Your final bite of a meal is weighted with significance because it’s often the taste you’ll remember most vividly.

So it makes sense that dessert demands its own separate chef, someone who can conjure up a memorable finale.

It’s time, we think, to sing their praises. Our Best Pastry Chefs of 2013 have made the last year sweeter and given our meals happy endings, thanks to inventive outlooks, exacting techniques and unbridled creativity.

To show off their gifts, we asked each of them to create a recipe based on a classic homespun treat, ranging from chocolate pudding to Entenmann’s coffee cake.

See the chefs we’re sweet on below, then use their recipes to make your own memories.