Recipe Sifter

Raisin cake loaded with chopped apples, plump raisins, and warm cinnamon and cloves. Sour cream keeps the crumb tender, while a cozy spice blend turns this old-fashioned spice cake into a fall-baking favorite.

Italian meatball cookies with warm spices, cocoa, raisins, nuts, and chocolate chips rolled into small round drops. A traditional Italian-American holiday cookie that looks like its dinner-table namesake.

The name translates to pepper nuts in German, Danish and Dutch, describing their spicy taste as well as the fact that the recipe calls for a small amount of pepper.

Persimmon muffins sweetened with honey and spiced with cinnamon, mace, allspice, and clove. Soft, autumn-fragrant breakfast muffins that bake in 15 minutes.

Dark Christmas cake is the real, old-fashioned fruitcake: dense with raisins, currants, figs, dates, and almonds, deepened with brown sugar, prune juice, and brandy, then aged in brandy-soaked cheesecloth. Make it now, slice it at Christmas.

Traditional Swiss Basel Leckerli: honey-spice cookie bars with cinnamon, cloves, candied peels, kirsch, and almonds under a crackly sugar glaze. Makes 50 to 60 bars that keep for weeks.

Rich West Indian Christmas cake soaked in rum and sherry with dried fruits, warm spices, and browning for deep color. Start the fruit a month ahead for a dense, boozy holiday cake worth the wait.

Christmas spice cookies: rolled-and-cut holiday cookies with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and molasses. Soft or crunchy depending on bake time. Makes four dozen.

Swedish spice cookies. Very close to the authentic recipe. See reviews for more information.

Classic buttermilk spice cake with cinnamon, cloves, and a pinch of black pepper. A vintage McCall's recipe with brown and white sugar for deep, warm flavor.

Old-fashioned soft molasses cookies spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, topped with a shiny boiled gelatin frosting. Makes 4 dozen from an overnight chilled dough.

An old Welsh steamed carrot pudding -- This is a good steamed pudding, despite the list of ingredients that are "good for you". The sauce (following the recipe) is not a necessity for good taste, only for authenticity, although I LIKE it with the sauce.

Pumpkin pie squares with a crumbly oat-and-brown-sugar shortbread crust and a fully spiced pumpkin custard. Bakes in one pan, cuts into 16 squares, and travels better than a round pie.

This is my favorite pumpkin pie recipe! I found it years ago, and recently lost it in a move. I was joyous to find it again! I encourage everyone to use fresh pumpkin, just cut into large chunks, steam, then scoop out of peel, easy!

A warmly spiced sheet cake made with sour cream, raisins, and walnuts, sweetened with brown sugar replacement. Cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg fill every moist slice with cozy fall flavor. Diabetic-friendly and feeds a crowd.

Celebrate Christmas with this gum drop filled German fruit cake that kids love.