This is a Sponsored guest post by Craig who is an editor for Cake Journal, a site that covers all things baking. When he isn’t in the kitchen he is outside hiking or riding his bike.

There’s a comforting quality to everyday baking, to that pie recipe of your grandmother’s that you can make with your eyes closed. But most experienced home bakers will admit that sometimes they want a challenge, an unusual recipe that tests their skills and dazzles their audience. Here are five unique recipes that are a little more exciting than the standard sugar cookie formula.

1. An Edible Knick-Knack

• The recipe: Elizabeth LaBau of SugarHero!‘s Snow Globe Cupcakes
• Why it’s unique: To recreate the look of the holiday collectible they’re named after, these cupcakes are topped with a gelatin bubble, so both the topper and the cupcake itself are technically edible (although the gelatin won’t taste particularly nice). Where casual bakers might opt for store-bought plastic ornaments, kitchen whizzes will relish the challenge of making every part of this dessert, including the decoration, by hand. The recipe is fussy—it involves coating balloons in bloomed plain gelatin—but the end result is show-stopping.

2.A Birthday Cake With Pizzazz

• The recipe:Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar’s Birthday Cake
• Why it’s unique:Like a supercharged funfetti cake, this layered confection takes the standard white sponge with rainbow flecks (everyone’s secret favorite) and amps it up with a milk soak for moisture and hidden cookie crumbs for unexpected crunch. The genius component of this recipe is the birthday crumbs; baked on a cookie sheet until crispy and golden-brown, these clumps of flour, sugar, and sprinkles are good enough to eat on their own but are meant to be folded into the frosting between layers. While making this cake is a multi-step process, the steps themselves are fairly easy. However, some of the necessary ingredients, like citric acid and glucose, aren’t standard pantry staples.

3.A Cake With a Secret Ingredient

• The recipe:Anna Jones’ Amazing Lemon Cannellini Cake
• Why it’s unique:Hidden in plain sight in this recipe’s title, among expected words like “amazing” and “lemon” and “cake,” is an unusual ingredient: cannellini. As in beans. The legumes in the batter of this cake give it a moist and light quality while still providing the kind of crumb people associate with a traditional flour and butter cake. The frosting is also unconventional, using silken tofu as its base. This cake is dairy-, gluten-, and refined sugar-free, but doesn’t have that disappointingly wholesome flavor of many baked goods designed for restricted diets.

4.A Breakfast Casserole for Kidults

• The recipe:Model Chrissy Teigen’s French Toast Casserole With Salted Frosted Flakes
• Why it’s unique:Chrissy Teigen is well known for her love of pranks, but she’s also a successful model and businesswoman. So it makes sense that her French toast recipe combines the childish fun of sugary cereal with the grown-up sophistication of French bread and rum. The Frosted Flakes topping on this casserole is more complex than silly thanks to a healthy coating of melted butter and salt, and the rum, spices, and crusty bread make for a rich base.

5.A Savory Biscuit With a Molten Core

• The recipe:William Werner of Craftsman and Wolves’ Rebel Within
• Why it’s unique:At first glance, the Rebel Within looks like a cheese scone. But encased in this savory breakfast muffin is a perfectly soft-boiled egg. Creator William Werner’s observation that people love to eat “things inside of things” is spot-on: nothing beats the pleasant shock of golden yoke that oozes out of this pastry from the first bite. Werner has revealed the technique behind his creation but hasn’t divulged a specific recipe, so others have diligently reconstructed copycat recipes.