Electric Mixer

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Coffee ice cream, a chocolate-cookie crust and chocolate-covered coffee beans add up to a terrific party dessert. Begin making the cake one day before serving.

This cake and custard sauce can also be made ahead. Both should come out of the refrigerator, to take the chill off, when the first course is served. The accompanying caramelized pears, which require not more than a few minutes to sauté, make a welcome addition to the cool custard sauce and moist cake.

Shortbread is the ultimate sugar cookie, crisp yet tender, and bursting with buttery flavor. It's a good cookie to make when the cookie monster in you growls but you don't have any eggs in the house. Gluten-free rice flour (cornstarch can be substituted) is used with regular flour to give it a delicate crumb.

The crumb topping and cake are prepared from one simple mixture, so this dessert comes together in no time.

Proof that strawberries aren't the only kind of fruit that's perfect with shortcakes.

The topping spreads as it bakes, forming a crisp cookie-like layer.

One of our staff members is addicted to the rich, mellow taste of his friend Stephanie's walnut cookies. She began making them as a young bride thirty-five years ago, and her family has never celebrated the holidays without a batch or two since.

It's hard to improve on chocolate layer cake, but we think we've done just that, thanks to a hint of mint. Offer vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt alongside.

White Chocolate Tartlets with Strawberries and Bananas These irresistible sweets feature a hazelnut crust that is lined with dark chocolate and filled with white chocolate mousse.

"Last spring I went to New Orleans for the Crescent City Classic, an annual road race. One night I had dinner at Andrew Jaeger's House of Seafood in the French Quarter," says Gina Squires of St. Louis, Missouri. "The coconut cream pie was great." A toasted coconut topping adds texture and flavor to this old-fashioned dessert.