Dessert/7 recipes

Pistachio mint cake is a green-tinted sheet cake with chocolate chips, baked in a 9x13 pan and topped with melted Andes mints spread into a glossy chocolate glaze.

Gift cake: a birthday sheet cake decorated to look like a wrapped present, with coconut "paper," strawberry preserves filling, and a gumdrop bow. Perfect kid's party centerpiece.

Old-fashioned prune cake with buttermilk, pecans, and warm spices soaked in a boiled buttermilk-butter sauce. Needs three days to cure for the richest, most intense flavor.

Buffalo chip cookies are giant oat-and-cornflake cookies customized with raisins, peanuts, coconut, butterscotch, or chocolate chips. Yields 60 jumbo bake-sale cookies.

Spiced pumpkin cookies with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger. Soft drop cookies topped with cinnamon sugar baked in 15 minutes.

McHamburger cookies sandwich a chocolate cookie "patty" between two vanilla wafer "buns" with green-tinted coconut lettuce and yellow frosting cheese, then sprinkle sesame seeds on top. A novelty no-bake cookie kids can build themselves.

Rich Colombian-style cocoa cakes loaded with real cocoa powder and butter. Kid-friendly, quick to mix, and ready in under 30 minutes for a chocolatey snack.

Nutty apricot bars with a coconut-pecan crumble crust and jammy dried apricot filling. A layered fruit bar that's part cookie, part shortcake, chilled and sliced from the pan.

German sour cherry chocolate cake: a dense, fudgy chocolate cake crowned with tart pitted cherries that sink into the batter as it bakes. The sharp cherries cut the rich dark chocolate beautifully.

Kaesekuchen, traditional German cheesecake: a light cottage cheese and sour cream filling with lemon, vanilla, and raisins, baked on a buttery shortcrust base and topped with almonds. Lighter than the American style.

Surprise devil's food cake with hidden beets: a deeply rich, moist chocolate cake with cocoa, buttermilk, and grated beets stirred in for extra tenderness. Kids will never guess.

Applesauce snack cake starts with a box cake mix boosted with applesauce, warm spices, raisins, and nuts for a moist, spiced sheet cake. A semi-homemade shortcut that tastes fully from scratch.

Layered dessert bars with shortbread crust, amaretto-condensed milk filling, topped with chocolate chips, coconut, and almonds. Rich, gooey, and indulgent.

Italian biscotti loaded with almonds, hazelnuts, and pine nuts, scented with orange zest and Godiva chocolate liqueur. Twice-baked for the classic dunkable crunch.

Topsy turvy apple pecan pie flips out of its pan like a tarte tatin, revealing a caramelized pecan-and-brown-sugar top crust over cinnamon-spiced Granny Smith apples. A Thanksgiving showstopper.

Two-layer apricot bars with a buttery shortbread crust and a brown sugar apricot topping. Dried apricots are simmered, pureed, and baked into chewy, fruity squares.