Dessert, Baked Good Recipes

Apple custard cake layered on a buttery lemon shortcrust, with rum-soaked raisins and tart apples under a baked vanilla custard that sets soft and creamy. A bakery-style dessert with a boozy backbone.

Kookie Cookies: no-bake peanut butter corn chip bars with corn syrup and sugar. A salty-sweet, crunchy 4-ingredient treat that kids can help make in 15 minutes.

Cornmeal cookies blend stone-ground cornmeal with flour for a sandy, slightly crunchy crumb. Studded with dried cherries or raisins and warmed with nutmeg. An Italian-American Christmas tin staple.

Friendship cake starter made with pineapple, cherries, and peaches layered with sugar and brandy over six weeks. A fermented fruit base for holiday fruitcakes.

Brown sugar sour cream cookies wrapped around walnut-stuffed dates, baked and topped with a vanilla sour cream icing. A unique, old-fashioned holiday cookie.

Black Forest cheesecake layers chocolate wafer crust, almond-scented chocolate cream cheese filling, and cherry pie topping with whipped cream. The German classic, cheesecake-style.

Two-layer chocolate orange cheesecake with a chocolate wafer-cinnamon crust, dark chocolate base, and Grand Marnier orange top. Boxed-cake elegance for a dinner party showpiece.

Joy's carrot cake folds crushed pineapple, pecans, and cinnamon into a tender crumb, finished with cream cheese icing loaded with coconut, raisins, and toasted nuts. A bakery-style classic.

Hearty oatmeal raisin cookies loaded with rolled oats, plump raisins, and crunchy bran flake cereal for extra texture and fiber. Crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle, and a smart way to use up the cereal box.

Layered apple cake with a buttery crust, tangy cream cheese filling, sliced apples, and silky custard topping crowned with pecans. A showstopper baked in a springform pan.

Orange cake made in the slow cooker with just 4 ingredients: cake mix, orange juice, eggs, and fresh orange zest. A hands-off, oven-free cake that serves eight.

Traditional German Lebkuchen honey cakes spiced with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, studded with candied citron and brushed with a clear sugar glaze.

Cappuccino pistachio shortbread wedges dipped in chocolate and rolled in chopped pistachios. A buttery coffee-flavored cookie that looks bakery-counter elegant with minimal effort.

Lace cookies with lemon buttercream filling, thin caramelized oat-and-molasses wafers sandwiched around a silky lemon curd buttercream. Delicate, bakery-style cookies worth the patience.

Three-layer banana cake with bourbon, pecans, and a buttermilk-tender crumb. A Southern-style celebration cake that fills three 9-inch rounds with deep banana flavor.

Classic counting cake with foolproof 1-2-3-4-5 proportions: butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and baking powder create a tender vanilla cake that's ridiculously easy to memorize and bake from scratch.