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I'm a big fan of rice pudding. Or any pudding, really! Pudding is so easy, and you only need a small burner and a saucepan. Just make sure to stir frequently!

- Amelia of Gradually Greener

Make dessert pancakes! I used to make chocolate pancakes with fruit and cream on top all the time when I lived overseas with no oven. They are great!

rice krispie treaats!

Chocolate mousse!

semifreddo!

And scotty is right.... pancakes or crepes served with powdered sugar and lemon, or nutella, or melted chocolate and banana, or fruit jam are a great option.

There's even a recipe for a crepe cake on epicurious if you really want something more substantial:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grand-Marnier-Crepe-Cake-241754

Ariel,

I'm in Shanghai too - I'm guessing you're living in Tonghe?

Anyway, a few of us made s'mores a few days ago using the burners. I would also recommend checking this link out: http://pcchina.wordpress.com/tag/ovenless/
It's for Peace Corp volunteers in China who are trying to figure out the ovenless situation. You can even make steamed cake!

Nutella French Toast!

Slice a baguette into 1" slices.
Spread nutella on one side and use another slice to form a sandwich.
Butter frying pan and cook sandwiches evenly on both sides.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and you're good to go!

(I often "smash" the sandwiches with the bottom of another frying pan to speed cooking and make the sandwiches easier to handle.)

PUDDING!!!!

This recipe is so easy and AMAZING, even if you skip the cream and go half skim/half whole milk, more so if you don't ;)

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/diy-recipe/recipe-diy-chocolate-pudding-018549

A friend here in Hong Kong bakes bread and cakes in her rice cooker.

But I vote for pancakes.

Make many crepes and make a filling (or just use jam)--then layer the crepes with the filling. It looks like a cake.

Brigadeiro (search www.seriouseats.com for recipes)! Yummy, cheap and easy.

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/recipe-review/recipe-review-gourmets-strawberry-dumplings-088561

This is a GREAT recipe for strawberry dumplings that my husband and I use all the time now. It satisfies like a pie or a cobbler, especially when a scoop of ice cream is added. You could use just about any fruit, too. I often use frozen raspberries or blueberries. Yum.

I second on Pudding! In fact, you can buy just-add-water mango pudding mixture from any Chinese supermarket. The texture is more to the firm jello side. And oh, Jell-O!

You can try Tangyuan (湯圓) from the freezer section. They usually come in red bean paste, black sesame, or peanut fillings. You just have to boil them in water. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangyuan_(food)

There are MANY desserts made with red beans (azuki) in China. There is one poplar Shanghai dessert called "Dou Sha Guo Bin" (豆沙鍋餅). It is kinda like a square crepe with sweet red bean paste, pan fried to crisp. Love it!

Chinese desserts don't need oven. If you are up to it, make Silk Apples, Almond Jelly, Steam Cakes, Red Bean Soup, Sago in Coconut milk, Mung Bean Soup... all on your stove.

Creme anglaise over the fruits/berries of your choice.

How about sabayon? Serve over whatever fruit looks good that day.

mmmm - how about "no bake" cookies?? These were my favorites as a kid, cocoa powder, peanut butter and oats all just boiled together. ugly but delicious.
I don't have a specific recipe, but here's one I drudged up:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/no-bake-cookies-i/detail.aspx

Rice Krispie Treats! (sub another cereal if you can't find Rice Krispies.

When we're camping I sometimes make baked items in my electric frying pan so if you're feeling adventurous you might give it a try with your skillet.

What I do is put a round low wire rack (like a trivet) in the pan and add a little water. I use a small round cake pan, pour in the batter, and wrap WELL with aluminum foil. Cook on low temperature until it's baked. I've found the texture to be different than what we're accustomed to but it still works.

I also remember that you can do pineapple upside down cake on the stovetop. Here's a recipe that turned up through a search but I see there are a lot out there.
http://community.tasteofhome.com/forums/t/119637.aspx

Fried bananas
Glazed nuts
Candy! Fudge, truffles, nut brittle...

How about steamed caramel custard? Can be made in a double boiler or a rice cooker or any contraption that can be used to steam.

I love making these in ramekins so they are ready to serve!

Welcome to the world of frying, my great grandmother spent years without an oven and so she developed lots of stovetop recipes, but when it came to desserts, she fried. She used to make fried apple pie.
As for the crepes, make a good twenty or so, then layer them on top of each other with the fillings in between, frost the top and you have a 20 layer cake.

Frying made me think of donuts as well as the "fried bread" my mom used to make us when we were kids. When she made bread or rolls she'd take flattened pieces of dough and fry them in about a half inch of oil the skillet. She'd drain them on paper towel and then sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Mmmmm...I have some dough raising right now. :)

Any muffin or corn bread batter can be made in a skillet like pancakes. Just add some extra milk or water to thin the batter a little.

when we lived in china - we loved making crepes. you can get jam, butter, and nutella at carrefour (back in the dary ages of 2001) and nowadays you can probably get the boxed nestle cream or philly cream cheese, too. then we had to find a metro supermarket a few hours away so we didn't buy that all that often.

hao wan!

also i still do this - leftover rice pudding. just microwave old rice with sugar, milk, and raisins if you like them. yummy!

hao chi :)

- i second the leftover rice pudding idea! did that many times during my time in china and in thailand...
- if you can find semolina, try semolina pudding. puddings are a great idea in general (as mentioned by many others)
- any kind of deep-fried desserts - like doughnuts or churros. in some chinese restaurants they even serve sweet filled deep-fried mantou with sweetened condensed milk for dessert (zha mantou: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zha_mantou_-_Chinese_dessert.JPG). you can definitely try these at home as well - just get some small sweet mantou from the supermarket and fry away. we always loved these!
- and how about these no-bake cookie recipes? although it might be a bit difficult to get all the ingredients in china, but you have a good chance in shanghai:
http://simple-nourished-living.com/archives/1412/ten-favorite-no-bake-cookie-recipes/

fudge???!

You can steam just about any cake recipe. Pineapple upside down cake works well over the stove.

As adorita mentioned, tangyuan (tong yuen in Cantonese) is a classic Chinese dessert. I ate these growing up, better suited to winter though. You can buy these in frozen packets and just require a little boiling.

However, they are very easy to make fresh. My girlfriend's personal blog has our own quick recipe on how to make some (they have chocolate fillings). It takes us 5-10 minutes.

http://catvspig.blogspot.com/2009/09/tong-yuen.html

Pancakes, crepes, dumplings and as someone said above- fry your heart out!! A wok is great as a deep fryer. Go crazy googling gorgeous deep fried recipes! Oh- and French toast is a must. Especially Nigella's donut french toast.

The deep fried apple pie is a great idea! There's an episode of good eats that talked about hand pies... essentially turnovers with all kinds of good fillings... and how to bake or fry them.

Here's a link to the transcript, complete with recipe links and pictures:
http://goodeatsfanpage.com/Season9/pocketpie/pocket_pie_tran.htm

Served on a plate with icecream, they're as good as the real thing.

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/sweet/steamed-treacle-sponge-pudding.html - steamed treacle sponge pudding - a real rib sticker though! There are plenty of variations on this - and anything can go in the bottom of the bowl (seasonal fruit works well) with the sponge mix on top. It just takes a while to steam.

Some fruit with a bit of brown sugar and a bit of butter and/or some cream quickly cooked over a high heat to soften the fruit and caramelise the sugar makes a tasty dessert - especially with a bit of cream or some crumbled up biscuits scattered on top.

Crazy as it sounds, you can actually take regular old cookie dough and FRY it. Makes these awesome cookie-ish things that are crunchy on the outside and deliciously gooey on the inside. Even better when served with ice cream (while still hot, of course.)

I didn't take the time to read all the other comments, but I sometimes throw cherry pie filling(the extra fruit kind) in a pot and heat it up. Serve with whipped cream! :) It's something I just can't say no to!