Category Desserts

Dessert recipes from Aunt Bertha’s Recipe Box, including cakes, cookies, pies, puddings, candies, and other homemade sweets collected over the years.

Delicious Soft Raisin Cookies

Soft raisin cookies made with brown sugar, warm spices, nuts, and raisins simmered until tender. A simple handwritten recipe with a homey feel.

Butterscotch Tapioca Pudding

A handwritten recipe for Butterscotch Tapioca Pudding, made with brown sugar, butter, cream, eggs, and tapioca, preserved on a well-worn folded scrap of paper.

Marge’s Applesauce Drop Cookies

A typed 1951 recipe for Marge’s Applesauce Drop Cookies, made with sweetened applesauce, raisins, bran, and warm spices, and passed along through Ann.

Apple Sauce Cake

A handwritten recipe for Apple Sauce Cake made with applesauce, warm spices and chopped fruit, with no baking directions written down — it was a given the cook would know the rest.

Almond Roca

A handwritten double-batch recipe for homemade Almond Roca with butter, almonds, and semi-sweet chocolate, finished with nuts on both sides.

Special K Cookies

A handwritten recipe for easy no-bake Special K Cookies made with butterscotch chips, peanut butter, and crunchy cereal.

Vera’s Date Cake

A handwritten recipe for a dark, moist date cake filled with sweet dates and crunchy nuts.

Applesauce Cookies

A simple old-fashioned applesauce cookie recipe with raisins and nuts, saved on a well-worn handwritten scrap from the recipe box.

Andrine’s Banana Cream Cake

Written on a torn little scrap of paper, Andrine’s Banana Cream Cake promises a moist, tender cake rich with ripe banana and vanilla—and only 25 minutes in the oven.

Fruit Cake

Forget the fruit cake that has to sit around for weeks—this typed recipe says to dig in while it’s still new, with raisins, dates, figs, citron and plenty of nuts packed into every slice.

Forget the fruit cake that has to sit around for weeks—this typed recipe says to dig in while it’s still new, with raisins, dates, figs, citron and plenty of nuts packed into every slice.

Shortbread Lemon Squares

Buttery shortbread topped with a bright, lemony almost-custard layer—this handwritten Lemon Squares recipe turns a handful of simple ingredients into something worth waiting to cool before cutting.

Buttery shortbread topped with a bright, lemony almost-custard layer—this handwritten Lemon Squares recipe turns a handful of simple ingredients into something worth waiting to cool before cutting.

Milk Sponge Cake

A handwritten recipe for a light, tender Milk Sponge Cake made with beaten eggs and hot milk, with your choice of vanilla or lemon for flavor—and it bakes in just 25 minutes.

A handwritten recipe for a light, tender Milk Sponge Cake made with beaten eggs and hot milk, with your choice of vanilla or lemon for flavor—and it bakes in just 25 minutes.

Jelly Roll

Handwritten Jelly Roll recipe on aged paper with ingredients and partial directions, plus an untitled ingredient list at the bottom.

A handwritten Jelly Roll recipe with lemon and Crisco that gives directions for mixing the batter but leaves the baking, filling and rolling instructions a mystery.

Andrine’s Simple Date Cake

Andrine’s Simple Date Cake recipe on aged paper with ingredients and directions for a date and nut cake baked in a loaf pan.

A handwritten recipe for Andrine’s Simple Date Cake, made with dates and nuts, baked in a loaf pan and served plain or topped with whipping cream or hard sauce.

Mrs. T’s Oatmeal Cookies

Handwritten Mrs. T’s Oatmeal Cookies recipe on pale green paper with ingredients and directions for refrigerator-style oatmeal cookies.

A handwritten recipe for Mrs. T’s Oatmeal Cookies, with quick oats and chopped nuts, formed into rolls, chilled, sliced and baked.

Eagle Brand Recipe Fragment

Small handwritten Eagle Brand recipe fragment taped to paper, listing ingredients but missing most of the directions.

A mysterious handwritten Eagle Brand recipe fragment with crackers, chocolate chips and nuts—and only part of the original directions still intact.

Lincoln’s Birthday Cake

A 1969 newspaper recipe for a gingerbread cake roll filled with pineapple whipped cream and made in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

Rhubarb Cake

Rhubarb Cake recipe from an old newspaper or magazine clipping, made with brown sugar and rhubarb, topped with cinnamon sugar, and served with whipped cream or ice cream.

Krumkager (Krumkaker)

A handwritten recipe for traditional Krumkager flavored with cardamom and baked in a stovetop iron, complete with a practical note about the butter.

Elise’s Molasses Cookies

A typed molasses cookie recipe made with coffee and spices, shaped into balls and pressed with sugar before baking.