1,469 vanilla icing recipes

The combination of black beans and sweet potato gives these brownies a moreish, moist quality. These are great for kids as they contain no added sugar or trans-fats (you may wish to omit the coffee and substitute cacao powder if serving to youngsters, though).

Low-fat oatmeal raisin cookies built on applesauce instead of butter, with cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and orange zest. Soft, chewy, and warmly spiced.

These cookies are soft-cake like because of the pumpkin and applesauce. Dried cranberries and chocolate chips give the cookies additional deliciousness.

This very rich cake from the West Indies is ideal for those who prefer not to ice their Christmas cakes.

Billy goats are soft date and nut cookies, sometimes called "rocks" due to their shape after baking. Children love them.

Walk to school cookies: buttery slice-and-bake shortbread with chopped pecans, dusted with powdered sugar. Make-ahead icebox cookies sturdy enough to survive a backpack and lunchbox.

Double-frosted brownies: fudgy chocolate brownies topped with a creamy cooked fondant frosting, then crowned with melted unsweetened chocolate. Three layers, three textures, serious chocolate intensity.

Classic Poires Belle Helene with whole pears poached in vanilla syrup, served with vanilla ice cream and warm homemade chocolate sauce. An elegant French dessert.

A Depression-era chocolate cake made with no eggs, no butter, and no milk. Mixed right in the pan with the famous three-holes method, topped with rich fudge frosting.

Cranberry cheesecake swirled with a homemade cranberry-orange filling and finished with an orange sour cream topping over a vanilla wafer crust. A tart-and-creamy holiday cheesecake worth the centerpiece spot.

Buttermilk whoopie pies: pillowy chocolate cake cookies sandwiched around fluffy marshmallow buttercream. The classic New England diner dessert, soft, sweet, and snack-cake delicious.

German chocolate cake from scratch with a cooked coconut-pecan frosting. Three layers of buttermilk chocolate cake topped with a rich, chewy caramel-style filling.

Red velvet pound cake baked low and slow in a tube pan with cocoa, shortening, and seven eggs for a dense, velvety crumb. Topped with cream cheese icing.

Tagalong cheesecake turns the peanut-butter-and-chocolate Girl Scout cookie into a dessert. A Tagalong cookie crust, peanut butter cream cheese filling, glossy chocolate ganache and crushed peanuts.

Nut horns are Eastern European cream cheese pastries filled with a sweet walnut meringue filling. The dough chills overnight for a flaky, tender bite that melts in your mouth.

Fudgy bonbons: Hershey's Kiss-stuffed chocolate truffle cookies with chopped nuts, drizzled with white chocolate. A Pillsbury Bake-Off winner that still knocks cookie exchanges out of the park.