Dessert recipes

Coconut-almond cheesecake with vanilla wafer crust tastes like a Mounds bar in creamy, baked form and makes an impressive dessert for chocolate lovers and coconut fans.

Peanut butter king cake cookies shaped in a ring with a hidden chocolate kiss surprise inside one ball. Frosted with purple, green, and gold icing for Mardi Gras.

This 4th of July make-ahead dessert features multiple layers of sponge cake and strawberry and vanilla ice cream. Perfect to wow a crown this Independence day.

French pear tart with almond frangipane, kirsch-soaked apricot glaze, and vanilla-poached pears. Crushed macaroons fold into the pastry cream for chewy depth, finished with green pistachios.

Mudslide brownies spiked with Kahlua, Irish cream, and vodka, made with real unsweetened chocolate and walnuts. Finished with a Kahlua powdered sugar glaze.

Creamy vanilla cheesecake bars on a rich chocolate-graham cracker crust. Melted chocolate chips and butter hold the base together while sweetened condensed milk makes the filling impossibly smooth.

Patriotic Fourth of July chocolate sheet cake decorated as an American flag with vanilla and blue frosting and fresh strawberry stripes. A buttermilk-rich chocolate cake the kids can help decorate.

Stanford Court's bread pudding starts with homemade brioche layered with sliced apples, raspberries, and rich egg custard. A San Francisco restaurant-quality dessert baked to a golden crown.

Dishpan cookies loaded with cornflakes, oatmeal, coconut, nuts, and chocolate chips in a buttery brown sugar dough. A massive batch kitchen sink cookie recipe.

Flourless chocolate cake made with four kinds of nuts, bittersweet chocolate, and citrus zest, served with honey-glazed grilled orange sections. A Sephardic-inspired dessert.

Passover cheesecake with a chocolate macaroon and almond crust, filled with a silky cream cheese custard. A flour-free holiday dessert best made a day ahead.

Traditional Pakistani gajraila with grated carrots slow-simmered in milk with rice, cardamom, slivered almonds, pistachios, and raisins. A fragrant, creamy dessert served hot or cold.

Peanut butter cookie cake: a tube-pan cake with a cookie-dough crust, melted chocolate layer, and peanut butter cake filling. Shortcut dessert that eats like a showstopper.

Orange pistachio Bundt cake made with yellow cake mix, pistachio pudding, and orange juice, marbled with chocolate syrup and topped with a cocoa glaze. A stunning retro dessert.

Luscious apricot bars layered over a shortbread crust with a chewy brown sugar topping studded with plump apricots and chopped walnuts. A classic two-layer dessert bar rolled in sugar.

Kurant vodka cheesecake baked in a water bath with a graham cracker-almond crust, topped with fresh strawberries glazed in strawberry jelly spiked with more Kurant vodka. A showstopper dessert.