Dessert recipe collection

Raspberry chocolate sauce made with Dutch-process cocoa, heavy cream, butter, and pureed raspberries. Boiled 8 minutes to a glossy, pourable consistency. Keeps a month in the fridge.

Upside-down apple gingerbread with sliced apples in brown sugar on the bottom, topped with a spiced molasses cake made with hot tea. A warm fall dessert inverted onto a plate.

Upside-down pear gingerbread cake with caramelized pear slices under a spiced molasses cake loaded with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Served with vanilla whipped cream.

Upside-down chocolate cake layers marshmallows and a cocoa-walnut syrup under boxed devil's food batter, baking into a gooey self-saucing chocolate dessert.

Van's Faves are crisp lace-thin oat cookies scented with orange zest and finished with a chocolate drizzle. Eight ingredients, big crunch, and an old-fashioned tin-cookie feel.

Vegetarian mincemeat made with fresh pears, dried fruit, candied cherries, almonds, and a splash of whiskey. No suet needed. Spiced with allspice, nutmeg, and ginger for traditional Christmas mince pies.

Vegetarian mincemeat with fresh pears, mixed dried fruit, candied peel, glace cherries, dates, almonds, citrus zest, and whiskey. A meat-free version of the British holiday classic.

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.

Loaded with 4 cups of blueberries and kissed with almond extract, this sheet pan cake bakes up golden with a juicy berry filling and sweet lemon glaze drizzle.

Two-layer spice cake with cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and plumped raisins, frosted with Swiss meringue mocha buttercream. A showstopper dessert for serious bakers.

Three-layer walnut carrot cake with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves frosted with buttercream. A spiced, oil-based cake with a moist crumb and crunchy walnut-lined pans.

Simple walnut raisin cake with brown sugar and warm spices, simmered then baked low and slow for moist tender squares ready in an hour.

Wheat-free applesauce cake made with ground oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and raisins. A moist, spiced cake with no wheat flour that improves after resting overnight.

White chocolate almond-pecan pie with a triple-extract filling of vanilla, almond, and chocolate. A rich twist on classic pecan pie with white chocolate and slivered almonds.

Three-layer white chocolate cake with chopped pecans, coconut, and a fluffy boiled-sugar coconut icing. Special occasion Southern-style layer cake with cooked seven-minute frosting.

Three-layer white chocolate cake with coconut, pecans, and buttermilk topped with a pourable white chocolate frosting. Includes the frosting recipe.