18 Merry and Bright Ginger Desserts

Julianne Jones’s wonderfully zingy gingerbread cookies have a tender and cakey texture, yet they’re sturdy enough to decorate.

The loaf is perfect sliced, spread with sweet butter and served alongside a cup of hot tea.

A riff on a bûche de Noël, it combines tender ginger cake with a tangy cream-cheese filling.

Hearty rye flour paired with three types of ginger—powdered, candied, and fresh—lends an earthy, lightly spicy flavor to these delicious holiday cookies.

Unlike most shortbread cookies, these are made with whole wheat, which gives them a nice, toasty flavor.

This supermoist cake, flavored with molasses for a mellow sweetness, is excellent with wine-poached pears or a topping of whipped mascarpone

Bakers typically pair ginger with apples or pears, but Grace Parisi loves using fresh peaches, too.

Pepparkakors are spiced Swedish ginger cookies served commonly around Christmas.

These supermoist, gluten-free cupcakes have terrific pumpkin flavor and an irresistible topping of fluffy, creamy frosting and golden caramel sauce.

To prepare this festive fudge, just stir a few flavorings into the melted-chocolate base.

While the dough for these cookies needs to rest for at least four hours, the final product—a crispy, spicy ginger snap—is well worth the wait.

This trifle is three desserts in one: mousse, gingerbread and caramel. Each part is delicious on its own, too.

This unmolded cake can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Nick Malgieri adds a puckery note to his gingersnap cookies by sandwiching them with a fresh lemon cream.

The density of this dairy-free gingerbread cake pairs perfectly with the lightness of the lemony cashew cream.

This supple dough is very easy to work with, and the scraps can be rerolled and cut out.

This super moist loaf spiked with candied ginger is the perfect tea cake.

“These scones are basically my excuse to eat gingerbread for breakfast,” says Claire Ptak of Violet, a cult London bakery.