Inspired cookies

Some bakers pull out all the stops this time of year.

It’s not enough that they bake and decorate dozens, make that hundreds holiday cookies, they also craft showstopping cakes to the steal the spotlight at the dessert table.

This year food writer and recipe developer Alison Ladman turned those beautiful cakes for inspiration in creating these stunning holiday cookies.

Angel Food Biscotti: Angel food is a light and fluffy cake made mostly from egg whites, a deliciously light dessert. We decided to transform the cake itself into a biscotti-cookie. Cutting the cake into sticks and baking them in a low oven, we created crisp cookies. We then drizzled the ends of each cookie with melted dark chocolate and sprinkled them with colorful dried fruit and sugar. You also could use milk or white chocolate (or a combination), then sprinkle them with chopped nuts, colored sprinkles or coconut.

Fruitcake Cookies: Fruitcake is a love-it-or-hate-it holiday tradition. But these cookies are everything a fruitcake should be. Studded with all manner of dried and candied fruit (you can easily substitute your favorites), these cookies are a chewy, spicy delight that’ll be sure to make a fruitcake lover out of even the skeptics.

German Chocolate Sandwich Cookies: A purely American invention, German chocolate cake starts with a sweet chocolate cake, then is filled with a caramel-coconut-pecan concoction.

We transformed this luscious cake into sandwich cookies. Starting with a sweet and soft chocolate cookie, we filled it with a gooey coconut filling and rolled the sides in toasted pecans. Be sure to use the coconut mixture while it is still slightly warm so that it is easier to spread.

Red Hot Velvet Meltaways: Red velvet cake has long been a favorite of Southern cooks. But in recent years it has become a popular treat across the country.

Taking our inspiration from both red velvet cake and red hot cinnamon candies, we combined the two in a meltaway-style cookie that crumbles and melts in your mouth. And following red velvet cake tradition, we topped each cookie with a little cream cheese icing which pairs perfectly with the cinnamon bite.