Recipes with powdered sugar

Surprise packages are butter cookies with a chocolate mint wafer hidden inside each one, iced and decorated to look like tiny Christmas presents. A fun holiday baking project.

Mississippi mud cake with cocoa, marshmallow cream, and a rich chocolate-butter frosting loaded with pecans. A dense, fudgy Southern sheet cake classic.

Carrot raisin cheesecake blends warm spices and shredded carrots into a creamy graham-crusted cheesecake topped with citrus cream cheese frosting. Carrot cake meets New York cheesecake in one springform pan.

Linzertorte fingers with a buttery ground almond pastry layered with raspberry jam and topped with sliced almonds. An Austrian-inspired bar cookie for elegant holiday baking.

Chocolate nutmeg cake roll with a light sponge wrapped around a silky chocolate-nutmeg mousse filling and topped with handmade chocolate leaves. An elegant holiday dessert.

Chocolate almond crisps with almond meringue cookies piped on parchment and sandwiched with a dark chocolate ganache. A French patisserie-style confection with crisp, nutty, chocolatey layers.

Sugarplum cookies made with Kool-Aid mix for bright colors and fruity flavor. Rolled sugar cookies kids love to cut out and decorate in rainbow batches.

Gluten free almond macaroons with chewy centers, crackled tops and a deep marzipan flavor from real almond paste. Four ingredients, no flour, naturally gluten free.

Pecan oat sandies are tender, snowball-style shortbread cookies rolled in powdered sugar with rolled oats and chopped pecans for chewy texture. Three dozen from one batch. The cookie tin classic with an oatmeal upgrade.

Pecan oat sandies are tender, snowball-style shortbread cookies rolled in powdered sugar with rolled oats and chopped pecans for chewy texture. Three dozen from one batch. The cookie tin classic with an oatmeal upgrade.

Banana layer cake stacks two tender 8-inch rounds and slathers them in a real banana frosting brightened with lemon juice. Twice the banana, twice the reason to skip the boxed mix.

Velvet cake is a flourless-style chocolate showpiece pooled over white chocolate and raspberry sauces. Dense, fudgy, and made with just six ingredients in the cake itself, it slices like a torte and tastes like ganache.

Cinnamon raisin French toast soaked in a buttermilk-egg custard with vanilla and nutmeg, pan-fried in butter until crisp and golden. Served with date-nut butter and powdered sugar.

Cherry cheesecake bars with a white cake base, fluffy cream cheese and whipped cream topping, and cherry pie filling. A no-bake topping on a simple cake mix base.

Election Day Loaf is a traditional spiced yeast bread loaded with raisins, walnuts, and candied citron, baked in a tube pan and glazed with orange icing. A historic New England celebration bread.

Lemon mousse pie folds whipped cream into a tangy gelatin-set cream cheese base for a no-bake citrus pie that lands somewhere between cheesecake and chiffon.