Sweet, spiced, and dense, with a bright rum glaze, a sophisticated take on classic Christmas fruitcake is a perfect holiday treat for giving as a gift—or for keeping to yourself.

This recipe, from Fore Street restaurant in Portland, Maine, calls for using six 4″ steel blini pans. But you can make a single cake in an 8″ cast-iron skillet, if you prefer. If fresh or frozen cranberries aren’t available, use reconstituted dried berries. Get the recipe for Apple and Cranberry Upside-Down Cakes »

Clafoutis is a French dessert that’s trickier to pronounce than to make. A simple mixture of flour, eggs, dairy, and a little sugar, it’s like a pancake, but more custardy, and it’s baked instead of griddled. It looks and tastes impressive the way classic French desserts often do, but it’s simple enough to whip up any weeknight. Rum-soaked dried apricots, figs, and raisins add their caramelized and honeyed flavors to this creamy version, perfect for cold weather when there’s no fresh fruit around. Get the recipe for Dried Apricot and Fig Clafoutis with Rum »

Houseman’s Fruitcake

This is an adaptation of a Caribbean cook’s generations-old family recipe. See this Recipe

This recipe for the famous Italian Christmas sweet follows the more traditional dense and crumbly version. See this Recipe

This is our version of the traditional Friulian cake made for us by Ennio Furlan at Agriturismo de Carvalho in Friuli. See this Recipe