For the best flavor and texture, make the cake and spread it with the jelly a day or two before serving. Glaze it on the day you serve it.

Make the filling and the frosting first, letting the former chill and the latter thicken slightly at room temperature while the cake is baking and cooling.

This cake is delicious warm or at room temperature.

I use gingersnaps from the store because their crunchiness makes them ideal for grinding to a fine crumb.

An espresso twist on the iconic molten-chocolate cake.

When you need a showstopper holiday dessert, look no further than this elegant rolled cake, which is inspired by the French bûche de Noël, or yule log.

The classic upside-down cake is even better when made with fresh pineapple and a buttermilk batter enriched with ground pecans.

The simplest way to decorate this cake is to press chopped, toasted walnuts onto the sides. For a more dramatic look, try wrapping the cake in a chocolate band (see our video for how-tos) and topping it with white chocolate curls.

Wonderful as they are, cheesecakes can be prone to forming cracks on top. But this recipe has several safeguards against cracking, the most important of which is the festive cranberry topping.

It’s worth freshly grinding the spices for this rich and silky pie; they add a depth and vibrancy you just don’t get with the pre-ground variety.

This buttery shortbread tart crust is filled with rich, dark chocolate and garnished with salty-sweet caramelized nuts and sea salt.

A sweet-tangy filling and a buttery crust make these tarts the perfect ending to a holiday meal.

This French caramelized upside-down apple tart is great to serve to guests, because they either know it and adore it, or they've never heard of it before and they fall in love with it right at your dinner table. It isn't hard to make, but it is a bit of a project. A good time to make your pastry is while the apples are cooking.

Linzer dough is traditionally made with almonds, but the walnuts here are sublime with the fruit. It’s important to mix this dough very well and chill it thoroughly; it’s more like a cookie dough than a pastry dough. The cooked egg yolks give the dough a cakey quality that’s unequalled by any substitute. The raw yolks bind the dough and add extra richness.

You'll need to plan ahead for this rich dessert, but for peanut butter and chocolate lovers, it's worth it. The easy cookie crust must be baked and cooled before filling, and the filling must be chilled before glazing.

Lightly sweetened whipped cream is the perfect counterpoint to chocolate and caramel.

Crystallized ginger accents this filling with sweet pears and tart cranberries. Since these tarts only require 1/3 of the dough recipe, it's easy to double or triple the tarts, or you can also bake one batch each of Pecan Tartlets and Pumpkin Tartlets.

While these trifles are delicious made with warm gingerbread and warm apples, they are equally good made a few hours ahead and chilled, which makes serving dessert a snap.

Most of the components of this pastry-shop classic—the pâte à choux shells, the vanilla pastry cream filling, and the chocolate glaze—can be made well in advance. For the final assembly, all you need to do is lighten the pastry cream with whipped cream, spoon the mixture into the pastry shells, and glaze with chocolate.

A  2-1/2- to 3-quart glass bowl or trifle bowl is the best choice for showing off all the layers of this festive dessert. Be sure to spread each layer to the edge of the bowl, so the contrasting colors of the dark cake and white whipped cream are clearly visible.

You may have seen charlotte recipes that call for sponge-cake ladyfingers and for the charlotte to be served cold, but classically, an apple charlotte calls for bread and is served warm. This recipe was created by my pastry chef, Zoe Behrens.

You can make the original vanilla crème caramel or give it an orange or espresso twist (see Variations below).

It’s essential to use the best-quality dark eating chocolate you can find.

When you need a dessert with knockout crowd appeal, a pavlova—basically a big meringue—delivers. Though meringues can be finicky, such tricks as the addition of vinegar and a slow bake guarantee a good result. This meringue is crisp outside, with a chewy, brownie-like interior.