How to make some of magnolia bakery's most beloved recipes | members only

The ingredients for making the viral Magnolia Bakery’s Famous Banana Pudding recipe are simple: instant vanilla pudding mix, sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, Nilla wafers, cold water

and bananas that are a whisper past their prime — yellow, with some brown spots. It’s easy to make and hard to stop eating. The flagship bakery opened in 1996 and gained widespread

popularity after being featured in a 2001 episode of _Sex and the City_, with Carrie and Miranda enjoying pink cupcakes outside the original Bleecker Street location. This pushed Magnolia

into the spotlight, contributed to the cupcake craze of the 2000s and turned the bakery into a top tourist spot. When CEO and Chief Baking Officer Bobbie Lloyd started in 2006, she looked

for other ways to boost the bakery’s prowess, turning to the banana pudding. By focusing on consistency and quality, she transformed the staple dessert into one of the most popular items for

sale. Today, it's available as ice cream, DIY kits, and multi-packs in over 45 countries. And United Airlines even serves the bakery’s Banana Pudding Wafer Cookie Bits on certain

flights. “The Magnolia Bakery Famous Banana Pudding is not your grandmother’s pudding, which was made from scratch down in the South,” says Lloyd, 67. “I’m sure your grandma’s is the best

in the world, but Magnolia Bakery has been making a recipe that is a variation of what was on the back of the box first.” Lloyd’s library of “simple, quick, delicious” back-of-the-box

recipes from kitchen appliances dates back to her great-grandmother and was the inspiration for her volume-two cookbook. _The Magnolia Bakery Handbook of Icebox Desserts_, out April 22,

guides home bakers on 100 easy no-bake and low-bake desserts that skip the hassle of making everything from scratch. Instead, you can whip them up quickly, prep them in advance and let them

set in the fridge overnight. Recipes include decadent cheesecakes, puddings, icebox cakes, bars and pies — and the Magnolia Bakery Famous Banana Pudding. “That’s the whole idea of this book,

is that it’s accessible, it’s easy, and we want you to be able to be creative. Give you the foundation, and then you can do your thing: Create it, change it, add to it, make it yours,” says

Lloyd.  Lloyd talked to AARP from her home kitchen in New York City’s Upper West Side about the taste of nostalgia, her tips for home bakers, and how she’s staying active in her 60s. _This

interview has been edited for length and clarity. _