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Gather round this fluffy yellow Christmas Tree Cake swathed in frosting pine needles, fruit-tape garland and M&M lights for a rousing chorus of "O, Tannenbaum." This cake is so much easier to make than you think, and it's a fun way to get the whole gang involved. Of course, after you're done, and then admire it for a few hours, you can make short work of it with dessert forks. Click the link below, and you're halfway there.

O Christmas Tree Cake Recipe and How-To

What can we say about fruitcake that hasn't already been said? The key to making one that won't be regifted ad infinitum is to use best-quality moist dried fruit. No, fruit that is both dried and moist is not a contradiction. This recipe is the one that will change your mind about fruitcake: it's chockfull of candied orange peel, and dried cherries, apricots, pineapple and currants.

At KitchenDaily, we also put 11 packaged fruitcakes to a "mom-approved" taste test. (That's right, our moms were the tasters -- they genuinely love fruitcakes.) Click here to see the results, and find out how to mail-order the winner.

More fruitcake recipes from KitchenDaily.

My friend David and I always joke that it was meat loaf that brought us together (one of those random conversations when a mutual love for something plain and simple and completely uncool forms a bond). Over the course of many years we've found a million more reasons to be friends, but we still share a meal of meat loaf a few times a year, not because we're nostalgic but because we love it. And we have plenty of company.

Tyler Florence feels the same way about loaf, and shares his dad's recipe, which rates high on the chunk factor with a red-pepper-and-tomato relish. The key to most great meat loafs, like chef Florence's, is a mixture of ground beef and pork (and sometimes veal). Share your meat loaf secrets with us in the Comments section.


More Meat Loaf Recipes from KitchenDaily.

Prime rib and coffee? Go for it, meat eaters. If you're wondering how to cook prime rib, take a tip from chef Ryan Farr. He gives his prime rib a rub made from coffee, salt, pepper, and vanilla-bean seeds, which gives the beef big, earthy flavor. Try the recipe for a prime rib that's extraordinary.

Sugar cookies get the decorative treatment in this recipe, which is a favorite with kids. Why? It has a melted hard candy in the middle, and we have yet to meet a kid who would turn down a candy in a cookie of their own free will. And for adults, the stained-glass effect of the melted candy is a visual treat (you can even hang them on your holiday tree as an ornament). KitchenDaily contributor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez (who created this beautiful and delicious sweet) hasn't been dubbed the Cookie Queen for nothing.

More Christmas cookie recipes, and decorating tips