This gingerbread Bundt cake is generously spiced with a noticeable ginger kick from the combination of fresh ginger and ground ginger. The mixing of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and black pepper round out the spice profile.

If you're shy when it comes to spices, omit the fresh ginger and black pepper. The cake will still be delicious, just milder.

You can use either light or dark brown sugar in this. Dark brown sugar leans into the molasses flavor while the light stuff pulls back on it.

Be sure to generously butter and flour your Bundt pan or use a baking spray formulated with flour to ensure that the cake releases cleany.

I love the way that orange and vanilla round out the spices in these soft, chewy cookies. If you want to take these in a more southern direction you can use sorghum syrup or Steen’s Cane Syrup in place of the molasses. I like a milder molasses here, but you can use whatever you like. I’ve made these with a blend of sorghum flour and all-purpose flour with great success (I imagine a combination of sorghum and rice flour with a little xanthan gum would make a great gluten free version of these cookies), but they also work well with just all-purpose. My favorite tool for streamlining drop cookies is a cookie scoop (I use the small size for these cookies).

This caramel pumpkin tart is a spin on a traditional pumpkin pie. The caramel makes the flavor fuller and the texture lighter than the traditional version.

Don't be afraid of making caramel. Just keep an eye on it once you get started and be swift and decisive when it's time to remove it from the heat.

Don't be tempted to skip the step of straining the filling. It's essential to the lush, smooth texture of the filling.

I like to serve it with whipped cream.

These cranberries are more than the sum of their simple parts. They are excellent on oatmeal, in yogurt, as a topping for pancakes, waffles, or french toast. They are also wonderful with cheese. You can use fresh or frozen cranberries here. I always buy an extra bag or two of fresh cranberries to stash in the freezer to have on hand for times like these. I like to make these with raw cane sugar, which adds a little more complexity than white sugar, but whatever granulated sugar you have on hand will be fine. If you are comfortable with water bath canning, feel free to do that with these. They should be processed for five minutes and will keep for a year. If not, you can just jar them and store them in the refrigerator where they’ll keep for several weeks.

These gingerbread cookies are soft, spicy, thick, and cakey. They have a generous amount of ground ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. The original version of these cookies calls for black pepper, but I prefer these without it so I haven’t included it here. You could certainly add some in if you’d like some extra heat. The dough, after it has rested in the refrigerator overnight, is a dream to work with. It rolls out easily and holds shapes well. Note that these are thicker than most cookies, and be sure not to roll them too thin. The dough should be about 1/3 inch thick. The yield on these will vary depending on what cookie cutters you use. I used a gingerbread person cookie cutter about 3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ and got about 22 cookies out of it.