Cake

While brandy is the traditional partner for fruit cake, you could also try using a dessert sherry such as Pedro Ximénez. It’s an intensely sweet, dark sherry made from the Spanish grape variety of the same name. Perfect in festive cakes, puddings and custards, you can find it in liquor stores.

This dairy-free cake hits all the right autumnal notes: it’s earthy thanks to the olive oil, warm thanks to the spices.

Tender, nutty, and studded with caramel-glazed apple halves, this is your new favorite apple cake. Ground nuts bring a toasty, deep flavor and tenderize the crumb by adding fat.

Don’t even think about lifting this cake out of the pan before it’s completely—and we mean completely—cool.

Topped with rich cream cheese frosting and a drizzle of vanilla caramel sauce, these fluffy apple treats are a fall must-have.

This snack cake works with any kind (or mix) of seedless grapes. We prefer Thomcord grapes, which give the intense juicy punch of Concord grapes without the hassle of seeds.

Moist and rich, the true secret ingredient here is the soy sauce in the frosting. FOR REAL. It adds just a little salty note that really pulls the cake together.

Baked in a pie dish, this simple butter cake gets topped with fresh strawberries just before hitting the oven. Serve it warm—and make sure you have some whipped cream on hand.

This tiramisu is moist but not wet, extra-fluffy, and made with real coffee and the perfect amount of dark rum.

Not too rich but ridiculously moist, this cake decadent without being overly sweet. It’s almost impossible to mess up and so easy to make.

The zest of two whole lemons goes into this cake batter, giving it a real punch of citrus flavor, accented by the drippy lemon glaze that gets drizzled overtop.