Baked goods recipes

A semi-homemade chocolate date quick bread using date bread mix boosted with cocoa powder, topped with a semisweet chocolate glaze and scattered with walnut and pecan halves. Moist, nutty, and ready in about an hour.

Classic Italian sponge cake made with a warm egg foam, cocoa powder, and no butter at all. Light as air with a deep golden crust and tender chocolate crumb.

Quiche pastry is a flaky butter-and-shortening pie crust made for blind baking. Five ingredients yield a sturdy 9 inch shell that holds custard fillings without going soggy.

Oatmeal apple cake with three cups of oats, chopped apples, brown and white sugar, cinnamon, and nuts. A dense, hearty cake that's more oat than flour with chunks of apple throughout.

No-bake chocolate rum balls made with crushed chocolate wafers, pecans, corn syrup, and dark rum. Rolled in sugar for a boozy, fudgy bite-sized holiday treat.

Chocolate amaretto torte with a fudgy chocolate-almond base topped with amaretto cream cheese mousse and whipped cream. A make-ahead dessert that chills overnight and freezes beautifully.

Golden chocolate Bundt cake doctors a yellow cake mix with sour cream, milk chocolate bars, chocolate chips, pecans and coconut. Semi-homemade with bakery-style results.

Three-layer old-fashioned chocolate cake with cocoa frosting and chocolate chips baked into every layer. No eggs, no butter in the cake, just deep cocoa flavor and a tender crumb.

Four-ingredient chocolate coconut candy drops made with unsweetened chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, flaked coconut, and walnuts. Placed in a hot oven that's turned off, they develop a gorgeous glossy glaze as they cool.

Apple-nut cinnamon streusel cake is a sour cream coffee cake folded with chopped apples and toasted sunflower seeds, finished with a cinnamon brown sugar streusel topping. Brunch and breakfast worthy.

Chocolate madeleines: classic French shell-shaped tea cakes made with semi-sweet chocolate, butter, and cake flour. Delicate, buttery, and with a tender crumb under a crisp edge.

Robert Redford poke cake: chocolate cake soaked with sweetened condensed milk and butterscotch, topped with whipped cream and crushed toffee bars. Classic make-ahead potluck dessert.

Rich chocolate sheet cake made with hot coffee and cocoa powder, topped with tangy cream cheese frosting. The coffee deepens the chocolate without adding coffee flavor.

Rich buttermilk chocolate layer cake with melted chocolate and chopped nuts folded right into the batter. A from-scratch classic that bakes up tender and moist every time.

Italian rainbow cookies (seven layer cookies): three almond paste sponge layers tinted red, green, and yellow, stacked with raspberry jam, and coated in chocolate. A classic holiday bakery tradition.

Golden biscotti packed with sliced and whole almonds, perfumed with orange zest and almond extract, then twice-baked into crunchy Italian cookies topped with cinnamon sugar. Keeps for months and begs for espresso.