Recipe Sifter

Buttermilk chocolate cake split and filled with coconut-pecan cream, then blanketed in sour cream chocolate frosting. A Southern showpiece worth every step.

Decadent chocolate mousse cake: a light, airy chocolate cake kissed with orange liqueur and zest, made by folding whipped egg whites into a rich chocolate batter, then frosted with chocolate mousse.

Treat your kids for dessert with these scrumptious cookies that take hardly any time at all to make.

Three-layer white chocolate cake with coconut, pecans, and buttermilk topped with a pourable white chocolate frosting. Includes the frosting recipe.

German chocolate brownie cookies marry fudgy cocoa cookies with the classic coconut-pecan caramel topping. Brown-sugar dough loaded with chocolate chips, crowned candy-bar style.

Learn to make authentic Austrian Fruchtknoedel—delicious fruit dumplings with plums, apricots, or strawberries in a soft cottage cheese dough, topped with sweet garnishes.

A fat-free marbled sponge cake with swirled vanilla white and lemon-yellow batters baked in a tube pan. Feather-light and elegant for any occasion.

Silky French fennel veloute soup with braised fennel, butter roux, egg yolk and cream liaison, garnished with fresh chives. Elegant, warming, and deeply aromatic.

Dense, buttery sweet potato pound cake with sour cream and warm spices, served with a vanilla bean-cinnamon custard sauce and praline ice cream. This is dinner party dessert that earns a standing ovation.

Boston cream pie from scratch with a sponge cake split and filled with vanilla custard, topped with a glossy chocolate ganache glaze. The classic American dessert done right with three handmade components.

Fallen chocolate souffle cake: a dense, fudgy flourless-style cake of bittersweet chocolate, almond, and egg whites that puffs then collapses into a crackled top. An elegant, almost gluten-free dessert.

Vietnamese sesame cookies (bánh mè) with toasted sesame both ground into the dough and pressed onto the tops. Crisp, nutty, and sealed with an egg-wash gloss.

Virginia Lane of Cudahy secured this recipe, with its nice complexity of flavors, in the late '50s or '60s when she lived in Iran.

Nusskipferl are Austrian yeast-leavened crescent cookies filled with sweet ground nut meringue. A traditional Viennese coffeehouse pastry rolled jelly-roll style and curved into delicate horns.

Frankfurter Kranz is a classic German crown cake with three rum-soaked sponge layers, silky butter-cream filling, and a crunchy almond praline coating finished with apricot glaze.

Elegant apple dessert bars with flaky pastry base, apricot jam layer, and Brazil nut-raisin topping served warm with whipped cream for special occasions.