Cake Recipes

It is hard to believe in this day and age – when salted caramel ice cream is almost as ubiquitous as vanilla – that desserts in which salt plays a starring role was once a newfangled concept. Layers of silky caramel and dark chocolate ganache topped with a sprinkling of crunchy, snow-white fleur de sel make this an unforgettable combination of flavors and textures.

The cake starts with moist, delicious layers of chocolate cake. I used my Easy Moist Chocolate Cake from a couple of weeks ago in layered cake form. It truly is such a moist cake and so easy! You basically mix the dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, add them together, then add the hot water at the end. One of the quickest cake batters to make and hard to mess up. It is made with layers of moist chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting, and chopped chocolate peanut butter cups! It’s rich, delicious and so fun!

A simple cheesecake recipe that requires no water bath or springform pan and tastes like a creamy pumpkin pie. Baked in a 9-by-13-inch pan, these are sliced into bars that are easy to serve and eat. If you want to make them a bit fancier, you can reserve some of the plain cheesecake batters to swirl into the pumpkin batter just before baking.

Now, I love cheesecake and I love mangoes, the mangoes best eaten in their natural state, and preferably in the bath. But the two together make a dessert that manages to be both comforting and elegant. The scented flesh of the fruit does more than add to the taste of the cheesecake: it transforms the texture, too. This mango cheesecake reminds me of those light French fruit-mousse tarts, with their glassy, mirrored tops. And the color! The radiant, golden yellow is instant sunshine in the kitchen, just as the taste is summer on the tongue.

Great for picnics or potlucks, these portable cheesecake bars incorporate cooked berries directly into the custard, which means they take on a rosy hue. You can even add a few drops of red food coloring if you want to make up for out-of-season berries, which are less vibrantly colored, or if you just want a livelier result. Feel free to use frozen berries in place of fresh, though you’ll need to thaw them fully before beginning the process.

Why doesn't maple syrup find its way to American cheese platters the way chestnut honey does to Italian ones? We think it works particularly well with subtle, creamy cheeses, a conviction that inspired our riff on a classic New York cheesecake. Enjoy the cheesecake plain or make the maple whipped cream or maple cream sauce to drizzle over slices. A warm purchased or homemade butterscotch or caramel sauce would be great on this cheesecake as well.

This rich and decadent spiced pumpkin cake is just the thing to serve for an autumn celebration, Thanksgiving or otherwise. Chocolate chips and chopped pecans are added to the pumpkin batter for extra sweetness and a bit of welcome crunch. For those who like to plan ahead, it can be made and frozen – iced and all. Just put the entire finished cake on a plate or a baking sheet, unwrapped, and freeze it overnight until it is hard. Then it can be wrapped without damage to the frosting, and returned to the freezer. Layers can also be wrapped well and stored, to be iced later.

The warm, spicy flavors of gingerbread are a natural match for cheesecake. I mean, who doesn’t love a slice of gingerbread cake slathered with cream cheese frosting? This dessert is certainly rich, but it is also packed with lots of spices, including a hefty sprinkle of both ground and fresh ginger, classic cinnamon, allspice that lends a slightly peppery note, and a bit of fresh lemon zest to brighten things up. It can be a little tricky to get the batter completely smooth, so make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature before you start mixing, and take care to bake the cheesecake gently to avoid cracks. The cranberry topping here is optional but it is festive and delicious, and a great little cover-up if the cheesecake does happen to crack. Alternatively, this is great with a bit of lightly sweetened whipped cream or crème fraîche. Slice cheesecake with a clean, hot knife for the tidiest servings.

There are those who may not find this sweet enough, and if that’s the case I recommend adding a quarter cup or so of sugar instead of increasing the honey because you don’t want the honey flavor to become overpowering. Other flavor possibilities to add with the blueberries: any citrus you like; a teaspoon or so of very finely ground coffee or cocoa; or chopped raisins or, I suppose, chocolate chips. I prefer the straight honey-lemon combination, unadulterated.

In the height of summer, turning on the oven should be considered off-limits, but we still need dessert. For that, there's the no-bake cheesecake, which has all the richness of the baked version without any of the baking. Here, Biscoff cookies add a bit of spice, which pairs beautifully with toasted coconut, and we swap the heavy cream for rich, fluffy whipped coconut cream. The topping combines cooked and fresh berries for a wonderful variety of texture and flavor. Just about any varieties will work here, so use what looks best. A combination of blueberries and blackberries or raspberries is quite nice. Be sure to plan ahead with this recipe. The cans of coconut milk need to be chilled at least overnight, and as does the finished cheesecake before it can be sliced.

These cupcakes look so impressive but are actually so easy to make. You could have these done before your aunt can finish decorating her first sugar cookie. Pipe a loose swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake to resemble a strand of Christmas lights. Arrange candies along the strand to resemble Christmas lights. Cool!

These Eggnog Cupcakes are full of awesome eggnog flavor! They’ve got eggnog in the cupcake and the icing – yes! You know I like my flavors strong and these cupcakes are no exception. I absolutely love these cupcakes and so did my taste testers. I can’t wait to make them again! Bring on Christmas and bring on the eggnog! I know we still have to get through Thanksgiving on Thursday, and I can’t wait for my sweet potatoes with marshmallows, but I’m allowed to get pumped about Christmas too, right?