Desserts

The rich taste of butter, dried fruit and nuts with almond flavouring will alter most people's idea of traditional fruitcake.

I was in a mall one day and came across a Laura Secord—a famous Canadian chocolate chain named, for some reason, after a heroine of the War of 1812. I hadn’t been in one of these stores for eons. I figured they’d probably gone extinct. As a kid I would sometimes get some of her butterscotch pudding in my school lunch, and since we had just come back from tapping trees for maple syrup, this recipe came to me. Sucre à la crème hurts my teeth (in a good way), and pudding is awesome, so why not combine the two and get the best of both worlds? -DD

This soft, gingery cookie is packed with gooey chocolate chunks and chewy candied ginger. The mix is a fun gift for friends and neighbours with kids.

I love thyme and sprinkle it wantonly in my cooking, but I wanted a cake that relied on it as a leading ingredient, not merely as a decorative flourish. Besides, with a rosemary loaf cake under my belt (in Feast), I had no doubt that it would work. And it does. Don’t be alarmed at the amount of thyme in the cake batter, as it doesn’t overwhelm. It charms. - Nigella

This rich and creamy dessert can be topped with any fruit sauce or simply melted chocolate — it's up to you. (We're partial to this cranberry sauce during the holidays, though.)