Dessert Recipes

Date pudding cake with chopped dates and nuts in a light egg batter with barely any flour. Dense, sticky, and caramel-sweet, served warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Double chocolate bar cake with melted milk chocolate, cocoa, and sour cream batter, filled and frosted with whipped chocolate cream. A light, airy three-layer stunner.

Double chocolate drop cookies with melted unsweetened chocolate in the batter, semi-sweet chips throughout, and a from-scratch chocolate frosting on top.

Slice-and-bake chocolate cookies made with melted unsweetened chocolate, Dr. Pepper soda, and chopped walnuts. The soda adds a subtle spiced sweetness you can't quite place but can't stop eating.

Fattigmann, a traditional Norwegian fried cookie flavored with cardamom, lemon zest, and brandy. Diamond-shaped, paper-thin, and dusted with sugar.

Crazy cake, also known as wacky cake, is an egg-free and dairy-free chocolate sheet cake made with vinegar and oil. Depression-era one-pan recipe that bakes in 35 minutes.

Figs in Cabernet Sauvignon with Almond Ice Cream recipe

Frosted orange cookies made with mandarin oranges baked into the dough, topped with an orange syrup glaze and fresh orange zest. Soft, fruity, and loaded with raisins and nuts.

Fruit basket cookies packed with candied cherries, dates, dried apricots, golden raisins, pecans, and walnuts in a brown sugar butter dough. A chewy, fruited holiday cookie.

Winner of the 1991 Michigan Chocolate Cake Contest Created by Linda Theil

Whole wheat funnel cakes sweetened with honey and fried in a cast-iron skillet. Spiral the batter by hand for that authentic fair-style crunch at home.

Giant raisin oat cookies with oat bran, rolled oats, plump raisins, and a hint of orange zest baked into hearty cookies the size of saucers. Wholesome breakfast or lunchbox treat.

Soft gingerbread cookies with molasses, hot coffee, cinnamon, cloves, and ground ginger. A rollout cookie dough for gingerbread men with a tender, cake-like texture instead of a crisp snap.

Hazelnut butter balls: tender, melt-in-your-mouth cookies loaded with chopped toasted hazelnuts, rolled in powdered sugar while warm. A buttery, nutty riff on the classic snowball cookie that disappears off any holiday tray.

Artichoke heart spice cake: a moist bundt cake with pureed artichoke hearts (think zucchini cake's sneaky cousin) plus cinnamon, clove, walnuts, and raisins. The artichokes disappear, the moisture stays.

Old-fashioned Canadian jam jam cookies: oatmeal and brown sugar rounds sandwiched around a homemade date filling. A prairie-farmhouse classic with a soft, chewy bite.