Dessert Recipes

Trinidadian sugar cakes are chewy Caribbean coconut candies cooked in sugar syrup and tinted pink. A traditional street-fair sweet from Trinidad and Tobago.

Light sponge cake flavored with coffee, cocoa, and finely chopped nuts. Made with separated eggs for an airy texture, perfect for special occasions.

Mini upside-down cheesecakes with warm pineapple sauce: 4 individual muffin-tin cheesecakes flipped onto a pool of glossy pineapple sauce. Ready in 50 minutes.

Cantaloupe Melba with sliced melon, raspberry sherbet, and a fresh raspberry Melba sauce. An elegant no-cook dessert with optional orange liqueur.

This is a good cookie recipe to use up those over ripe bananas.

A spiced sheet cake packed with grated carrots, mashed bananas, toasted coconut, and pecans. Warm cloves and mace set it apart from ordinary carrot cake. Cuts into 24 squares and freezes well.

Sour cream chocolate cake using a cake mix enriched with sour cream and brown sugar, topped with a broiled sour cream and brown sugar glaze. Extra moist and finished in minutes under the broiler.

Rich chocolate drop cookies loaded with flaked coconut, chopped pecans, and chocolate chips, each topped with a pecan half. Melted unsweetened chocolate in the batter gives them a deep, fudgy flavor that tastes like a German chocolate cake in cookie form.

Double chocolate biscotti with wine-plumped dried cherries, melted bittersweet chocolate, and cocoa powder. Crisp, dunkable cookies that stay fresh for a month.

No-bake apricot cheesecake on a toasted oat crust with brandy-laced cream cheese filling, folded with chopped apricots and whipped cream. Glazed with warm apricot preserves and brandy.

Dense apricot bars sweetened with maple syrup and loaded with dried apricots, walnuts, and cashews. No eggs, no butter, finished with powdered sugar icing and optional chocolate drizzle.

Grilled angel food cake with skewered nectarines basted in lemon-sugar glaze and fresh blueberries. A light summer grilled dessert with caramelized fruit and toasted cake.

Applique cookies stack contrasting chocolate-pepper and sugar cookie doughs, cut in different shapes and glued with egg white before baking, then drizzled with chocolate. A striking two-tone decorating technique.

A silky Belgian cream cheese tart with lemon juice and whipping cream, baked in an 8-inch tart shell and brushed with a glossy egg wash. Light, creamy, and elegant.

Caramel pecan pie skips the corn syrup and melts soft caramels into the filling instead, layered with pecan halves in a flaky crust. Richer, chewier twist on the Thanksgiving classic.

Chocolate pan cake pours hot cocoa-butter liquid into a buttermilk batter, bakes in a 13x9 pan, and gets a warm cocoa glaze poured over while still hot. Southern Texas sheet cake classic.