Recipe Sifter

Low-fat fudgy chocolate cake made with buttermilk, strong coffee, and cocoa powder, topped with a glossy cooked chocolate icing. No butter needed.

French genoise sponge cake soaked with Amaretto and filled with whipped chocolate ganache. A light, egg-leavened cake with lemon zest and an overnight chocolate cream.

Moist carrot cake baked in a tube pan with walnuts and cinnamon, finished with a glossy cooked orange glaze instead of the usual cream cheese frosting.

Deep-fried chicken wings marinated overnight in a sweet soy garlic mixture with egg and cornstarch, fried golden and topped with sesame seeds and scallions.

Hostess-Style Cupcakes with deep chocolate cake, silky vanilla pastry cream filling, dark chocolate ganache glaze and the signature white loop squiggle on top. A homemade copycat that buries the store-bought version.

Old-fashioned poppy seed cake with the seeds soaked in milk for hours to release their flavor, then topped with a pecan custard frosting. Tender, nutty, and heirloom-worthy.

Maryanne's cheesecake: a low-and-slow New York-style cheesecake with cream cheese, sour cream, butter, and lemon zest on a buttery graham cracker crust. Baked gently for an ultra-silky texture.

Vintage ribbon cake: plain vanilla and spiced molasses batters layered in stripes with a tart lemon-raisin filling between. An old-fashioned American cake worth reviving.

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.

Mazurka cookie bars with an almond shortbread base topped with a fruity filling of apricots, figs, raisins, walnuts, and candied orange peel, finished with powdered sugar icing.

Buttery shortbread-style nut fingers with toasted walnuts and cornstarch for a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Rolled into ropes, baked golden, and dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Nutty Mississippi mud pie stacks toasted pecans and walnuts under a tangy cream cheese layer, then crowns it with stovetop chocolate pudding. A no-bake-friendly Southern dessert that yields two pies.

Orange coconut cake layers a tender almond-scented white cake with a tangy fresh orange filling and fluffy boiled-sugar frosting. A vintage Southern church-cookbook bake with citrus brightness throughout.

Oyster house apple pie with a flaky butter-shortening crust and a pre-cooked spiced apple filling. Old-tavern recipe with a glossy clove-and-cinnamon glaze.

Deep-fried Parmesan prawns with a crispy breadcrumb and Parmigiano-Reggiano coating over a light batter. Golden, crunchy, and done in 2 minutes flat.

This sorbet, based simply on commercially canned pears, can be enhanced with the flavor of eau-de-vie de poire (pear liqueur) or, if preferred, with fresh lemon juice.