Dessert Recipes

Classic gingerbread boy cookies with molasses, ginger, and cinnamon, rolled thin and decorated with red hots. A nostalgic cutout cookie recipe that holds its shape beautifully.

Lady Baltimore cake is a tall white layer cake filled with fruit and nuts, then covered in fluffy boiled icing. The genteel Charleston dessert that's been a Southern wedding cake for over a century.

Mom's lemon pie cooks a fresh-lemon curd with the zest of two whole lemons over the stovetop, thickened with both flour and cornstarch. A traditional water-based lemon meringue pie filling.

Mom's red velvet cake with old-fashioned ermine frosting (the original red velvet topping). Buttermilk, cocoa, and vinegar give the cake its signature tang and tender crumb.

Soft sour cream cookies with a sugar-pressed top, made from simple pantry staples. The sour cream keeps them pillowy and tender for days.

Wacky cake style chocolate layer cake made with no eggs, butter, or milk. A pantry-staple Depression-era recipe with deep cocoa flavor and a tender, fudgy crumb that's accidentally vegan.

Zucchini cake built on a yellow cake mix shortcut, with cinnamon, vanilla, grated zucchini, raisins, and walnuts baked in a tube pan. Moist, easy, and forgiving for new bakers.

Deep-fried choux pastry bites with pecans and maple extract, tossed in powdered sugar. A crispy, nutty treat using classic pate a choux dough ready in 15 minutes.

Mother's Christmas cheese cakes: cream cheese pastry tartlets with two fillings, one pecan-brown sugar and one coconut-vanilla. A classic holiday cookie tin stalwart.

Chocolate diamond cookies with unsweetened chocolate, pecans, and vanilla. A fudgy, brownie-like holiday cookie baked in one pan and cut into festive diamond shapes.

Filled butter ring cookies sandwich apricot preserves between two shortbread rounds, the top one cut with a thimble window, dusted with powdered sugar. Linzer-style holiday classic.

Butter cookie press poinsettias for Christmas with red flower shapes and hand-formed green leaves topped with silver dragees. A beautiful, festive holiday cookie with almond and vanilla flavor.

Classic chocolate mousse with whipped cream, melted chocolate, and a tempered egg yolk pate a bombe base. A silky French-style dessert component.

Marbled chocolate cookies with sour cream, melted chocolate folded into vanilla dough for a swirled effect. Soft, cakey, and baked low and slow for no browning.

Old-fashioned brownies with unsweetened chocolate, butter, pecans, and a simple creamed batter. A vintage one-bowl recipe that bakes in 25 minutes flat.

No-bake chocolate peanut butter mud pies with oats. One-minute boil, stir in the good stuff, drop on wax paper, and let them set. Fudgy, chewy, and no oven needed.