Electric Mixer

Adding pretzels to the caramel gives these over-the-top bars a crunchy texture and salty-sweet finish.

Customize your favorite store-bought jam with orange zest and Earl Grey tea. Use any leftover dough to make delicious hazelnut cookies: Just roll, cut out, and bake.

Serve these fragrantly spiced classics with coffee or tea.

To keep the rolled dough's cylindrical shape, chill or freeze it inside empty cardboard paper-towel tubes.

Use a triple hit of ginger—fresh, ground, and crystallized—and blackstrap molasses to lift your ginger cookies to the next level. The dough is rolled in raw sugar for a sparkly effect.

Candy corn may be synonymous with Halloween, but come on, how many of us really love the chewy little tooth-shaped candies with a flavor that is indistinguishable beyond sweet? However, if you borrow their iconic shape and colors and transform those into creamy lemon-and-orange frozen pops, we predict everyone will be clamoring for their fair share.

This delicate cheesecake is cooked in a water bath and steamed for a supremely light texture. To make sure the homemade-gingersnap-cookie crust stays crisp, wrap the cake pan inside and out with heavy-duty, 18"-wide aluminum foil.

The big flavors of Mark Overbay's artisanal Big Spoon Roasters nut butters inspired his partner, Megan Lynam, to create this instant favorite. The complex nuttiness comes from the addition of ground pecans to the mix.

An elegant twist on the pineapple classic. You can use any kind of pear you'd like.

Make this crumbly cake a day ahead; the early risers will thank you.

This rustic tart, filled with toasted pistachios, hazelnuts, and pine nuts, is a wonderful take on pecan pie.

Based on a dessert that Lo serves at Annisa, this custardy bread pudding is shot through with poppy seeds for a stunning visual and textural effect. The bread soaks overnight; begin 1 day ahead.

This classic Cajun cake uses Steen's cane syrup, a deep caramel sweetener of reduced sugar cane. Look for it at better supermarkets, at specialty foods stores, and at steensyrup.com.

This marshmallow frosting recipe was inspired by one of my favorite cookbook authors, the late Elaine Gottschall. It works especially well with S'mores and is divine frosted over Chocolate Cake or sandwiched between Chewy Chocolate Cookies. Don't fear if the mixture overcooks and the agave nectar turns dark amber—you will have roasted marshmallow frosting, creating a slightly different, though equally tasty, treat.

There's a special place in the lexicon of American layer cakes for the classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It's practically the standard for birthdays and anniversaries, so it was my top choice when creating a cake to celebrate the first year of publication of Gourmet Live. And if ever there was a version that will elicit either a string of excited OMG's or the low-humming purr of rapturous mmmm's, this is it. Tender, buttery cake layers sandwich a creamy frosting so light and airy it's as if you're nibbling a chocolate cloud. (No offense to dense, fudgy ganache-style icings—of which I'm also very fond—but they don't lend themselves to the kind of exuberant flourishes and swirls of frosting that convey the excitement of a first birthday.) Even a strong-willed soul won't be able to resist a second slice.

These little citrus-scented cakes cook in just 10 minutes, which means that if you prepare the batter ahead of time and bake them right after the table is cleared, you can serve them warm for an extra-special touch. They're especially delicious dipped into Ginger-Yogurt Mousse with Pistachio Meringue .

To encourage the soufflé to climb up the sides of the dish, grease the dish with butter and sprinkle it with sugar. The sugar prevents the soufflé from sticking to the sides.

Falkner's over-the-top homage to the patron saint of French pastry features a crunchy puff pastry foundation, ringed walls of caramel-filled cream puffs, and a rich chocolate cream center. To serve, cut it into small slices, or, better yet, encourage your guests to gather around with knives and forks and dig in.

Make the decorations the day before baking This cupcake is inspired by a scene from the movie 28 Days Later, where a crow sits overhead with a piece of zombie corpse in his mouth. We've chosen a deathly pale skin color, but you can vary the color of the fondant to create different flesh tones. The jam and fondant topping contrasts with the subtle flavor of the white velvet cupcake. If you use toothpicks to secure the crows, remember to tell your guests.