How would we surface the best recipes published in our first quarter-century? Taste them all, obviously! But that meant hundreds of dishes. Using our own ratings and those of Web users, we narrowed the list to a Sweet 16: cake against cupcake, pudding against mousse, pastry against candy. Tastings followed, and much passionate argument.

The winning recipe: Delicious Chocolate Cake

The most recent recipe in the competition (originally from the September 2011 issue), it won unanimously because of the intense richness from cocoa, melted chocolate, and chocolate chunks.