We’ve reached the end of another year, but very little about December is calm and quiet. The holiday season means parties, dinners, and gatherings of all kind, and the reasons to cook and plan seem to grow by the day (or at least with every invitation in the inbox). But don’t fret. The 39 recipes from our December 2025 issue have you covered for every circumstance, from a cookie swap to a neighborhood potluck to Christmas morning.
Finally, we’ll seal the month of celebrations with a showstopping dessert: our annual Big White Cake. This cover star dessert has been showing up on our December issues for more than 20 years. This year’s cake, a Holiday Mahogany Cake, has a good bit of Southern history tied up in each layer, and you’ll get to scratch your creative itch as you decide how to decorate it.
We’ll see you in January with all-new dinners for a new year. Happy holidays!
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylists: Emily Nabors Hall and Sally McKay; Prop Stylist: Lindsey Ellis Beatty
Let’s start at the front—the cover, that is. This year’s Big White Cake, as we call it here at Southern Living, is a Holiday Mahogany Cake with Ermine Frosting. Mahogany cake was the South’s original chocolate cake, and a precursor to another Southern favorite, red velvet. Serve a slice of a beautiful cake and a bit of history with this year’s centerpiece-worthy dessert.
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylists: Emily Nabors Hall and Sally McKay; Prop Stylist: Lindsey Ellis Beatty
Flex your creative muscle if you’re feeling like it. We covered the Holiday Mahogany Cake with a border of door-themed sugar cookies that honor Charleston’s colorful facades and buildings. Make the doors of your own hometown or any Southern city that warms your holiday heart.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Christina Dailey
Chef Carla Hall shared her recipe for a weekend showstopper: a breakfast casserole made with red potatoes, smoked sausage, shrimp, and crabmeat.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Margaret Monroe Dickey; Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel
This holiday showstopper is heavily inspired by gâteau ardéchois, a classic French cake from the chestnut-growing Ardeche region that uses sweetened chestnut puree. You’ll make your own puree with homemade roasted chestnuts, so this cake is a work of love.
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Robby Lozano; Food Stylist Costen King; Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel
Either as a snack or as the first step in making the Chestnut Cake, these roasted chestnuts are a special holiday treat. You won’t need an open fire, however. Your oven will work.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
Chef Demetrius Brown of Bread & Butterfly in Atlanta shares this generations-old recipe for “The Cake,” as his family knows it. This spiced apple cake holds a secret ingredient—a very specific one at that—that makes this baked Bundt tender and moist. (Hint: it’s mayonnaise.)
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
Senior Producer Ivy Odom found her new favorite holiday beverage after she began dating her husband Luis. When visiting his parents, who both grew up in Puerto Rico, she tried her mother-in-law’s homemade coquito, and her heart was forever changed. “This tastes like Christmas at home,” Luis told her after trying Ivy’s first batch.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
If you have leftover coquito, Ivy recommends you turn it into tomorrow’s dessert. Rice pudding is a traditional holiday dessert, and this version uses the cinnamon-spiced drink as its creamy base.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless
A collection of recipes from James Beard Award-winning writer and cookbook author Ann Taylor Pittman turns winter’s best greens into a new class of appetizers. First up is this handheld bite that translates Hoppin’ John into the perfect appetizer for New Year’s Eve.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless
Despite the tender collards in these fritters, each one is crispy and snappy thanks to cornstarch in the batter and white onions. Don’t skip the smoky dipping sauce—or better yet, do and serve it with your favorite Southern side sauce, like Comeback Sauce.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless
We’re not one to mess with something that’s nearly perfect—or, actually we are. So we think it is possible to change the classic sausage ball slightly and get something everyone will love just as much (if not more). See the proof in theses sausage balls made with chopped mustard greens.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless
Imagine combining spinach dip with hot bacon-and-Swiss dip. Then you’ll understand just how good this greens-and-ham dip will be. For holiday parties or a New Year’s Eve gathering, this is an appetizer you can use more than once this season.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless
You may be used to these twirled up breads as a brunch treat, but we’ve made the pull-apart bread more savory with a mustard greens pesto. The dough is still refrigerated crescent dough—we all need a few shortcuts this time of year.
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall; Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel
This year’s new batch of holiday cookie recipes is all about… candy! That’s right. Each of our new recipes highlights the great flavors and textures of some of the best candy dish treats, starting with these stained glass cookies, which use hard cinnamon and butterscotch candies for both color and flavor at the cut-out centers.
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall; Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel
Raid the kids’ candy buckets for cinnamon jelly beans, and you’ll be halfway to making these wreath-shaped treats. With a bit of cinnamon in the buttery dough, each bite has a bit of warmth, even if you don’t get a jelly bean.
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall; Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel
Open up grandma’s purse (or your own) and grab those Werther’s Originals. You’ll need them to make these rich snickerdoodles, a spin on the classic cookie that will be a huge hit at the cookie swap.
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall; Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel
We don’t want the classic peppermints for these chocolate cookies. Go for the extra-special soft ones. You know, the better ones. They make these cookies more tender and melt-in-your-mouth than the harder candies would.
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall; Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel
These bars are wonderful anytime of the year. But for the holidays, go for the M&Ms with the Christmas colors. Want to match another color theme? Any candy-coated chocolate pieces will work.
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall; Prop Stylist: Priscilla Montiel
A Texas icon stars in these grinchy green cookies. The Atkinson family in Lufkin, Texas, has been selling their peanut butter hard candies for more than 90 years, and they’re the perfect finishing ingredient for these treats.
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Greg DuPree; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
Associate Editor Katherine Polcari shares the story of her Uncle Jimmy and his miniature pies, inspired by the sweet act of kindness he showed to the younger members of his family every year.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
Classic Beef Wellington gets a Southern upgrade with mustard greens in place of mushrooms and salty, tangy prosciutto to boost the flavor. Everything is wrapped up and bow-tied with a puff pastry shell that’s a pretty as any present.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
As a holiday side, it doesn’t get much more impressive than these mashed potatoes made with browned butter. They’re also incredibly easy, so you won’t interrupt your cooking schedule too much with the time it takes to brown the sticks of unsalted butter.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
A simple but impressive side dish is always welcome on holiday spreads. These roasted carrots will turn tender and sweet in the oven, and the maple-Dijon glaze helps to brighten the flavor. Fresh thyme and orange zest are a great finishing touch, keeping the carrots from feeling too one-note.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
Holiday mornings and lazy weekends both need fresh ideas for breakfast casseroles, and we have two you aren’t going to want to skip. The first is this one made with mini croissants and finished off with a cheesy, herby custard that’s rich and savory—and extra easy thanks to the addition of Boursin cheese.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
Pimiento cheese is a brilliant way to turn a breakfast casserole into something the whole family will be scooping up shortly after sunrise. This one is finished with ground sausage and made with mini croissants though you could use thick-cut bread.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
Food historian Dr. Jessica B. Harris shares memories of and the recipe for Smothered Cabbage from her friend Pableaux Johnson, a New Orleans-based photographer and writer who passed away earlier this year.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
With just four ingredients and time for chilling and scooping, you too can make these delightful chocolate jewels that are so good your guests and family will think you surely bought them. But hey, we won’t tell they were far easier than anyone could imagine.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
These Hazelnut Truffles are infused with three different kinds of hazelnut flavor: chocolate hazelnut spread, hazelnut liqueur, and chopped hazelnuts.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
Turn your favorite holiday punch into a bite-sized treat with these stunning truffles. Bourbon, rum, vanilla extract, and nutmeg help infuse the white chocolate truffle base with the classic flavors of a milk punch. Rolling the candies in sparkling sugar gives them a festive shine that will help them stand out among all the treats on the holiday sideboard or inside a Christmas cookie tin.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
A kiss of salinity, especially on desserts, is the final touch that can take a dish from good to great. Chocolate is no exemption. It helps bring out some of the subtle fruity notes of the dark chocolate in these homemade truffles.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
These decadent truffles have three layers of peanut flavor built in. There’s melted peanut butter in the truffle base, a peanut butter chip coating on the outside, plus a roasted salted peanut garnish.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
Cinnamon and cayenne pepper add warmth and a subtle hint of spice to these homemade chocolate truffles inspired by Mexican hot chocolate.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
The cozy notes of ginger, black pepper, and cardamom in chai are wonderfully paired with bittersweet chocolate in these homemade truffles. Steeping the spiced tea in the cream for the ganache base ensures every truffle is beautifully infused with chai flavor.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
A combination of ground ginger and chopped candied ginger infuse these chocolate truffles with the sharp and warming flavor of the spice. Its fiery kick is a nice counterbalance to the bitter notes of the dark chocolate in the ganache base.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
In this recipe, instant espresso granules and coffee-flavored liqueur add hints of coffee to every bite, and help draw out the rich notes of bittersweet chocolate used to form the base of the truffle.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
It wouldn’t be Christmas without some sort of peppermint treat. If you typically turn to bark, try something new (but still oh-so minty) this year with these peppermint-infused truffles.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
These truffles start with an easy orange zest-infused ganache that’s rolled up into balls and then coated in chocolate sprinkles for a festive touch. A sliver of candied orange peel is a sophisticated garnish that also adds extra orange flavor to every bite.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
You couldn’t squeeze more coconut flavor into these truffles if you tried. The candy starts with a ganache made with coconut milk, which is then further enhanced with both toasted coconut and coconut extract. To give each candy a snowy look and even more coconut flavor, they’re rolled in flaked coconut.
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Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Julian Hensarling; Prop Stylist: Hannah Greenwood
These truffles will remind you of pecan pie in the best way possible. Less sweet than the Thanksgiving staple, these candies still bring that classic combo of bourbon and nutty pecans together into an irresistible treat.
Dining and Cooking