What happens when you bake a cake in something unexpected? Like a pumpkin? More

The pumpkin puree lends a lightness to the texture and gives it enough moisture to stave off the dryness that tends to plague traditional black-and-whites. More

The ice cream base is a simple one, peanut butter with a hefty enough dose of vanilla to simulate nougat. More

It's the Great Pumpkin Cheesecake, Charlie Brown. Promise not to pull it away from you. More

I bring you a monster-sized, cocktail nut-and-apple encrusted, spicy, brittle-based, chocolate-covered, and caramel corn and pepita-sprinkled candy bar. More

Starting with a generous amount of grass green-tinted frosting, the cake is then lined with cookie crumbles to resemble the residual grave-escape dirt, dotted with cookie "graves", and decorated with zombie cutout cake picks to form a delightful dessert that is creepy and cute all at once. More

These ghoulish meringues are simple to make, but even more fun to serve: personalize your skulls with funny faces to add some sweet charm to your Halloween fete. More

In the 1930s the MoonPie was heralded as a "working man's lunch," with hungry laborers substituting lunch with what was the biggest snack for sale. The MoonPie's background is lengthy and inspiring (did you know that the company started sending MoonPies to troops stationed overseas during World War II and continues the tradition today?) and, my cake-addled brain couldn't resist imagining it as a cake. More

When reduced to a syrup, apple cider takes on a tang as pronounced as its sweetness. It plays well here against sweet cream and toasty apple-laced doughnuts. More

This ice cream has just a hint of spice without verging too far into pumpkin pie territory. You can make it with canned pumpkin, but homemade pumpkin purée is as vast an improvement as it is easy to make. More