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 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
Maida Heatter, the legendary dessert-cookbook author, tested this recipe 20 times before deeming it good enough for publication in The Times in May 1972....
Author: Margaux Laskey
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 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
Most lemon cakes rely on zest and juice for flavor. This one uses the whole fruit, pith and all, for an intense citrus flavor. There's also almond flour...
Author: Melissa Clark
This creamy mango cheesecake has the unmistakable scent and taste of fresh limes and cardamom - and, best of all, it doesn't require you to turn on the...
Author: Nik Sharma
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
Upside-down cakes are easy, adaptable and beautiful no matter what kind of fruit you use. This one calls for any kind of summer stone fruit - peaches,...
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 lightly spiced apple cake comes together in no time at all, and a few swoops of fluffy cinnamon cream cheese frosting dress it up for dessert. As...
Author: Yossy Arefi
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
David Lebovitz's headily spiced cake, which Amanda Hesser wrote about in The Times in 1999, calls for a quarter-pound of fresh ginger. Mr. Lebovitz, who...
Author: Amanda Hesser
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
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
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
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
Why doesn't maple syrup find its way to American cheese platters the way chestnut honey does to Italian ones? We think it works particularly well with...
Author: Matt Lee And Ted Lee
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
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
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
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.
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
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
This traditional British layer cake is made up of two buttery, tender spongecake rounds that sandwich a thick layer of jam and, often, a dollop of sweetened...
Author: Melissa Clark
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
Sweet roasted beets and extra-virgin olive oil add earthiness to this delicate Bundt cake, a baking project that promises stunning results. Roasting the...
Author: Jerrelle Guy
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
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
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
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 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
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
The fine, feathery crumb of this dessert, which is on the lighter side of chocolate cakes, is balanced by a slather of glossy, fudgy frosting. A topping...
Author: Melissa Clark
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
The classic Sicilian cassata is a spongecake layered with creamy sweetened ricotta, a heavenly combination. Though usually topped with colorful candied...
Author: David Tanis
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
This deeply moist ginger cake is adapted from David Lebovitz, the former pastry chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., who included the recipe in his...
Author: Amanda Hesser
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
A lush combination of a Southern upside-down cake and a French tarte tatin, this cake is deeply caramelized on top and light and fluffy beneath. The chef...
Author: Julia Moskin
In this country, ingestion of the pineapple upside-down cake has often been used as proof of citizenship - unless you had some as a child, you simply weren't...
Author: Jonathan Reynolds
Nutty whole-wheat flour and semisweet chocolate are a winning pair in this easy-to-make one-bowl loaf cake. Whole-wheat flour gives this cake depth and...
Author: Yossy Arefi
This is the kind of dessert worth dreaming about: a buttery yellow cake topped with a chocolate-sour cream frosting, made doubly rich with cocoa powder...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell