Dessert recipe collection

Star-shaped chocolate sandwich cookies cut from a chewy cocoa-and-chip sheet bake, then filled with sweet cream cheese frosting. A festive holiday cookie that looks fancy but skips the rolled-dough fuss.

Chocolate sandwich cookies with a pastel mint wafer hidden inside each one. Thin cocoa dough rounds sealed with a fork, sugared on top, and baked until set. A fun surprise cookie.

Santa Claus cookies are soft drop cookies with bright lemon zest, baked then frosted and decorated into jolly Santa faces. A Christmas cookie tray classic for kids.

Santa cookie wreath, a festive gingerbread ring shaped from boxed mix, ringed with holly-leaf cookies and finished in melted candy coating. A fun edible centerpiece for the holiday table.

Whole wheat zucchini bread with cinnamon, vanilla, and chopped nuts. A moist, high-fiber quick bread that uses grated zucchini for natural moisture. Makes two loaves.

Giant chocolate chip cookies made with hand-chopped milk chocolate bars instead of chips. Flattened to saucer size and baked until barely set for a chewy, gooey center.

Sauerkraut apple cake with walnuts, cinnamon, and nutmeg topped with orange-cinnamon cream cheese frosting. A secret ingredient cake nobody can guess.

Schnecken are German-style cinnamon pecan rolls made from a soft yeasted dough filled with brown sugar, raisins, pecans, and cinnamon, then baked in muffin tins until golden.

Easy butterscotch poppy seed cake made with yellow cake mix, butterscotch pudding mix, and a generous helping of poppy seeds. Moist, rich, and done in 35 minutes.

Scots shortbread with just three ingredients: flour, butter, and powdered sugar. Kneaded, patted thin, and baked low and slow until golden and crumbly.

Scottish shortbread from a simple flour, sugar, and butter mix: buttery, crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth wedges baked pale and gold. A classic three-ingredient treat that doubles as a gift-in-a-jar mix.

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Self-filled chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese and chocolate chip center baked right in. No frosting needed when the filling does double duty.

Seven-up cake made with lemon cake mix and pineapple pudding, topped with a cooked pineapple-coconut icing poured over warm. A retro Southern sheet cake from the church potluck era.

Old-fashioned apple cake loaded with sliced apples, walnuts, and cinnamon in a moist oil-based batter. No mixer needed for this rustic 9x13 sheet cake.

Chocolate sheet cake (Texas sheet cake) with hot cocoa-buttermilk batter and a poured cocoa-buttermilk icing finished while the cake is still hot. The Southern church-supper crowd-feeder cut into 24 squares.