This exquisite recipe came to The Times in a 2001 article by Amanda Hesser about the first meal her now mother-in-law, Elizabeth Friend, prepared for her....
Author: Amanda Hesser
The key to making this exquisite, gravity-defying cake, which comes from Michelle Polzine of 20th Century Cafe in San Francisco, is patience. This cake...
Author: Samin Nosrat
This tender cake is different from all the banana breads out there - possibly because Jim Lahey brings his celebrated skills as a bread baker to the recipe,...
Author: Melissa Clark
This stacked shortcake gives a classic summer dessert the large-format (think sheet cake and slab pies) treatment with big tender biscuits layered with...
Author: Yossy Arefi
This is the birthday cake I've made for my son since he was about 11. After boxed cakes, ice-cream cakes, a cake in a Darth Vader mold (that year, the...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
This is a very light cake, similar to a lemon drizzle but with a ton more flavor. The rosemary and orange add delicious floral notes. A fluted Bundt pan...
Author: Yotam Ottolenghi
This version of Linzer torte, a classic Viennese pastry, has a dough with a high proportion of ground hazelnuts and almonds. It is usually filled with...
Author: David Tanis
The tangy, rich cream cheese topping on this cake can travel - even on a hot day. Silky with sour cream, it bakes right over the batter and develops a...
Author: Genevieve Ko
This dense and deeply figgy cake, adapted from Eli's Table in Manhattan, gets its complex flavor from a combination of fresh figs and fig jam, seasoned...
Author: Melissa Clark
This pleasantly zesty lemon cake is baked in a standard 9-by-13-inch pan, no layering or trimming required, and is easy enough to bake on a weekday. Cover...
Author: Yossy Arefi
This dark chocolate cake relies on stout beer to add malted notes. Coffee helps enhance the chocolate flavor, and sour cream keeps the cake moist for days....
Author: Laurie Ellen Pellicano
One of my favorite pie alternatives is bundt cake. A hearty spice-filled bundt cake made from grated apples and toasted nuts, then soaked in whiskey syrup,...
Author: Melissa Clark
This recipe came to The Times from Marti Buckley Kilpatrick, who adapted it from Dol Miles, the pastry chef at Frank Stitt's Bottega restaurant in Birmingham,...
Author: Melissa Clark
Loose Earl Grey tea stirred into buttery cake batter adds a sweet, floral essence that's subtle but lovely. A little dark chocolate and orange zest makes...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
Don't mistake this impressive layer cake for a modest banana bread. It's a billowing, head-turning dessert covered in white swirls of coconut frosting....
Author: Melissa Clark
This recipe requires a little extra effort - you have to whip the egg whites separately and then fold them into the batter - but the reward is a light,...
Author: R. W. Apple Jr.
This recipe looks hard, but it's not. Promise. A very easy chocolate cake is transformed into a version of tres leches cake, the classic Latin American...
Author: Margaux Laskey
Blotkake, layered spongecake covered with drifts of whipped cream and fruit, is a dessert that Norwegians are passionate and possessive about. It is a...
Author: Julia Moskin
Making biscuits is a combination of technique, faith and magic. You pull the dough together with your hands, pass through a stage where only a belief in...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
Blitz means "lightning" in German, referring to the lightning-quick way this old-fashioned cake comes together, at least compared with the more ornately...
Author: Melissa Clark
A classic British bakewell tart is a threesome: a crust; a layer of raspberry jam - one chockfull of seeds; and a sponge cake redolent of almonds. Sliced...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
Strawberries from the farmers' market are tiny, packed with flavor, red all of the way through, and they put their supermarket counterparts to shame. This...
Author: Yossy Arefi
Like a cross between bananas Foster and pineapple upside-down cake, this homey dessert is topped with caramelized banana slices and crunchy walnuts. Cooking...
Author: Melissa Clark
This buttery cake is filled with soft, caramel-infused apples and topped with an easy caramel frosting. It's better to err on the side of underbaking the...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
With its soft, buttery crumb, this classic French cake is similar to a giant shortbread, though moister and more tender. Its hidden prune filling is traditional,...
Author: Melissa Clark
A traditional flavor combination (butter pecan) melds with a modern one (salted caramel) in this magnificently burnished golden cake. Brian Noyes opened...
Author: Julia Moskin
By substituting pecans (or other nuts) for the usual maraschino cherries, this twist on a classic upside-down cake is less sweet and crunchier than the...
Author: Melissa Clark
Layer cakes are pretty, but for many, they require far too much work to make on a regular basis. This cake, adapted from "Modern Baking: Cakes, Cookies...
Author: Margaux Laskey
The streamlined mixing technique for this versatile cake, which is leavened with only eggs, borrows from génoise, chiffon cake and a style of roll cakes...
Author: Claire Saffitz
This moist and springy Persian almond cake is generously spiced with ground cardamom (two full teaspoons). We like it with fresh berries. If you want to...
Author: Joan Nathan
Pâte à choux, aka cream puff dough, is a baker's putty, the mixture that becomes the cream puff as well as éclairs, beignets, churros, croquembouches,...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
This simple vanilla Bundt cake has plenty of freshly grated nutmeg to nod to the flavor of old-fashioned doughnuts. But since it's baked rather than fried,...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
This is a big, bold lemony cake that uses the zest, juice and flesh of lemons for an extrapuckery bite. A thin layer of crackly lemon glaze coats the whole...
Author: Yossy Arefi
The nice thing about this cheesecake is that it doesn't require a water bath or any sort of special baking pan: More shallow than a traditional version,...
Author: Alison Roman
Here's a cake that comes together with the push of a button - butter, sugar, eggs and cocoa as well as dark chocolate, almonds and amaretti cookies are...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
Like carrot cake, parsnip cake is lightly spiced, exceedingly moist and slathered with cream cheese frosting. This version, adapted from Susan Spungen's...
Author: Melissa Clark
This wheat-free chocolate cake with the earthy flavor of chestnuts is surprisingly light. The recipe is a slight adaptation from one in Alice Medrich's...
Author: David Tanis
The ridicule that most fruitcakes face has everything to do with bad recipes, which skimp on fruit and load on the batter. In a good fruitcake the batter...
Author: Amanda Hesser
With a texture that falls somewhere between pudding and ganache, this bittersweet torte is silky smooth and very rich. The whipped cream topping, run through...
Author: Melissa Clark
Sprinkles always bring joy to a cake, but add Pop Rocks and you have a celebration, complete with a mini fireworks show. This recipe from the chef Sheldon...
Author: Sara Bonisteel
Something magical happens when you layer crepes with cream to build a cake. The flavors intensify, you improve the cream to crepe ratio and there are more...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
This nutty sour cream coffee cake is rich enough to stand alone, but the bourbon caramel sauce elevates it to "special occasion dessert" status.
Author: Molly O'Neill
Though quite straightforward, this recipe for Norwegian apple cake from Nevada Berg's cookbook "North Wild Kitchen" did raise a question. A whole tablespoon...
Author: Florence Fabricant
Layer cakes are always festive, particularly when they are four-layered, fluffy and cloudlike. This one, based on the flavors of an Indian dessert called...
Author: Melissa Clark
I discovered that candied fruit likes getting soused with currants or dates, and that it isn't fussy about the medium: sherry, rum or Cognac all make it...
Author: Kay Rentschler
In this version of the classic Viennese Sacher torte, from Luisa Weiss's cookbook "Classic German Baking," two dense chocolate cake layers are filled and...
Author: Melissa Clark
This cake appeared in The Times in 1954 as Halloween Cake, the centerpiece for a children's party. When you strip away the original instructions for decoration...
Author: Sara Bonisteel
You can use any kind of berries - fresh or frozen - for this jammy twist on the classic pineapple upside-down cake. Just note that adding all or mostly...
Author: Melissa Clark
Making this cake, which is adapted from "Sweet," by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh, is a labor of love, but that's only appropriate, for a cake adorned...
Author: Yotam Ottolenghi
Amanda Saab, a social worker and home cook who lives near Detroit, riffs on her Lebanese grandmother's recipe for namoura, a cake made from semolina flour,...
Author: Tejal Rao