Dessert/5 recipes

Greek butter cookies (kourabiedes) with ground cloves and a thick powdered sugar coating. Tender, crumbly, and lightly spiced for the holidays.

Frosted peanut butter cookies with a homemade peanut butter and powdered sugar frosting. Soft, chewy drop cookies loaded with double the peanut butter flavor.

Flourless walnut cake topped with a rich coffee cream made from dark chocolate, Madeira, and whipped cream. A European-style frozen dessert garnished with crystallized flowers for an elegant finish.

Delicious, light and fluffy! These taste of Fall, and the crystallized ginger gives then a lovely little zing. Even people who don't like pumpkin love these cupcakes. These disappear as fast as I can set them out!

Old-fashioned pound cake with shortening, six eggs, and no leavening. Vanilla and almond extract give this dense, tender tube cake its signature flavor.

White chocolate orange dream cookies are buttery drop cookies studded with white chips and brightened with fresh orange zest. Makes 2 dozen creamsicle-flavored cookies.

Vintage Midwest Jell-O salad with lime gelatin, sour cream, crushed pineapple, pecans, and maraschino cherries. No baking required. Set, slice into squares, and top with whipped cream.

Frozen raspberry parfait, a silky no-churn mousse of cooked raspberry puree, framboise brandy, meringue, and whipped cream. A classic French dessert frozen for hours.

Tofu cookies are a wholesome whole wheat drop cookie sweetened with honey and built on blended silken tofu, raisins, dates, and warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

A dump-and-bake strawberry cake with marshmallows, cake mix, Jello powder, and frozen strawberries layered in a pan with zero mixing. The oven does all the work. Sticky, gooey, and ridiculously easy.

Classic white cake with buttermilk and egg whites for a pure white, tender crumb. Easy two-layer recipe with a marble cake variation built in.

Crisp, wafer-thin cream cheese cookies studded with finely chopped walnuts. Just five ingredients and 10 minutes in the oven. A Hollywood legend's own recipe.

Christmas tree cake cut from a 13x9 sheet cake into a tree shape, frosted green and decorated with peppermint candies, pretzel rod trunk, and a gumdrop star. Festive holiday show-stopper from one boxed mix.

Lemon poppyseed spritz cookies are pressed into star and swirl shapes, baked tender, then iced with a pale lemon glaze and finished with a poppyseed sprinkle.

Pumpkin delight is a no-bake layered dessert: a graham cracker base under a fluffy spiced pumpkin filling of cream cheese, vanilla pudding, and whipped topping. A lighter, make-ahead alternative to pumpkin pie.

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.