Just Doughnut: Doughnut Soup Recipe for Serious Eats

Why eat from "soup to nuts" when you can get all the important stuff in one delicious bowl of Doughnut Soup?

This creamy, dreamy dish is the ultimate in doughnut decadence. It starts by caramelizing glazed doughnuts in a buttery bath, then mixing it with milk and heating the mixture until the flavors merge beautifully in a hot, sweet, very creamy broth. It's my easy-to-prepare take on a dessert served at Chicago'sMoto, a restaurant revered in the world of molecular gastronomy.

Note: Of course, while not mandatory, it's far more adorable when garnished with mini doughnuts before serving.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

Sweets to Eat: Twinkie Tiramisu Recipe for Serious Eats

It's official: Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, has filed for Chapter 11.

While this doesn't necessarily mean the demise of the iconic treat, it's as good an excuse as any to stockpile on the sweet snack cakes and make something amazing:Twinkie Tiramisu.

This dessert is not difficult to make: basically, what you're doing is swapping Twinkies for ladyfingers in a traditional Tiramisu recipe. The sponginess of the Twinkies soaks up the flavors of the espresso-and-cream mixture, and they lend a little extra creaminess to the final dish. It makes for a fine mix of pinkies-out dessert and guilty-pleasure junk food.

Note: This dessert is made with raw eggs. There is a slight risk of salmonella or other food-borne illness. To reduce this risk, it is recommended that you use only fresh, properly refrigerated, clean grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

What a Mug: Microwave Cake in a Mug Recipe for Serious Eats

There's a certain sector of the sweet world that I think of as "Desperation Desserts." Generally dreamed up when the cookie jar is empty and there's no ice cream in the freezer, these typically single-serving concoctions are made up of whatever happens to be on hand in the kitchen.

But happily, here's a quick-fix dessert that doesn't taste like desperation: chocolate cake prepared in a mug, in the microwave. With a consistency something like a steamed pudding, this chocolate cake might not rival a French chocolate cake in sophistication, but nonetheless holds its own as an easy convenience dessert. And should you find some ice cream or whipped cream to top it with, well, all the better.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

La Dulce Vita: Almost Flourless Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche Recipe for Serious Eats

Around this time of year, an unnerving amount of people make declarations that they are going to avoid dessert, all under the alarming title of "New Year's Resolution".

Personally, I'd rather resolve to eat more deliciously. And if you resolve similarly, you'll undoubtedly get a lot of pleasure from Almost Flourless Chocolate Cake with Dulce de Leche.

This recipe is largely based on Evelyn Sharpe's 1969 recipe for "French Chocolate Cake", as discovered on Amanda Hesser's now-defunct Recipe Redux column, but is made even better with the addition of dulce de leche and ice cream or whipped cream on top.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

Sweet Idea: Chocolate Covered Candy Canes Recipe for Serious Eats

Candy canes are great and all. But they're even better when they're coated in chocolate.

Coating your candy canes in a rich robe of chocolate raises the bar for the classic holiday sweet, imparting both a delicious flavor contrast and adding a festive visual appeal. They're a sweet party favor, an easy way to make your hot chocolate more awesome, and--bonus--they're really easy and quick to prepare.

Note: This recipe works best with candy canes that are about 6 inches long, or peppermint sticks; if using mini candy canes, use extreme care so you don't burn yourself with the hot melted chocolate!

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

You Say Nanaimo: Chocolate Cranberry Nanaimo Bars Recipe for Serious Eats

It's a fact: Nanaimo Bars are delicious. They're a decadent no-bake treat named for the Canadian city in which they were invented, comprised of a chocolate-graham-coconut crust, a custard-buttercream middle, and a chocolate topping.

But they also dress up nicely for Thanksgiving, as proven in this chocolate-cranberry variation.

The Canadian classic takes a tart-but-sweet Thanksgiving turn by adding dried cranberries to each of the three layers. The resulting seasonal variation is bound to delight family and friends at Thanksgiving festivities and start the holiday cookie season off sweetly.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

Sweet and Tart: Cranberry Upside-Down Cake Recipe for Serious Eats

This cake may not redefine every thought you've ever had about cranberries, but it will turn them upside down--literally.

Swapping out cranberries for the classic pineapple in this upside-down cake yields a surprisingly pleasant result: the fresh berries, while still assertively tart, are pleasingly matched by a buttery, sweet cake and a brown sugar-butter topping. The sweet-tart taste has a few advantages: first, it makes it seem vaguely healthy and therefore perfect as a breakfast cake; second, the tartness of the cranberries is sublime when paired with the sweet contrast of a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

Sweet and Crunchy: Candied Yam Rice Krispie Treats Recipe for Serious Eats

It's time to combine two marvelous marshmallow-based recipes to form one delicious treat: the Candied Yam Rice Krispies Treat.

What's not to love about this seasonal mashup? Separately, both cereal treats and candied yam casseroles are delicious; both dishes rely on marshmallows for their sweet, signature taste. But the key to this combination is their contrasting crispy textures; when they come together, you're rewarded with a crispy-creamy-moist-and-chewy sort of marshmallow nirvana, sweetly spiced and perfect with hot chocolate or chai tea.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

Trick or Sweet: Fun-Size Candy Bar Studded Cheesecake Recipe for Serious Eats

What's so "fun" about Fun-Size candy bars, anyway? Those paltry portions taste like deprivation to me—unless we're talking about eating five or six, all at once. But I digress.

For a sweet treat that embraces the excessive sweetness of the Halloween spirit but also takes advantage of surplus candy (or the cheap prices of Halloween candy the day after), try your hand at this Fun-Size Candy Studded Cheesecake. A rich and creamy cheesecake gets a chocolatey upgrade from coarsely chopped candy in a variety of your choosing. Lucky enough to have extra Snickers bars? Go for it, or make it a mix; mine included a melange of Nestle favorites, including about 15 assorted mini Nestle Crunch, Baby Ruth, and Butterfinger bars. One thing's for sure: the size of this cake makes for mega-fun.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

Bake a Cake In It: Cake Baked in a Pumpkin Recipe for Serious Eats

It's been proven time and time again that stuff is better when it's baked inside of a cake. For example: cupcake-stuffed cupcakes, truffle-stuffed cupcakes, the entire website Bake it in a Cake.

But what happens when you do the reverse, and bake a cake inside something unexpected? Like a pumpkin?

The original idea here was to make mini cakes in cored-out small pumpkins, but the baking was irregular; baking a batch of cake in one large pumpkin yielded a far more delicious (and good-looking) result.

The moisture of the pumpkin yields a cake that had a texture something like a baked pudding—very dense and flavorful. To keep things from getting too pumpkin-heavy I tried this recipe with carrot cake; the flavors and spices worked beautifully with the pumpkin scent and flavor. It's even better when generously frosted and served with ice cream.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!