These homemade pumpkin donuts take about 30 minutes to make and taste

just like fall! Top them with homemade buttermilk glaze and eat warm.

Pumpkin Donuts

Cheesecake bars are the perfect dessert because of how easy everything comes together. I wanted to use persimmons, fuyu persimmons to be exact, because I liked the firmness from the fruit compared to the creaminess from the cheesecake. 

You can definitely replace the persimmons with other fruits, but you should give these a try as is first!

Persimmon Cheesecake Bars on a white plate

Persimmon Cheesecake Bars

Creamy pumpkin crème brûlée baked inside mini pumpkins. Easy, impressive, and perfect for Thanksgiving.

Mini Pumpkin Brûlée

"The minute my friend Ingela Helgesson walked into my kitchen with this cake, I knew it was going to be one l'd be making for a long time to come: it's now twenty-five years and counting. It's still a great cake and it came with a great story. Ingela, who grew up in Sweden, told me that her mother would bake the cake often because it was so good and because it could be made so quickly. Her mom claimed that you could start making the cake when you saw guests coming up the road and that it would be ready by the time they settled down for coffee.

For many years, hewing to the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," I followed Ingela's recipe to the letter (I include instructions for that on the next page so that you can, too). And then, for reasons lost to time, I gave the recipe a plump-up. I started by increasing the volume of the cake. The cake's texture always had a bit of chew-it was a lovely characteristic of the original-and now, because there's more cake, there's more chew and its even more lovely. Then I added fruit-specifically, rum-soaked raisins.

Heating the raisins in water and rum transforms them from commonplace to voluptuous, and they take on the lingering flavor of the tropical rum.

But with more volume and the addition of dried fruit, the flavoring needed a rebalance, too. The new cake hits decidedly more almond, and that's just right-the flavor is strong, but not pushy; it picks up the sprinkle of almonds on top of the cake; and it's good with the vanilla and rum. Finally, I scattered cubes of apple across the top of the cake before baking- it was a spur-of-the-moment addition, inspired by propinquity: the apple was at hand. I thought I'd then make the apple optional forever after, but it's too good not to always include it. It adds a little more texture, a little more sweetness and another layer of flavor; subtle but, in the end, essential.

Well, essential, but not immutable-because you've got raisins, which are sun-dried grapes, in the cake, you might consider fresh grapes on top; see Playing Around for more ideas for fiddling."

A tender Swedish almond cake upgraded with rum-soaked raisins and bursts of apple. A quick, one-bowl Dorie Greenspan recipe that’s perfect for coffee or dessert.

Rum Raisin Visiting Cake

Cheesecakes are a great holiday dessert because of their ability to be made days in advance. I love that I can take my time preparing it and then once done, wrap it up and place in the freezer until the night before for things like Thanksgiving or Christmas.

This cheesecake uses sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin because I'm on a secret mission to replace all pumpkin desserts with sweet potato instead. I think it might be a regional thing, but growing up, we only ever had sweet potato pie instead of pumpkin. 

The crust is a gingersnap crust, but you can definitely do Biscoff or the classic graham cracker. And then for the whipped cream I wanted something to pair nicely with the spices, so I chose a whipped cream that uses maple syrup.

Sweet Potato Cheesecake with a Gingersnap Crust. Topped with a maple syrup whipped cream and then dusted with cinnamon.

Sweet Potato Cheesecake with a Gingersnap Crust

This recipe was created by Kelley Heyer, which you can find on 

. A cake that was created to help combat those overly sweet cakes. This cake is fresh, a little savory, with just the right amount of richness. Orange zest brightens up the base of the cake and then gets zested on top of the frosting for a garnish. You get a mix of sweet and savory thanks to the tahini buttercream frosting! 

Vegan Olive Oil Cake with Tahini Buttercream Frosting on a pink cake stand

Vegan Olive Oil Cake with Tahini Buttercream Frosting

green, orange, and purple popcorn balls on plate 

Popcorn Balls

I grew up making pumpkin slice and bake cookies during Halloween, but also every holiday I would enjoy seeing the other designs. These cookies are made using sugar cookie dough and the key is to ensure that everything is incredibly cold before baking. 

You can add spices to the dough to elevate the flavor, or keep them simple with the vanilla bean paste as well.

Slice and Bake Halloween Pumpkin Cookies on a plate

Slice and Bake Halloween Pumpkin Cookies

Brazilian Carrot Cake, also known as Bolo de cenoura teaches you to forget what you might've learned from American carrot cake and focus on the carrots as the main event.

There's no spices, no raisins, no nuts. And it all can come together in a blender. It's topped with a chocolate frosting, also known as a brigadeiro and chocolate sprinkles. 

My friend from Brazil taught me a lot of the process for making this cake. The first time I tried, II added the dry ingredients directly to the blender, but I found that folding that with the wet batter created a much fluffier texture overall.

Brazilian carrot cake on top of a cake pan

Brazilian Carrot Cake

The credit for this recipe really belongs to Chip and the kids. They each have a different favorite cookie, so one day, I dumped in everyone's must-have ingredient: nuts for Chip, peanut butter for the girls, and chocolate for the boys. It was a complete win across the board. So it became our family's signature cookie, and the first item on the menu when we opened Silos Baking Co.

Joanna Gaines silo cookies freshly baked on table

Silo Cookies

Summer is all about wrapping the season's best fruit in a flaky buttery crust to be crowned with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream, right? I've been very much in my galette era for the past few years, providing the most surface area for a crispy, golden crust, while also being a bit less fussy to throw together compared to a standard pic. The one thing I was missing was the joy of a precooked fruit filling, pulling out all those juices and thickening them with cornstarch into a jammy, sweet gel suspending chunks of tender fruit. I'm a big believer that we can and should have it all, so this recipe was born. We're rolling out our pie dough as if were making a galette, but then adding a precooked apple filling (though peaches or cherries would be stunning here, too) on half of the dough so we can fold over the other half to seal it into our pie calzone. Is it an actual calzone? No! But you immediately get the concept, and "jumbo hand-pie" doesn't have the same ring to it, you know? Maybe just call it the best dessert you'll bake all summer.

apple pie calzone on sheet pan in Food52 Test Kitchen

Apple Pie Calzone

I love Halloween and it's a great time for me to show off my hosting skills. With Halloween comes the ability to create a lot of great desserts that fit the theme. If you're in the midst of planning a party, cleaning your house, and making food, though, you might not have a lot of time to focus on what you're going to make. With these puff pastry mummies, you can cut down on a lot of time using store bought puff pastry sheets.

If you don't want to make the filling, you can easily do homemade instead! I wanted to give these a true autumnal feel so I also added in some masala chai spice, which you can opt in for or do cinnamon and nutmeg.

Pears and apples are in season for the fall, but if you have a favorite fruit, you can easily swap them in!

3 mummy puff pastries on top of a white plate.

Apple and Pear Puff Pastry Mummies

When it comes to chocolate cake, I want it to be incredibly chocolaty, moist, and full of flavor. I prefer using a black cocoa powder for a deeper, intense chocolate flavor. You can easily cut the cake layers in half, or just keep it as a 2-tiered cake instead.

Chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting layered between on a white plate.

Matilda Chocolate Cake

This apple fritter focaccia takes the best parts of an apple fritter and lets you skip the frying. You add chopped apples to a focaccia base, cover it in a cinnamon butter and bake until golden brown. To get that similar fritter vibe that you'd get at a bakery, I paired it with a brown butter glaze that hardens as it cools. 

If you don't like apples, no problem! Replace the filling with your favorite ingredients. This focaccia also works great on its own if you just want to have a base recipe as well!

Close up of apple fritter focaccia with a brown butter glaze

Apple Fritter Focaccia with Brown Butter Glaze

What makes a perfect bakery style cookie? To me, it has to be thick, full of add-ins, and with quality ingredients. Just like Levain bakery, I wanted to create these copycat cookies that are 6 ounces each and packed full of chocolate and toasted walnuts. I used cold butter and eggs to ensure the dough could also get a head start on getting cold.

To keep the thick shape, I molded them into mountains and let them chill in the fridge overnight (thanks for the tip, 

!). You end up with a gooey cookie that has deep flavors from the toasted walnuts and the packed chocolate.

Thick Bakery Style Chocolate and Walnut Cookies

I've always loved making galettes because of how forgiving and rustic they can be. And although I'm not the biggest fan of apple pie, pairing the thin slices with cheddar cheese and a flaky crust has slowly started changing my opinions on baked apples.

You get the traditional apple pie filling sliced up and layered on a flaky, cheesy dough. I wanted to make something similar to apple pie with a slice of cheese on top like you'd find in New England or the Midwest.

Large galette with apple slices on top. Placed on a pink baking sheet.

Apple Cheddar Galette

French Chocolate Mousse

This cake is soft, moist, and topped with pears that caramelize from the cinnamon sugar mixture. The perfect snacking cake for morning tea, dessert, or any time of day. You can swap the pears for apples, too. A great introduction to Fall.

A single layer cake topped with baked pears and dusted with powdered sugar on a white plate. 

Pear and Cinnamon Snacking Cake

This is my Italian American answer to the classic diner-style key lime pie. Nonna Romana loved the flavor, but always thought it was too sweet—so I made one she could get behind. The lime curd is tart and silky. The mascarpone keeps it grounded. The crust is no-bake and cookie-based. The whipped cream? Always homemade. It’s the kind of dessert that ends a summer dinner the right way.

Key Lime Mascarpone Tart

I partnered with Noah in the Test Kitchen to make these Tiramisu in Coupe Glasses! I love tiramisu and since Noah is great with cocktails, I thought it would be a fun collaboration! You get a coffee soaked vanilla cake, a light and creamy filling, and then that classic cocoa powder finish on top. The great thing about these is you can make them with a store bought cake, a box cake, or do a quick sheet cake. They come together fast and are great for parties!

, but get creative and choose your own cake flavor.

You get a coffee soaked vanilla cake, a light and creamy filling, and then that classic cocoa powder finish on top.

Tiramisu in Coupe Glasses

Growing up I loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And being a baker, I always get excited thinking about ways to deconstruct specific flavor profiles into different desserts. So with peanut butter and jelly, how can I make it into a cake, cookies, or pastry. Here, I wanted to create a crisp using some berries I got at the Union Square Farmer’s Market. You can get as versatile as you’d like and the entire recipe is super forgiving! You end up with a super peanut buttery and crunchy topping and a jammy fruit filling.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Crisp

I was inspired to make this Peaches and Cream cake because my farmer's market was on its last weekend of having peaches sold. The base layer is a simple vanilla cake with lemon zest and then it's topped with a vanilla whipped cream and peaches that are soaked in brown sugar and lemon juice.

single layer cake with whipped cream and peaches on top

Peaches and Cream Snacking Cake

As I’ve said before, snacking cakes are just cakes that you can enjoy throughout the week no matter the time of day. You should be able to incorporate seasonal items into it to help make the process both easy and enjoyable. I love stone fruit season because my farmers market always has a ton of peaches varying in sizes. I had some leftover peaches and wanted to make a cake that had a crunchy topping, but contrasted with the jammy peaches that are added to the cake batter. I do recommend searching for the freeze dried peaches because it gives it a nice visual once the cake is ready to be enjoyed, but don’t let that specialty item stop you from making this!

This easy peach crumble cake is the ultimate snacking cake—soft, jammy peaches baked into a moist sour cream batter with a buttery cinnamon crumble on top.

Peach Crumble Snacking Cake

I had some leftover lemon curd and wanted to pair it within one of my snacking cakes. Raspberry and lemons are one of my favorite combinations, so I knew immediately that this would go great with it. You can make your own lemon curd or opt for a store bought version to get the same great taste!

a slice of Raspberry Lemon Curd Snacking Cake on a pink plate. There's a raspberry on top of the cake.

The next snacking cake is still celebrating summer with bright lemon and raspberry flavors. You can easily opt for homemade lemon curd to add an extra layer of zing or go for homemade. The yellow and pink colors work together to give you such a strong flavor with this Raspberry Lemon Curd Snacking Cake.

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