Dessert/9 recipes

Chocolate mocha buttermilk cake, an ultra-moist chocolate layer cake deepened with buttermilk and hot coffee, split thin and stacked with mousse and toasted hazelnuts. Rich, tender, and bakery-worthy.

Gloreos, a homemade copycat Oreo: deep-chocolate cake-mix cookies sandwiched with a fluffy vanilla cream filling. The gelatin-set filling stays firm, just like the real thing. A fun batch-bake for cookie lovers.

Grapefruit mousse: light citrus mousse with grapefruit juice, gin-spiked gelatin, and whipped cream. Layered in parfait glasses with fresh strawberries.

Egg yolk shortbread bakes a richer-than-classic Scottish biscuit with butter, sugar, flour, and a single yolk for extra tenderness and golden color. Fork-marked, two-stage baked for delicate crisp edges.

Upside-down pear gingerbread cake with caramelized pear slices under a spiced molasses cake loaded with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Served with vanilla whipped cream.

Fat-free cheesecake with nonfat cream cheese, egg whites, sugar, and vanilla on a graham cracker crust. Just 5 ingredients and 30 minutes of baking for a guilt-free dessert.

Authentic Scottish shortbread is a four-ingredient classic of unsalted butter, sugar, flour, and cornstarch baked low and slow into pale, sandy wedges. The traditional petticoat tails for tea time.

Sara Lee-style original cream cheesecake copycat with graham cracker crust, eggless cream cheese filling, and a sweet sour cream topping. The classic frozen cheesecake at home.

Classic sour cream cheesecake on a buttery shortbread cookie crust. Built on cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, and a full cup of sour cream for a tangy, dense, New York-style slice every time.

Banana split sundaes for two with a microwave hot fudge sauce made from semisweet chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, and corn syrup. A 10-minute date-night dessert.

Canadian prairie saskatoon berry pie (called serviceberry in the US) with a double crust and bright lemon juice cutting the deep purple sweetness. A heritage berry pie of the Western prairies.

Little boats in sauce are old-fashioned pastry dumplings shaped like boats, baked in a sweet brown sugar and molasses sauce. A nostalgic Canadian dessert.

Fudgy bonbons: Hershey's Kiss-stuffed chocolate truffle cookies with chopped nuts, drizzled with white chocolate. A Pillsbury Bake-Off winner that still knocks cookie exchanges out of the park.

Chocolate mint mousse made with semi-sweet chocolate, creme de menthe, whipped cream, and decorative chocolate wedges. A rich, elegant dessert with a cool minty finish.

Fat-free pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving with a no-butter bread crumb crust, egg-white-only filling, and skim evaporated milk. A lighter holiday classic with all the warm spice.

Kolaches (kolacky) made with a tender cottage cheese and butter dough, filled with pineapple or apricot filling, and dusted with powdered sugar. A Czech pastry classic.