Dessert/4 recipes

Authentic German apple cake recipe that will wow your guests. Decoratively topped with apple halves with a light and fluffy crumb, a winning classic German recipe.

Boston cream pie with two split sponge layers, thick vanilla pastry custard, and a warm chocolate glaze that drips down the sides. The Massachusetts state dessert built from scratch.

Chocolate zucchini tube cake using a cake mix hack with shredded zucchini folded in for extra moisture. Topped with cream cheese frosting and chopped nuts.

Buttery almond slice-and-bake cookies dipped halfway in melted chocolate and finished with sprinkles. A 5-dozen batch of elegant yet easy cookies that look bakery-bought.

Italian-style pineapple ricotta cheesecake with a tender shortcrust pastry, a hidden layer of crushed pineapple, and a light ricotta-cream-cheese filling lifted with whipped egg whites.

Six-layer chocolate coffee torte with buttermilk cocoa cake, coffee-spiked whipped cream, and crushed Heath Bar toffee pressed into every layer and all over the outside.

Flambed ice cream sauce of buttered green grapes, hot chiles, rum, honey, and warm spices. A sweet-heat dessert topping that takes 20 minutes and shocks the palate awake.

Five-flavor pound cake glaze is a quick stovetop sugar syrup laced with coconut, butter, rum, lemon, and vanilla extracts. Poured warm over pound cake for an aromatic, moist finish.

A Southern cold-oven pound cake with both vanilla and butternut flavoring, baked low and slow in a tube pan. Dense, buttery crumb with a golden crust that needs no frosting.

Chocolate brandy cake doctors a devil's food mix with brandy, eggs, and oil, then bakes into a tender bundt soaked twice with a hot brandy-chocolate glaze. Make a day ahead for full flavor.

Quebec maple syrup pie (tarte au sirop d'erable) with a custard filling of pure maple syrup, cream, and eggs in a flaky shell. Five ingredients, intensely sweet, purely Canadian.

Big-batch go-to pie crust: 5 pounds of flour and butter-flavored shortening yield 20 freezer-ready dough balls. Microwave-thaw any single ball in 30 seconds for pie any night.

Benne seed cookies, the historic Charleston specialty. Toasted sesame seeds folded into a brown sugar dough for thin, crisp, caramel-edged Lowcountry cookies.

Old-fashioned pound cake with a full pound of real butter, eight eggs, and no leavening. Baked low and slow for a dense, velvety crumb with deep buttery flavor.

These bars are very pretty with their dark chocolate swirls throughout. The dessert is a sweet treat to any lunch-bucket meal.

Vanilla brownies (blondies) made with butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract with optional chocolate chips. Chewy, buttery bars baked in a sheet pan for easy slicing.