Dessert/4 recipes

This two-layer banana cake with buttermilk and chopped pecans bakes up incredibly moist and tender. Made with cake flour for a fine, soft crumb, it's the kind of from-scratch banana cake that wins blue ribbons.

Chocolate sauerkraut cake that sounds wild but bakes up incredibly moist and tender. The sauerkraut disappears into the cocoa batter, and a creamy chocolate frosting seals the deal.

No-bake German chocolate pie with melted chocolate, cream cheese, and whipped topping in a graham cracker crust. Just 6 ingredients and 10 minutes of hands-on work.

Hot fig pudding with molasses, buttermilk, dried figs, and ginger baked in a tube pan, served with a warm sherry-butter sauce with nutmeg and lemon. A British-style steamed pudding baked in the oven.

Three-layer German chocolate cake with mashed potatoes in the batter for a tender crumb, German milk chocolate, and a cooked pecan-coconut frosting that's stirred for 12 minutes until golden.

No-bake pumpkin patch pie with orange sherbet, whipped topping, and chopped Oreos in a chocolate cookie crust. A frozen Halloween dessert kids decorate themselves with candy pumpkins.

Rhubarb and blueberry double-crust pie with a hint of nutmeg. Tart rhubarb and sweet blueberries balance each other in this classic spring-to-summer fruit pie.

Chocolate sour cream cake built on melted unsweetened chocolate, brown sugar, and a finishing splash of boiling water that blooms the cocoa into deep, fudgy darkness. Tender, moist, old-school layer cake at its honest best.

Illinois apple pie fills a flaky double-crust shortening pastry with thin-sliced Granny Smith apples spiced with cinnamon, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Brushed with milk and dusted with sugar for a sparkling top.

No-bake holiday chocolate cake layered with orange juice-soaked macaroons, bittersweet ganache, chopped prunes, and toasted almonds. Dusted with cocoa and chilled overnight for deep, complex flavor.

Fresh pineapple with rum cream pairs ripe sliced pineapple with a silky rum-spiked sabayon-style sauce of egg yolks, butter, and whipped cream. An elegant New York chef-style fruit dessert.

Treat yourself when dessert comes around with this rich and decadent cake that will have you hooked!

Light, fluffy coconut cupcakes made with coconut syrup, cake flour, and whipped egg whites folded into a scalded milk batter. Topped with guava frosting for a tropical Hawaiian-style treat.

Layered banana, mixed fresh fruit, non-fat vanilla yogurt, and chopped walnuts assembled in 10 minutes. A light, no-cook dessert or breakfast parfait with no added sugar.

Cinnamon snack cake with apple cider sauce: a sour cream coffee cake with crumb topping, served warm with vanilla ice cream and warm cider sauce. The fall dessert that smells like Sunday afternoon.

Homemade cannoli from scratch with Marsala wine shells and sweet ricotta filling studded with chocolate chips and candied citron. Crispy, creamy, and worth every minute of effort.