Food Holidays & Occasions 12 Days of Holiday Baking Projects Welcome to baking central: We've rounded up each category of seasonal baking to help you plan and prep. By Food & Wine Editors Food & Wine Editors This is collaborative content from Food & Wine's team of experts, including staff, recipe developers, chefs, and contributors. Many of our galleries curate recipes or guides from a variety of sources which we credit throughout the content and at each link. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on November 30, 2023 Trending Videos Photo: Photo by Sarah Crowder / Food Styling by Drew Aichele We've put together 12 days' worth of fantastically festive treats to celebrate the season with baking and sweets. Craft a picture-perfect centerpiece for your holiday meal finale with recipes for croquembouche, yule logs, and a magazine cover-worthy pavlova wreath. Decorate crowd-pleasing cookies, fill doughnuts, and shatter bark and brittle for holiday parties. Bake bread for seated meals, and assemble trifles for dessert spreads. Here are a ton of ways to bake for the holidays. 01 of 12 Holiday Cookies Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Dickey / Prop Styling by Julia Bayless Food & Wine's favorite holiday cookies span gingerbread, German Spitzbuben, Italian rainbow cookies, crinkle cookies, shortbread, and more. Slice and bake, decorate, and conquer the cookie exchange. Get the Recipes 02 of 12 Pavlova Wreath Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christine Keely This showstopping pavlova wreath is dolloped with vanilla whipped cream, sprinkled with fresh raspberries and pistachios, and adorned with an enchanting toasted white chocolate bark. Get the Recipe 03 of 12 Holiday Bread Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Shell Royster From challah to panettone, we have holiday bread recipes for airy, dense, and braided loaves for old and new traditions. Get the Recipes 04 of 12 Bûche de Noël with Mascarpone Cream and Dark Chocolate Ganache Photo by Antonis Achilleos / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Kay Clarke A few smart moves make Paige Grandjean's yule log a cut above the rest. It's worth all four and a half hours to make the cake, filling, frosting, and garnish when you serve the assembled dessert. Get the Recipe 05 of 12 English Trifles Christopher Testani We appreciate the ease of these desserts that stand out for stunning layers of flavor. Stash thin slices of cake — or cake scraps — between layers of custard, whipped cream, fruit, caramel sauce, or even Girl Scout cookies. Get the Recipes 06 of 12 Chestnut Pavlova Photo by Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Thom Driver This chestnut pavlova recipe is fabulously festive: an exuberant, rich, and luxurious treat for the holidays. Get the Recipe 07 of 12 Holiday Doughnuts Cinnamon-Cardamom Sufganiyot. Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Ali Ramee / Prop Styling by Christina Daley Fry up sufganiyot or sfinj for Hanukkah, or take on a doughnut hole croquembouche for Christmas. Get the Recipes 08 of 12 Old Fashioned Doughnut Croquembouche Photo by Sarah Crowder / Food Styling by Drew Aichele Pastry chef Paola Velez's variation on a traditional croquembouche features homemade cinnamon doughnuts instead of cream puffs and can be assembled 10 hours ahead of time. Get the Recipe 09 of 12 Sweet, Giftable Bark and Brittle Julia Hartbeck Refrigerate rather than bake to have chocolate bark or nut brittle ready by the pound to set out for snacking, wrap up for gifting, or add to a dessert spread. Get the Recipes 10 of 12 Orange-Anise Croquembouche with White Chocolate Christopher Testani Victoria Dearmond, pastry chef at Georgia James in Houston, updates the classic croquembouche — a decadent tower of cream-filled choux pastry puffs encased in ribbons of hard caramel — with an orange- and anise-infused cream filling and a white chocolate drizzle instead of spun sugar. Get the Recipe 11 of 12 Gingerbread © Tina Rupp Indulge in gingerbread season with cookies to decorate, a decorative trifle, the perfect bread loaves for a holiday brunch, or plated desserts. Get the Recipes 12 of 12 Cherry-and-Chocolate Bûche de Noël © Michael Turek Chef Dominique Ansel's bûche de Noël consists of a flourless chocolate sponge cake, a rich and creamy filling, and whipped cream frosting. The cake has a deep cherry flavor, it's lighter than many, and it's ready in about two hours. Get the Recipe Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit