Recipe Sifter

A hearty whole wheat bread machine loaf packed with apple juice, grated apple, applesauce, and cinnamon for naturally sweet breakfast toast.

Chocolate raisin snacking cake with cocoa, cinnamon, and chopped nuts, made in one saucepan. Raisins get simmered first to plump them up, and the warm cooking liquid goes right into the batter.

Southern fig preserve cake baked in a tube pan with warm spices, buttermilk, chopped pecans, and a generous swirl of fig jam, finished with a buttermilk glaze.

Oatmeal raisin sheet cake spiked with cinnamon, cloves, and plumped raisins, baked thin on a sheet pan and finished with a quick poured icing. The bake-sale and potluck cake that feeds a crowd of 24.

Low-fat carrot fig cake that replaces oil and butter with pureed dried figs for moisture. Loaded with grated carrots, crushed pineapple, and raisins, drizzled with a simple pineapple juice glaze.

Low-calorie applesauce raisin squares with whole wheat flour, natural bran, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, topped with sliced almonds. Just 61 calories per square.

Cinnamon-apple cheesecake with a shortbread crust, creamy filling, overlapping apple slices on top, and a warm orange marmalade glaze. A fall cheesecake that's more fruit tart than dense New York style.

Classic German Lebkuchen: spiced honey bars with almonds and candied citrus peel, glazed with lemon icing and dotted with cherries. Centuries-old Nuremberg Christmas tradition.

Honey pumpkin cookies sweetened with honey instead of sugar. Soft, cake-style drop cookies with raisins, pecans, cinnamon, and nutmeg. No refined sugar.

Cucidati, the traditional Sicilian Christmas fig cookies, with a rich filling of figs, raisins, nuts, chocolate and rum wrapped in tender pastry, shaped into slashed horseshoes and dusted with sugar.

Chocolate potato cake made with hot mashed potatoes for an incredibly moist crumb, cocoa, cinnamon, and folded egg whites. Finished with tangy cream cheese frosting.

Chewy oatmeal cookies with a thumbprint center filled with spiced apple pie filling, combining wheat germ nuttiness with warm cinnamon sweetness.

Upside-down chocolate cake baked over a brown-sugar caramel with apricot halves and maraschino cherries. Cocoa-rich cake flipped onto the platter for a glossy fruit top.

Parlies are thin, crispy Scottish gingerbread cookies made with molasses, brown sugar, ginger, and cinnamon. Rolled paper-thin and baked until snappy.

Fudgy chocolate sheet cake with a hint of cinnamon, topped with a buttery cocoa-pecan frosting made with sweetened condensed milk. Ready in 45 minutes flat.

Soft maple walnut oatmeal cookies with brown sugar and cinnamon, topped with maple-flavored frosting and a walnut half. Chewy, sweet, and warmly spiced.