72 holiday cake recipes

Rich chocolate fudge cake with instant coffee and sour cream, topped with a glossy fudge nut glaze. A single-layer showstopper for holiday dessert tables.

Prune cake is an old-fashioned Southern holiday spice cake with chopped prunes, pecans, buttermilk, and warm spices, soaked with a buttermilk-butter sauce. Three-day rest deepens flavor.

No-bake holiday chocolate cake layered with orange juice-soaked macaroons, bittersweet ganache, chopped prunes, and toasted almonds. Dusted with cocoa and chilled overnight for deep, complex flavor.

"This cake is a rich, dark, moist fruit cake, very flavorful at Christmas. Try icing with almond paste for a more festive touch. This recipe is started in October or November so as to let it mellow before the holidays. I remember very well my mother storing her fruit cake in an old butter churn that belonged to my grandmother and great grandmother. I wish that I had that old crock."

This cake is amazingly moist, which almost makes people wonder if it's made from the cake mix in the box. The sour cream frosting gives the cake a smooth and creamy texture, also adds just enough tang.

These chocolaty and moist cupcakes are filled with cream cheese and chocolate chips filling that adds extra creaminess and chocolaty taste into every bite. Decorate these delicious cupcakes into Halloween spiders, skulls, skeleton, mummies... Whichever way you or your kids love. Being creative and make sure to make a few bunches, they will disappear quickly.

This beautiful spiced apple cake, not only satisfy the eyes but also satisfy your taste. Rich seasonal spices and lovely presentation make this a holiday treat. It's also high in fiber and low in fat! No guilt decadence.

Pumpkin sheet cake: a fast, one-bowl fall cake loaded with canned pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Moist, not-too-sweet, and big enough to feed a potluck without breaking a sweat.

Pumpkin cheesecake with a buttery shortcrust pastry, spiced cream cheese filling with allspice, ginger, and cinnamon. Slow-baked and cooled in the oven to prevent cracking.

Halloween fig spooks cupcakes built from cake mix studded with chopped figs, topped with a whole dried fig and draped in white buttercream icing for little ghost-shaped treats.

Fruity cake loaded with dried dates, papaya, pears, and raisins baked with honey, sesame oil, and orange zest using a muffin mix shortcut. A dense, fruit-packed holiday loaf.

Lebkuchen (German honey cakes) blend honey, brown sugar, lemon, almonds, citron, and warm spices into a chewy spice cookie cut into fancy holiday shapes. Traditional Christmas cookie from Nuremberg.

Chocolate pumpkin layer cake with a warm brown-sugar frosting that sets to a fudgy crust. Cocoa and pumpkin pie spice make this two-layer cake rich, moist, and irresistible for fall baking.

Halloween Jack-O'-Lantern cupcakes made with pumpkin, buttermilk, and pumpkin pie spice, topped with pumpkin frosting and decorated with black licorice faces and green gumdrop stems.

Jack-o-lantern chocolate cake is a rich two-layer chocolate cake decorated for Halloween, with orange-tinted frosting shaping the pumpkin and chocolate frosting piping the spooky grin. A fun family project that tastes as good as it looks.

Pear and ginger cheesecake bakes a granola crust around a filling of simmered pears, crystallized ginger, and a lightened cottage-and-cream-cheese base. A cozy holiday dessert with less heft than classic cheesecake.