Dessert, Baked Good Recipes

Birthday or festival, it is always a wonderful cake.

A three-layer Southern cake with grated sweet potatoes, warm spices, and chopped nuts, finished with a rich coconut frosting. The surprise? Nobody guesses it's sweet potato.

Elegant orange butter cake for Epiphany with eggs beaten to triple volume, orange juice concentrate, and a dusting of powdered sugar. A light, citrusy tube cake steeped in European holiday tradition.

White chocolate cheesecake with an almond-oatmeal-graham crust, folded with whipped egg whites for an airy, mousse-like texture. Slow-cooled in the oven for a crack-free finish.

Cranberry pecan pound cake studs a buttery sour cream batter with toasted pecans, fresh cranberries, and ¼ cup of orange liqueur. Make ahead for the holidays, dust with powdered sugar.

Banana carrot cake combines mashed ripe bananas, shredded carrots, rolled oats, cinnamon, and cloves in a one-bowl snack cake. Moist, lunchbox-friendly twist on classic carrot cake.

Date-pecan pinwheel cookies, delicious with a cup of coffee or tea.

Turtle cheesecake with a chocolate wafer and walnut crust, studded with chocolate-caramel-pecan turtle candies. A rich Chicago-deli classic from the Eli's Cheesecake family.

Egg yolk shortbread bakes a richer-than-classic Scottish biscuit with butter, sugar, flour, and a single yolk for extra tenderness and golden color. Fork-marked, two-stage baked for delicate crisp edges.

Peanut butter Bundt pound cake glazed with semi-sweet chocolate ganache. A dense buttery pound cake that bakes from a cold-oven start, then gets enrobed in glossy chocolate.

Cold water chocolate cake with melted unsweetened chocolate, butter, and a splash of cold water for an exceptionally tender, light crumb. A heritage two-layer cake recipe.

Hawaiian dump cake with just four ingredients: crushed pineapple, coconut, yellow cake mix, and butter layered in a pan. No mixing required, just dump and bake.

Peanut streusel pie with vanilla custard, sweet meringue, and a crumbly peanut butter topping that browns into a nutty crust under the broiler. A diner counter classic.

French cream pie is a vintage sour cream and raisin filling spiced with cinnamon, cooked custard-style in a double boiler, then chilled in a baked shell and crowned with billowy whipped cream.

Robert Redford poke cake: chocolate cake soaked with sweetened condensed milk and butterscotch, topped with whipped cream and crushed toffee bars. Classic make-ahead potluck dessert.

Three fluffy vanilla layers meet brown-sugar caramel frosting that's silky, not fussy: simple counting-cake proportions topped with butter-toffee sweetness that'll make you swoon.