Make Ahead

This classic frosting couldn’t be easier to make and is a must for finishing red velvet and carrot cakes (or a batch of cupcakes). Using vanilla bean paste gives it a pretty speckled look, but if you don’t have it on hand, pure vanilla extract will lend the same flavor.

This classic homemade lemon meringue pie recipe is sweet and tart with a fluffy, cloudlike meringue top and crisp and flaky pie crust.

Roasted pecans also achieve a crunchy texture that raw pecans can only dream of.

This simple, creamy squash casserole with a crunchy breadcrumb topping is the perfect way to use up summer’s most bountiful vegetable.

This simple preparation of sweet potatoes can become the base for many lunches and weeknight meals.

This dessert looks way more complicated than it is—if you have the time to whip some cream, you can throw this layered stunner together.

With smooth chocolate pudding buttercream sandwiched between layers of moist devil’s food cake, the Brooklyn blackout cake is a dessert fit for chocolate lovers.

You can think of the chiffon cake as angel food cake’s even fluffier cousin.

For this towering crepe cake, thin crepes are stacked and sandwiched with an easy pastry cream.

As the name suggests, West Africa’s most popular form of fried dough is essentially a delectable fried pillow of airy dough.

This easy pasta salad recipe will be the hit of your next potluck.

Raspberry syrup appears over and over in some of the most influential historic cocktail books. 

The most refreshing pitcher of raspberry lemonade starts with homemade fresh raspberry syrup.

The scent of homemade salsa roja always takes me back to my childhood. The aroma of rehydrating dried chiles mingling with fresh serrano chiles or jalapeños, tomatoes, onion, and garlic was a weekly occurrence in our household. It was always too spicy for my young palate, but I never got sick of the smell wafting through the house. Though I’ve grown into a heat-seeker as my palate has evolved, this version doesn’t have to be spicy at all. Adding a single serrano chile to the mix gives this mild .…

On the outside, this cake looks like any other Bundt cake, but inside, it has a vibrant shade of green and a beautiful honeycomb pattern.

These delicious banana leaf packets conceal warm, slightly sweet sticky rice perfumed with the smokiness of the charred wrapper and with a piece of banana at the center.

Strawberries and cream, but make it fancy (and in a cake).

Coconut, pecans, and chocolate—this classic German chocolate cake satisfies any sweet tooth.

This no-bake chocotorta is thrown together with everyday staples from the Argentine pantry.

You can think of this cucumber salad as a spin on homemade dill pickles. It gives you a bit of that flavor without much time or effort.