Electric Mixer

Editor's note: This recipe is from Michele Adams's and Gia Russo's book Wedding Showers: Ideas & Recipes for the Perfect Party. Tart, juicy raspberries are stacked between layers of rich chocolate cake for a delectable and colorful presentation. You can bake this cake the night before the shower and keep refrigerated overnight. Frost and decorate the cake the morning of the shower.

Editor's note: This recipe is from Michele Adams's and Gia Russo's book Wedding Showers: Ideas & Recipes for the Perfect Party. This recipe originally accompanied Double Chocolate Raspberry Cake. You can enhance the flavor of this frosting recipe with extracts of orange or mint if frosting a plain chocolate cake. Make this frosting up to two days in advance. Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use.

(Tamales de Guajolote con Mole Negro) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Zarela Martinez's book The Food and Life of Oaxaca: Traditional Recipes from Mexico's Heart. Martinez also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. These are one of the most renowned Oaxacan classics: succulent banana-leaf tamales with a fluffy pillow of masa infused with the rich flavors of black mole and shredded cooked turkey. The meat has to be cooked by a moist-heat method, or it will be tasteless and dry, so I don't recommend using leftover roast turkey. Simmer pieces of turkey in liquid and use the most flavorful parts, not the white breast meat. Though the black mole version of turkey tamales is best-known, the dish is equally good with Mole Rojo, Coloradito, or Amarillo.

This drink was featured as a Cocktail of the Month.

(Sericaia à la Ritz) Editor's note: This recipe is adapted from Jean Anderson. Anderson also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Anderson and Portuguese cuisine, click here. The recipe for this unusually light Portuguese "egg sweet" is adapted from the Varanda Restaurant of the Ritz Four Seasons Hotel in Lisbon. At the restaurant, an ice cream made from ameixas d'Elvas (sugarplums from the city of Elvas near the Spanish border) is scooped alongside. However, the sericaia is equally delicious served plain.

We are happy to announce that Nicholas Leighton has won our January 2006 "Cook the Cover" contest with his delicious variation on our Butterscotch Chiffon Pie. Nicholas Leighton explains his variation:
I loved the silky butterscotch chiffon pie on January's cover, but in our house we have a rule that every dessert must contain chocolate! You'll agree that the luscious butterscotch chiffon filling and tasty pecan topping is absolutely delicious with this bittersweet chocolate cookie crust, which rolls out like a dream and unmolds from a tart shell perfectly every time. The original recipe was great, but with a chocolate cookie crust it's sublime!

We are happy to announce that Jeanne Brophy has won our December 2005 "Cook the Cover" contest with her delicious variation on our Mini Black-and-White Cookies . Jeanne Brophy explains her variation:
My variation is in the frosting. I'm not super crazy about the traditional approach. So thinking that this cookie is really a petite cake in disguise I developed a chocolate (Black) and peanut butter (Tan) buttercream frosting. Dee-licious!

This recipe is an accompaniment for Vanilla Mousse Meringues and Fresh Berries.

Somehow, the addition of oatmeal to these chewy, gooey cookies makes me feel like they must be good for me! They certainly taste good, and that's usually my yardstick for making cookies — or anything else, for that matter.

Editor's note: This recipe is from Michele Adams's and Gia Russo's book Wedding Showers: Ideas & Recipes for the Perfect Party.

(Topfenstrudel) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Rick Rodgers's book Kaffeehaus: The Best Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. Rodgers also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Austrian cooking, click here. Not every café has a full-time baker. At many, it's just Mama in the kitchen and often Mama doesn't feel like (or doesn't have enough counter space for) hand-pulling strudel dough. This classic recipe layers store-bought filo dough with a Topfen filling in a pan to make a deep-dish dessert. Thanks to Gerda Hofer for this recipe.

Crumbly and melting, easy and irresistible, at the catering company, we keep the dough for this shortbread on hand in the freezer for in-house treats and for extra hors d'oeuvres or snacks for a party that balloons at the last minute. I first tasted this shortbread when my friend Gail Monaghan passed it around in a silver basket before a dinner party at her house. I took one bite and said, "OK, where's the pen? Hand over the recipe (there was a "please" implied): this is amazing and I need to put this in my book." She very angelically wrote it out nicely, and here it is.

Peppermint buttercream is sandwiched between homemade chocolate cookies; then the sandwiches are rolled in crushed candy canes.

Crisp, buttery maple cookies get a sparkly sugar-crystal coating.

A big dose of lime (from lime juice, zest, and oil) really makes these sing.

Healthy bonus: 1 serving of fruit per slice, protein and riboflavin from eggs, calcium from yogurt, fiber, and nearly 1/3 of the RDA for vitamin C from berries

The trick: Fake a little fat.
What better way to eat your fill of antioxidant-rich blueberries than via cheesecake? Executive chef Terry Conlan of Lake Austin Spa Resort in Austin, Texas, makes over dessert-tray favorites, like this Blueberry Icebox Pie, by mixing lowfat and nonfat products rather than using all fat-free foods. For your favorite recipes, replace full-fat dairy with 50 percent lowfat and 50 percent fat-free.

Tip: If you brown the butter, you can use half as much.