Dessert recipes

Apple spice custard cake: a doctored boxed cake mix loaded with fresh apples, then crowned with a tangy sweetened condensed milk and sour cream custard topping. Easy potluck dessert in under an hour.

Moist apple cake with warm vanilla cream sauce, shredded Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, and walnuts. Easy 8-inch square cake topped with homemade buttery sauce, perfect for fall dessert or cozy brunch.

Frozen pumpkin ice cream pie marbled with homemade rum-caramel sauce on a graham cracker crust. A no-bake autumn dessert that serves at least 8 and lives in the freezer until needed.

Apple snack cake mix shortcut: stir cake mix, egg, and milk right in the baking pan, press sugared apple slices into the top, and bake. A single-pan dessert ready in 40 minutes.

Pumpkin pie cake is a fall dump-cake with creamy spiced pumpkin pie filling on the bottom, dry yellow cake mix on top, then melted butter and pecans. A no-crust pumpkin dessert hybrid.

Crustless apple pie with a buttery graham cracker and pecan streusel, finished with a melted caramel sauce poured right over the top. Spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg for a warm, gooey fall dessert.

Classic apricot sweet simmers dried apricots with cardamom, ginger, and almonds into a fragrant, spiced compote, much like Hyderabad's qubani ka meetha. Naturally fruit-sweet, served chilled. A make-ahead Indian dessert.

Orange custard cookies are mini tartlets with buttery shortbread shells filled with an almond-orange flower water custard, baked in muffin tins. Two dozen elegant bite-sized desserts with a Mediterranean fragrance.

White chocolate ricotta-filled cookies: crisp baked wonton skins sandwich a white chocolate, ricotta, and orange zest filling, with toasted hazelnuts and dark chocolate baked into the shell. A fusion dessert with serious restaurant flair.

Giant chocolate chip cookie rolled flat like a pizza crust, topped with sweetened cream cheese, chocolate pudding, and chopped nuts. Cut into wedges with a pizza cutter. A semi-homemade dessert pizza that steals the show at any gathering.

Oatmeal crusty top apple pie pairs a tender lard-and-oat bottom crust with a brown sugar streusel topping. Cinnamon-spiced apples bake under a crunchy oat crumble for a single-crust pie that drinks like dessert and breakfast at once.

COMMENT: What makes this dessert so irresistible? As it bakes, a pudding sauce forms beneath the cake layer. Cocoa-based and made without eggs, its an old-fashioned treat that should be served with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and a big spoon.

Famous lemonade pie with frozen lemonade concentrate, sweetened condensed milk, and whipped topping in a graham cracker crust with fresh berries. A tangy, no-bake summer pie.

Turtle shells are a novelty edible-insect snack: cooked cicadas dipped in warm chocolate glaze and cooled into crunchy, chocolate-topped morsels. A bold entry into entomophagy for the adventurous.

Fruity pound cake with lemon Jello, white cake mix, and a fluffy instant pudding frosting with whipped topping. Classic 1970s shortcut layer cake.

Fruit ginger drop cookies made with gingerbread mix, candied fruit, and chopped nuts. A 4-ingredient holiday cookie ready in 25 minutes.