This Turkish yogurt cake, adapted from the cookbook "Claudia Roden's Mediterranean," is similar to a lemon-scented cheesecake, but it's lighter and has a fresher, tangier flavor. It's good both warm and...
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 should barely be perceptible, acting merely as...
Author: Amanda Hesser
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 looks especially nice. Prepare the crystallized...
Author: Yotam Ottolenghi
This humble dessert would never win a beauty contest when pitted against a towering layer cake swirled with frosting, but what it lacks in looks, it makes up in flavor and simplicity of preparation. The...
Author: Molly O'Neill
This simple, lemon-scented olive oil cake is an elegant treat all by itself or topped with whipped cream, fruit or ice cream. The olive oil contributes a pleasant fruity flavor while keeping the cake moister...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
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 dessert, by drenching it with evaporated milk, condensed...
Author: Margaux Laskey
An American classic, Boston cream pie isn't a pie at all. Its base is an old-fashioned hot milk cake, a downy-soft, buttery yellow cake. How you whip the eggs and the sugar is critical, as the tiny air...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
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 cookbook, "Room for Dessert." It's the sort of cake...
Author: Amanda Hesser
An easy cranberry jam lends its naturally pink hue and pleasantly tart flavor to this stunning cake. It's also tucked between the layers of a fluffy brown sugar buttermilk cake for an extra hit of cranberry...
Author: Yossy Arefi
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 crispy edges. And then there is the dazzling moment...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
Though quite straightforward, this recipe for Norwegian apple cake from Nevada Berg's cookbook "North Wild Kitchen" did raise a question. A whole tablespoon of cinnamon? Really? But it was not at all excessive,...
Author: Florence Fabricant
In most classic coffee cakes, cinnamon plays a starring role, but this recipe puts coffee flavor front and center thanks to the addition of brewed coffee and espresso powder (or instant espresso). Espresso...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
Coconut oil and coconut milk add a tasty tropical essence to this moist pound cake. Be sure to buy unrefined virgin coconut oil, as it has the best coconut flavor and aroma. Coconut oil is much easier...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
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 Simeon and Garrett Snyder's 2021 book, "Cook Real...
Author: Sara Bonisteel
One of the beauties of layer cake is that you can do much of the work in advance. The cake layers can be baked one day ahead, wrapped tightly and kept at room temperature. The frosting can be made up to...
Author: Alison Roman
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, soaked in syrup while it's still warm. When she...
Author: Tejal Rao
A traditional flavor combination (butter pecan) melds with a modern one (salted caramel) in this magnificently burnished golden cake. Brian Noyes opened Red Truck bakery in 2008 on the eastern edge of...
Author: Julia Moskin
This cake elicits awe on sight, and it's a delightfully easy stir-and-bake dessert created by Margarita Manzke, the pastry chef and an owner at République, a restaurant and bakery in Los Angeles. Dense...
Author: Alexa Weibel
This bright and beautiful Southern staple has a hint of chocolate flavor that's paired with a cream cheese frosting, keeping it from being too sweet. Part of red velvet cake's allure is how moist it is,...
Author: Millie Peartree
In the 1990s, when home bakers started putting rainbow sprinkles in their cakes, as well as on their cakes, the Funfetti craze was born. Pillsbury introduced its Funfetti cake mix in 1989, and the idea...
Author: Julia Moskin
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 caramelized flavor reminiscent of Basque cheesecake....
Author: Genevieve Ko
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 and melted chocolate. The batter may seem thin when...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
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 blended in a food processor. Although it looks like...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
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 with spiced pumpkin purée, is a fluffy contrast...
Author: Melissa Clark
Blitz means "lightning" in German, referring to the lightning-quick way this old-fashioned cake comes together, at least compared with the more ornately frosted tortes popular a century ago. Buttery, nutmeg-scented...
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 juicy berries, and tangy yogurt whipped cream. Use...
Author: Yossy Arefi
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 subtle, creamy cheeses, a conviction that inspired...
Author: Matt Lee And Ted Lee
This almond cake is based on financiers, the small, usually ingot-shaped cakes first made in Paris in the late 1880s. The pastry chef Lasne created and named them for his stockbroker clients, keeping them...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
A roulade is a classic dessert made by rolling a thin cake around a flavorful filling, which creates an inviting swirl once sliced. This roulade starts with a subtly spiced, moist pumpkin cake that is...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
Although black cake is descended from the British plum pudding, for Caribbean-born New Yorkers and their children, who number more than half a million, it evokes nostalgia for the islands, where the baking...
Author: Julia Moskin
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 baking book "Flavor Flours." The cake may be baked...
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 almonds and a drizzle of icing may or may not be...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
This prune apple cardamom cake by the chef Genevieve Gergis was inspired by sticky toffee pudding, a dish that her husband and business partner, the chef Ori Menashe, loves. It's on the menu at their restaurant...
Author: Joan Nathan
This dessert is somewhere between a sponge cake and a clafoutis: light and airy, yet rich from the addition of dark chocolate and rum. Make sure you use really ripe, in-season figs, as they make all the...
Author: Yotam Ottolenghi
Maida Heatter's famous lemon cake first appeared in The Times in a 1970s feature highlighting a few of her best-loved cake recipes. This one was actually found by her daughter, Toni Evins Marks, who lived...
Author: Craig Claiborne
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 party's theme was "May the Fours Be With You), this...
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, it also gets a generous coating of melted butter...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
This orange cranberry cake is a gift to the holiday baker. It can be made ahead. It travels well. And it can be brought out any time of day - with coffee or tea in the morning or afternoon, or with Cognac...
Author: Joan Nathan
This lovely cake was inspired by the colors and flavors of pink lemonade. Don't be tempted to skip the first step of this recipe, which asks you to rub lemon zest into granulated sugar: The sugar granules...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
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 with rose petals. If you want to save time, however,...
Author: Yotam Ottolenghi
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 ras malai, combines rose water, ricotta cheese...
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. Roasting the bananas before mashing them into the...
Author: Melissa Clark
A version of this golden, tart-sweet confection was served at the 76th birthday of the legendary Southern chef, Edna Lewis. It is a true labor of love, so be sure to set aside a full afternoon to make...
Author: The New York Times
A sweet ending for a summer solstice party, this spongecake is light and not too sweet, and the cream and berries make it seem almost more of an unmolded trifle than a cake. I seem to remember that in...
Author: Nigella Lawson
Like carrot cake, parsnip cake is lightly spiced, exceedingly moist and slathered with cream cheese frosting. This version, adapted from Susan Spungen's cookbook, "Open Kitchen," is less sweet than most....
Author: Melissa Clark
This rich and decadent spiced pumpkin cake is just the thing to serve for an autumn celebration, Thanksgiving or otherwise. Chocolate chips and chopped pecans are added to the pumpkin batter for extra...
Author: Florence Fabricant
Rice flour makes this poundcake melt-in-your-mouth tender, and gives it a mild and delicate flavor that's spiced with a touch of black pepper. It keeps well, so feel free to bake it a day or two ahead...
Author: Melissa Clark
This coconut cake was adapted from a recipe by Simone (Simca) Beck, best known as Julia Child's co-author on "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." She called it "Gâteau d'Hélène: a white cake filled...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
Layered with whipped cream, raspberry purée, saltines and fresh fruit, this easy icebox cake balances bright, fresh flavors with tangy cream cheese. The saltines add a nice saltiness, but you can substitute...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
These moist, rich almond cakes are miniature versions of a classic flourless almond torte, embellished here with either chocolate ganache or cherry jam. The bittersweet chocolate filling is a bit more...
Author: Melissa Clark