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Dessert cookbooks are sumptuous to look at and Heaven to receive as gifts - it's the gift that keeps on giving as new recipes are tried and new dessert sensations grace the dinner table. But what are the hottest dessert cookbooks to buy, that the foodies on your Christmas list will crave, and thank you forever to receive? Even better, they may invite you to dinner!

The New York Times Dessert Cookbook: With more than 400 fabulous recipes collected by the acclaimed New York Times food writer Florence Fabricant, this has to be the hottest dessert cookbook of the year. If your foodie friend has an unwieldy collection of recipes snipped from the New York Times, this is the perfect gift, housing all the best recipes between two deliciously adorned covers. While not lavishly illustrated, this dessert cookbook is lavishly abundant with recipes for cakes, tortes, cookies, pies and souffles, among many others. If the apple pie on the cover doesn't tempt your foodie to start baking at once, then there are still 399 temptations to go.

The All American Dessert Book: This is a book that should be on every American foodie's bookshelf. Written by Nancy Bagget, who traveled all over the USA to gather her recipes from small town cooks. This book smashes the myth that all Americans eat for dessert are deep fried candy bars. Instead it records the recipes for some of the most beautiful desserts and treats for which America is justly famous. Here Bagget has collected wonderful home town recipes from bakeries, cafes, restaurants, and church groups, from pandowdies to sumptuous cheesecakes. Pray you get invited to dinner.

My Sweet Vegan: These days you can please everyone on your present list, including those who have been notoriously hard to please in the past. Hannah Kaminsky's gorgeous dessert cookbook looks about as decadent as it gets, with chocolate cupcakes on the cover, but your vegan foodie won't have to hide it at the bottom of a closet, or give it to Goodwill. This cookbook gives recipes that sound like decadent heaven, with names like Triple Threat Chocolate Cheesecake, and Mocha devastation Cake, but there isn't a whisper of eggs or dairy in any of them. In fact, your non-vegan foodie friends will love it too.

Nigella Christmas: UK cook Nigella Lawson is a phenomenon. Whether you admire more for her feminine charms, or her cooking, this book is a must on any dedicated foodie's shelf. This book is written in the spirit of her previous book, Nigella Express, where she came up with cool takes on fast food that still tasted delicious and fresh. Nigella offers fast but fabulous recipes for Christmas cakes, puddings and treats that just beg to be eaten. Besides, what foodie doesn't want Nigella gracing the bookshelf as well as the kitchen?

Hello Cupcake: Authors Allen Richardson and Karen Tack know how to make foodies go week at the knees. Just look at the cover, with the most enchanting doggie cup cakes gazing up appealingly. Who could resist? Certainly not a dessert loving foodie, because this book truly rocks the cup cake. There are cup cakes that looked like sleeping people tucked under blankets, corn on the cob, Thanksgiving turkeys and pumpkins. Just make sure your foodie hasn't started a diet.

Learn more about this author, Gail Kavanagh.
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