Chocolate recipes

Feathery fudge cake: a light, airy two-layer chocolate cake with melted unsweetened chocolate and a creaming-method batter. Tender, fluffy crumb that takes any frosting beautifully.

Marshmallow cream fudge made in the microwave with chocolate chips, evaporated milk, and butter cooked to soft ball stage. Creamy, smooth, and no candy thermometer needed.

Nouvelle gateau is a French-style flourless-leaning chocolate cake with butter, semi-sweet chocolate, reduced coffee, and rum, baked in a water bath until fudgy and silky.

Refrigerator mocha torte layers graham crackers between rich chocolate-coffee buttercream in a loaf pan, chilled until firm. No-bake icebox cake with sliceable mocha layers. Serves 10.

Fudge Bundt cake with melted chocolate, syrup, buttermilk, and mini morsels, finished with double drizzle of white and dark chocolate. Dense, rich, showstopper-worthy.

Italian celebration cake with pound cake layers soaked in orange liqueur, filled with sieved ricotta, candied fruit, and chocolate chips, frosted with cocoa-mocha buttercream. No baking required.

Better Than Sex Cake is a rich Bundt cake made with yellow cake mix, vanilla pudding, sour cream, chocolate chips, grated German chocolate, and pecans.

Easy chocolate brownie with nuts is baked in a pie plate.

Mont Blanc dessert: a crisp meringue base ringed with piped vanilla-chestnut puree vermicelli and crowned with vanilla cream and grated dark chocolate. The classic French patisserie centerpiece.

Terry's turtle cake layers chocolate cake with melted caramel, chocolate chips, and pecans, then tops with more batter for a gooey caramel center. A church potluck classic on a doctored cake mix base.

Frozen layer cake with coffee, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream stacked on a cinnamon chocolate wafer crust, loaded with crushed toffee bars and served with homemade hot fudge sauce.

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.

Banana chocolate chip bars with whole wheat flour, mashed ripe bananas, and mini chocolate morsels, dusted with powdered sugar. A bake-and-share sheet bar that yields a crowd.

Mississippi mud cake baked low and slow in a tube pan with melted unsweetened chocolate, instant pudding and a generous pour of milk. Dark, dense and impossibly moist, dusted with confectioners' sugar.

A cherry twist on classic tiramisu with espresso-soaked ladyfingers layered with whipped cream, chopped semi-sweet chocolate, and fresh Bing cherries. No baking required.

Classic Italian tiramisu with mascarpone, espresso, cognac, amaretto, and dual layers of Savoiardi ladyfingers and amaretti biscuits. No-bake dessert showstopper.