Make your holiday get-together more festive than ever with the help of these sweet and eye-catching treats.
Buche de Noel
Transform your holiday dessert spread into a fantasyland by serving traditional French buche de Noel, or yule log cake. Rich chocolate genoise (sponge cake) is rolled in a coffee- and brandy-flavored buttercream, then decorated with marzipan berries, pinecones and mushrooms. The look of awe on your guests’ faces will be well worth the effort.
Strawberry Santas
These delicate holiday treats are great for brunch or as a light dessert. For assembly, Giada De Laurentiis pipes rich mascarpone frosting onto cut strawberries, reserving the strawberry tip for Santa’s hat.
Sticky Toffee Pudding
For the final act in your holiday meal, whip up this gooey cake made with sweet rum-soaked dates and generously topped with toffee sauce.
Christmas Tree Cheesecake Pops
Trimming the tree gets new meaning when it comes to decorating these adorable cheesecake pops.
White Chocolate Holiday Bark
Chocolate bark is a simple, crowd-pleasing sweet. This version is made with white chocolate and studded with red cranberries and green pistachios.
Cupcake Christmas Tree
Transform basic chocolate cupcakes into a stunning centerpiece for your Christmas dessert spread by generously coating the frosted tops with green sprinkles or jimmies and fastening them onto a Styrofoam cone using toothpicks.
No-Bake Chocolate Mocha Yule Log
This showstopping holiday cake requires zero baking and is packed with luscious chocolate and coffee flavor. Make it up to one day in advance to save yourself some time on the big day.
Homemade Cannoli
Alex Guarnaschelli’s recipe makes homemade cannoli preparation a breeze. Her No. 1 tip? Don’t fill the shells with the cream until you are ready to eat them. A quick dusting of powdered sugar gives these traditional Italian pastries a snow-coated feel, festive for the holidays.
Christmas Cookie Cheesecake
Sugar cookie meets cheesecake in this brilliant holiday mash-up: a creamy vanilla cheesecake gets the royal icing treatment — no cookie platter required.
Gingerbread Roulade Cake
The trick to rolling this sweet, spiced cake (without cracking it) is to do it while it’s still warm. Dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar, flip it over onto a large, clean kitchen towel and then peel the parchment away before gently rolling into a tight log. After the cake cools for 30 minutes you can unroll it and continue with the recipe.
Holiday Berry Meringue Wreath
This edible wreath is almost too pretty to eat (but seriously, you should dive in — it’s delicious.) Crisp and crunchy meringue lies beneath a ruby red cranberry, raspberry and pomegranate sauce.
Stollen
This traditional German dessert dazzled with candied fruit and nuts can be served plain or topped with powdered sugar or icing.
Peppermint No-Churn Ice Cream
No ice cream maker is required for this peppermint-packed frozen treat. The refreshing mint flavor comes from two very common candies, while mini marshmallows add an extra something special.
Panettone Bread Pudding with Amaretto Sauce
For this traditional Italian dessert, tender cubes of panettone bread are soaked in a rich custard, then baked and served warm with a sweet amaretto sauce on top.
Ricotta Orange Pound Cake with Strawberries
Giada’s homemade pound cake is so sweet, light and fluffy that all it needs is a simple strawberry topping — no need for an icing or a glaze.
Christmas Tree Cake
No special cake pan is needed to make this impressive 3D Christmas Tree Cake: cleverly arranged and stacked squares of sheet cake are frosted and decorated with edible “lights.” There’s even a festive star topper.
Christmas Reindeer Brownies
Candy canes, marshmallows and wafer cookies turn fudgy brownies into a festive holiday dessert. These brownies are so easy the kids can help make them!
