Recipes with margarine

Spiced pear cake with oats, brown sugar, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Soaked oats add moisture and a hearty, rustic texture to every slice.

Olive cheese balls with cheddar cheese dough wrapped around pimento-stuffed green olives and baked golden. A make-ahead party appetizer that freezes well.

Sour cream brunch cake with a cinnamon-pecan-brown sugar swirl baked in a tube pan. A tender, rich coffee cake with two layers of crumbly, spiced filling throughout.

Six flavored popcorn ideas: strawberry, cappuccino, blue cheese, curry-cumin, chili, and Tabasco. One base recipe, six seasoning combos mixed into melted butter.

Quick baked mac and cheese made with cream of cheddar soup, a touch of mustard, and crispy bread crumb topping. Bubbly, cheesy comfort in 40 minutes flat.

Five ingredients and zero fuss: angel hair pasta tossed with canned tomatoes, diced ham or pepperoni, and a mountain of melted mozzarella. This is the weeknight dinner that gets a 5-star rating from the whole family.

Flourless Passover chocolate almond torte with bittersweet chocolate, ground almonds, and a rich chocolate-butter icing. Kosher for Pesach with no wheat flour.

Mini apple pies use refrigerated biscuit dough as a fast pastry shortcut. Each rolled biscuit wraps a tablespoon of cinnamon-sugar apple-raisin filling and bakes in muffin cups. Ten warm hand pies in 15 minutes.

This three-layer coconut cake starts with a yellow cake mix shortcut, then gets loaded with shredded coconut, crunchy walnuts, and a from-scratch cream cheese frosting with toasted golden coconut on top. Ready in about an hour.

Soft, golden drop cookies loaded with flaked coconut and brightened with fruit juice and fresh orange zest. Sweetened with sugar substitute, these diabetic-friendly cookies come together in 40 minutes with no mixer needed.

Fettuccine Alfredo lightened up with skim milk and cream cheese, finished with garlic-bloomed butter and a thick blanket of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Silky, garlicky, and surprisingly rich.

Old-fashioned currant pound cake with mace, lemon extract, and 9 eggs folded in as stiffly beaten whites. No leavening needed. Dense, buttery, and studded with dried currants.

Four-layer no-bake candy bar dessert with chocolate-butterscotch, peanut butter nougat, salted peanuts, and gooey caramel. Homemade Snickers bars in a 13x9 pan.

This silky chilled carrot vichyssoise blends sweet carrots, leeks, and potatoes with a whisper of dill and nutmeg. A refreshing cold soup that's ready to chill and thrill.

Pasta with herbed ricotta, toasted pine nuts, tarragon, lemon zest, and parsley tossed into a creamy no-cook sauce. A 30-minute vegetarian pasta dinner with a bright, lemony ricotta coating on every strand.

Paintbrush sugar cookies decorated before baking with egg yolk paint in bright colors. A fun roll-and-cut cookie with almond extract, great for kids and holiday baking.