Dessert/7 recipes

Classic cocoa layer cake with a tender crumb from the creaming method, ready for your favorite frosting. Swap water for coffee to deepen the chocolate flavor. A reliable two-layer cake in under an hour.

Brown sugar blondies loaded with butterscotch chips and chopped nuts. No cocoa, all caramel and vanilla. The butterscotch cousin to classic chocolate brownies.

Homemade frozen yogurt with fresh fruit, orange juice, and egg whites beaten until fluffy. A no-churn, low-calorie frozen dessert you can make with any fruit.

An old Welsh steamed carrot pudding -- This is a good steamed pudding, despite the list of ingredients that are "good for you". The sauce (following the recipe) is not a necessity for good taste, only for authenticity, although I LIKE it with the sauce.

Tropical mango-pineapple-lime cheesecake on a gingersnap and macadamia nut crust with crystallized ginger, topped with fresh mango, kiwi, and pineapple slices.

Apple praline pie with Granny Smith apples in a double crust, topped with a bubbly brown sugar, butter, and pecan praline glaze poured over the baked pie. Two desserts in one.

This dark sauce takes advantage of chocolate's affinity for red wine. Dutch process cocoa lends the sauce richer chocolate flavor than regular unsweetened cocoa.

A thick, fudgy chocolate pie packed with pecan halves and baked in a flaky crust. Sweetened condensed milk and cocoa create a dense, truffle-like filling. Serve warm or cold with a crown of whipped cream.

Fresh tomato cake with dark brown sugar, dates, raisins, nuts, and nutmeg topped with cream cheese frosting. A Southern heritage cake that uses ripe tomatoes for incredible moisture.

A flourless chocolate mousse cake with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, served with fresh raspberries and mascarpone. Just 6 ingredients and no flour needed for this elegant dessert.

Buttery gold tube cake flavored with lemon extract and mace, topped with a from-scratch mocha butter frosting made with cocoa, coffee, and egg whites.

Buttery English toffee ball cookies studded with crushed chocolate-covered toffee bars and vanilla pudding mix, rolled in powdered sugar. Melt-in-your-mouth holiday cookie tin favorites.

Fudgy from-scratch brownies layered with creme de menthe walnut frosting and drizzled with melted chocolate. Three layers of minty, chocolatey bliss in every bite.

Honey-dipped cookies, the Greek melomakarona, are oval spiced cookies fragrant with orange, cognac, and cinnamon, soaked in honey syrup and showered with walnuts. An irresistible Christmas tradition from the Aegean kitchen.

Cream cheese chocolate chip cookie bars made from two rolls of refrigerated cookie dough sandwiching a vanilla cream cheese filling. A bakery-counter dessert from supermarket shortcuts in 15 minutes of prep.

Mandarin orange cheesecake wrapped in crackling phyllo pastry, filled with cream cheese and ricotta, then soaked in orange blossom syrup for a Middle Eastern twist on a classic.