Rhubarb fool

Rhubarb fool is a lighter rhubarb dessert made by folding stewed rhubarb through whipped cream, yoghurt, custard or a mixture of the three. It is quick, pretty and great for using a small amount of fruit.

For a cheaper version, use Greek-style yoghurt instead of all cream. You still get a creamy pudding, but it feels fresher and costs less.

Raspberry fool

Raspberry fool is similar to rhubarb fool but uses raspberries. Fresh raspberries can be pricey, so frozen raspberries are often the better buy. Simmer them briefly with a little sugar, cool, then ripple through cream or yoghurt.

It looks far fancier than the effort involved, especially served in glasses with crushed biscuits on top.

Roly-poly pudding

Jam roly-poly is a traditional British suet pudding. A soft suet dough is spread with jam, rolled up, then steamed or baked. Raspberry and strawberry jam are the usual choices, but you can use whatever jar needs finishing.

This is proper nursery pudding territory: filling, sweet and best with custard. Suet pastry is not complicated, but it does benefit from gentle handling so it stays tender.

Raisin bread pudding

Raisin bread pudding is a thrifty classic made with stale bread, dried fruit, milk, eggs, sugar and spice. It is denser than bread and butter pudding and cuts into squares once cooled.

This is one of the best R desserts for reducing food waste. Old bread, the last few raisins in a packet and a splash of milk can become a filling pudding for very little money.

Russian slice

Russian slice, sometimes found in old-fashioned bakeries, is a frugal cake made from leftover cake crumbs bound with jam or syrup, then topped with icing. Recipes vary, and the name can cause confusion, but in British bakery terms it is usually a colourful, sweet traybake.

At home, it is a clever way to use cake offcuts from baking projects. Freeze scraps until you have enough, then turn them into a new treat.

Cakes And Bakes That Start With R

Red velvet cake

Red velvet cake is a soft cocoa cake with a distinctive red colour and a cream cheese frosting. It is not meant to taste strongly of chocolate; the flavour is gentle, slightly tangy and rich.

For a budget version, make it as cupcakes. They bake quickly, portion neatly and need less frosting than a tall layer cake.

Rocky road

Rocky road is a no-bake chocolate traybake made with melted chocolate, biscuits and marshmallows. Extras can include raisins, cherries, nuts, honeycomb, popcorn or broken sweets.

It is one of the easiest desserts starting with R for using up odds and ends. Digestives, rich tea biscuits, cereal, broken chocolate bars and mini marshmallows can all be thrown in. Chill, slice and you are done.

Rum cake

Rum cake is a moist cake flavoured with rum, often soaked after baking with a rum syrup. It can be a simple loaf cake, a bundt cake or a festive fruit cake style bake.

If you do not want to use much alcohol, add a little rum extract instead. You can also make a citrus syrup with orange juice for a family-friendly version.

Rum baba

Rum baba is a small yeasted cake soaked in rum syrup, often served with whipped cream or fruit. It has French and Italian associations and feels restaurant-worthy when done well.

It is not the cheapest pudding on the list, as it takes time and uses alcohol, but it is a good choice for a special occasion where you want something different from sponge cake.

Roulade

A roulade is a rolled dessert. It can be made with sponge, meringue or even chocolate. Popular versions include chocolate roulade, lemon roulade and raspberry roulade.

Meringue roulade is useful when you have spare egg whites. Fill it with cream and fruit, then roll. It will crack a little, but that is part of its charm.

Rainbow cake

Rainbow cake is a colourful layered sponge cake with bright rainbow-coloured layers. It is often made for birthdays and parties, especially for children.

It can be expensive if you use lots of butter, icing and colouring. To keep costs down, bake thinner layers, use a simple vanilla sponge recipe and decorate the outside plainly so the colour surprise is inside.

Ricotta cheesecake

Ricotta cheesecake is lighter and less dense than many cream cheese cheesecakes. It can be baked or chilled, and it pairs beautifully with lemon, orange, honey, berries or chocolate chips.

Look for reduced ricotta in the supermarket chiller. It often gets marked down near its use-by date and can be baked into a cheesecake or stirred into pancakes and desserts.

Rugelach

Rugelach are small crescent-shaped pastries with Jewish origins. They are often filled with jam, nuts, cinnamon, raisins, chocolate or poppy seed paste.

They are a lovely bake for using up small amounts of jam and chopped nuts. Because they are bite-sized, they also work well for sharing platters.

Cold Desserts And Ice Creams Beginning With R

Raspberry ripple ice cream

Raspberry ripple ice cream is vanilla ice cream swirled with raspberry sauce. It is a nostalgic freezer favourite and easy to make at home if you have ice cream and frozen raspberries.

Cheat version: soften a tub of budget vanilla ice cream for 10 minutes, ripple through cooled raspberry sauce, then refreeze. It looks homemade and costs much less than premium tubs.

Rum and raisin ice cream

Rum and raisin ice cream is creamy, boozy and old-school. Raisins are usually soaked in rum before being stirred into ice cream.

For a low-effort dessert, serve it with sliced bananas, warm chocolate sauce or a simple biscuit crumb. Keep it for adults if made with real rum.

Refrigerator cake

Refrigerator cake is a no-bake dessert set in the fridge. It is usually made with biscuits, chocolate, butter and syrup, although there are many versions.

It overlaps with rocky road, tiffin and fridge cake. The appeal is simple: no oven, minimal washing up and plenty of room for using cupboard leftovers.

Rote grütze

Rote grütze is a German and Scandinavian red berry pudding made with berries thickened into a glossy compote. It is usually served cold with cream, vanilla sauce or yoghurt.

Frozen mixed berries work well, which makes it much cheaper outside berry season. It is also naturally bright and pretty without much effort.

International Desserts That Start With R

Ras malai

Ras malai is a rich South Asian dessert made with soft milk-based dumplings soaked in sweetened, flavoured milk. It is often scented with cardamom and finished with pistachios or almonds.

It is commonly bought for celebrations, but you can make simplified versions at home using paneer or milk powder dumplings.

Rabri

Rabri is made by simmering milk until it thickens and reduces, then sweetening and flavouring it. It can be served on its own or with jalebi, malpua, fruit or falooda.

Because it needs long cooking, it is not the quickest pudding, but it uses very few ingredients.

Rice kheer

Rice kheer is a South Asian rice pudding, usually flavoured with cardamom and sometimes topped with nuts, raisins or saffron. It can be served warm or chilled.

If you already like British rice pudding, kheer is an easy R dessert to try because the base ingredients are familiar.

Rava kesari

Rava kesari is a sweet semolina dessert made with ghee, sugar and water or milk. It has a soft, spoonable texture and is often flavoured with cardamom.

Semolina is usually inexpensive, so this can be a low-cost dessert if you keep the nuts and saffron optional.

Revani

Revani is a syrup-soaked semolina cake enjoyed in several countries, including Turkey and Greece. It is often flavoured with lemon or orange.

It keeps well, which makes it useful if you need a make-ahead dessert for guests.

Red bean mochi

Red bean mochi is a chewy Japanese-style sweet made from glutinous rice flour and filled with sweet red bean paste. The texture is soft, stretchy and quite different from sponge or pastry desserts.

You can buy it from Asian supermarkets, and it is a fun one to include in an alphabet foods tasting plate.

More R Desserts Worth Knowing

Raspberry tart

A raspberry tart usually has a pastry base, a filling such as crème pâtissière or frangipane, and raspberries on top. For a cheaper version, use frozen raspberries in a baked frangipane tart rather than fresh berries for decoration.

Raspberry pavlova roulade

This is a meringue roulade filled with cream and raspberries. It is a lovely summer dessert and a useful way to use egg whites left from custard, carbonara or pastry making.

Rum truffles

Rum truffles are small chocolate sweets made with crushed biscuits or cake crumbs, cocoa, syrup and rum or rum flavouring. They are very handy at Christmas, but good all year if you like no-bake treats.

Rose pudding

Rose pudding can refer to milk puddings, custards or rice desserts flavoured with rosewater. Use rosewater sparingly, as too much can taste perfumed rather than delicate.

Rosewater Turkish delight

Turkish delight is a soft, chewy sweet often flavoured with rosewater and dusted with icing sugar. It is not a pudding in the British sense, but it definitely belongs on a list of sweet foods and desserts that start with R.

Budget Tips For Making R Desserts

Many desserts beginning with R are naturally frugal, especially the traditional puddings. Here are a few ways to keep costs down:

• Use frozen fruit: Frozen raspberries, mixed berries and rhubarb are often cheaper than fresh and work well in crumbles, fools, sauces and compotes.
• Save stale bread: Bread pudding, raisin bread pudding and crumb-based traybakes are perfect for using bread that is past its best but still safe to eat.
• Make smaller portions: Rich desserts such as rocky road, rum truffles and red velvet cake do not need huge servings.
• Check reduced sections: Cream, yoghurt, ricotta, berries and ready-made pastry are often marked down. Use or freeze them promptly where suitable.
• Choose cupboard puddings: Rice pudding, kheer, rava kesari and refrigerator cake rely heavily on store cupboard basics.
• Swap ingredients sensibly: Use own-brand biscuits in rocky road, yoghurt instead of all cream in fools, and jam instead of fresh fruit in roly-poly.

Best R Desserts By Occasion

Easy R Dessert Idea: Cheat Raspberry Ripple Sundae

If you want a quick dessert that starts with R without baking, make a cheat raspberry ripple sundae.

Ingredients

• Vanilla ice cream
• Frozen or fresh raspberries
• A little sugar or honey, to taste
• Crushed biscuits, meringue pieces or granola
• Optional: yoghurt, cream or chocolate sauce

Method

1. Put the raspberries in a small pan with a spoonful of sugar and heat gently until saucy.
2. Cool the raspberry sauce for a few minutes.
3. Spoon ice cream into bowls or glasses.
4. Ripple over the raspberry sauce.
5. Top with crushed biscuits or meringue pieces for crunch.

Storage tip

Leftover raspberry sauce can be kept covered in the fridge for a couple of days. Use it on yoghurt, porridge, pancakes or rice pudding.

FAQs About Desserts That Start With R

What is a dessert that starts with R?

Rice pudding is one of the best-known desserts that starts with R. Other popular examples include rhubarb crumble, rocky road, raspberry ripple ice cream, red velvet cake, rum baba and roulade.

What British desserts start with R?

British desserts beginning with R include rice pudding, rhubarb crumble, rhubarb fool, raspberry fool, jam roly-poly, raisin bread pudding, rocky road and Russian slice.

What cake starts with R?

Red velvet cake, rum cake, rainbow cake, ricotta cheesecake and roulade can all count as cakes or cake-style desserts that start with R.

What is a cheap dessert beginning with R?

Rice pudding is one of the cheapest options because it uses rice, milk and sugar. Rhubarb crumble, raisin bread pudding and rocky road can also be inexpensive, especially if you use reduced fruit, stale bread or leftover biscuits.

What frozen dessert starts with R?

Raspberry ripple ice cream and rum and raisin ice cream are two frozen desserts that start with R. You can also make raspberry sorbet or a raspberry frozen yoghurt.

What Indian desserts start with R?

Indian desserts starting with R include ras malai, rabri and rava kesari. Rice kheer is also widely enjoyed across South Asia and is similar in spirit to rice pudding, but flavoured differently.

What dessert starting with R is good for a party?

Rocky road is one of the easiest R desserts for a party because it is no-bake, simple to slice and can be made ahead. Red velvet cupcakes, raspberry roulade and refrigerator cake are good choices too.