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
This cake version of a peanut butter cup boasts moist devil's food cake wrapped around a soft, peanut buttery cake core. The peanut butter cake batter will stay nicely centered if you enlist the help of...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
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, which we adapted from "The Sullivan Street Bakery...
Author: Melissa Clark
Crackly on top and fudgy yet tender in the center, this cake tastes like a complex restaurant dessert, but comes together effortlessly in one bowl. Chocolate chips save you the messy step of chopping chocolate...
Author: Genevieve Ko
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
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
This moist and fragrant cake from Molly Wizenberg, the author of the popular food blog Orangette, calls for a whole orange and lemon, almonds and olive oil. It does require a little effort and the use...
Author: Mark Bittman and Sam Sifton
Adding preserved lemon juice to lemon curd is the brilliant brainchild of Samantha Kincaid, the pastry chef of the restaurant High Street on Hudson. It adds a complex brininess to what can be an overly...
Author: Melissa Clark
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 written, this recipe yields a modest amount of frosting,...
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 looks especially nice. Prepare the crystallized...
Author: Yotam Ottolenghi
Blotkake, layered spongecake covered with drifts of whipped cream and fruit, is a dessert that Norwegians are passionate and possessive about. It is a traditional sweet finish for any festive meal, whether...
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 summery Bundt packs a double dose of strawberry...
Author: Yossy Arefi
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
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 classic poundcake has a boozy twist that's perfect for parties, St. Patrick's Day and beyond. Irish cream liqueur - a rich blend of Irish whiskey, cream, sugar, vanilla and other flavorings - is added...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
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
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
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
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
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
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 and Everything in Between" by Donna Hay, may find...
Author: Margaux Laskey
Stella Parks developed this recipe for an all-butter triple-layer chocolate cake with a shockingly tender crumb and deep, fudgy flavor. The cake looks intimidating at first, but Ms. Parks's technique involves...
Author: Tejal Rao
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 cake slightly, since it makes for a gooier end...
Author: Erin Jeanne McDowell
Like a cross between bananas Foster and pineapple upside-down cake, this homey dessert is topped with caramelized banana slices and crunchy walnuts. Cooking the brown sugar in a skillet before adding the...
Author: Melissa Clark
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 the baking gods keeps you from ditching the mess...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
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 serve it for Passover, be sure to use kosher for...
Author: Joan Nathan
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 oven. Avoid using fresh mango pulp here: An enzyme...
Author: Nik Sharma
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
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
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
Moist, fudgy and homey, this easy cake is made in a standard-sized food processor (yes, the batter will fit) and adorned with mocha frosting.
Author: The New York Times
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, gâteaux St. Honoré and tens more desserts. The...
Author: Dorie Greenspan
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
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 of shredded coconut provides additional richness...
Author: Melissa Clark
German chocolate cake is an American classic, named after a chocolatier called Samuel German (as opposed to the European nation). Milder than devil's food cake, this chocolate cake has layers that are...
Author: Samantha Seneviratne
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 Virginia Willis, who put the recipe together, uses...
Author: Julia Moskin
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
Chocolate lovers will enjoy this festive, spirited cake from Maida Heatter, the cookbook author and pastry chef. Rich with chocolate, coffee and bourbon (a full half cup!), it makes for a decadent dessert...
Author: Moira Hodgson
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
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 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
If you think you don't need another Bundt cake recipe, this one exists to prove you wrong. Adapted from Nell Lewis of Platte City, Mo., who entered the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in 1963, it is a favorite...
Author: Margaux Laskey
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 a nubbly texture that is tastier than that of your...
Author: Yossy Arefi
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
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 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
This buttery, chamomile tea-scented loaf is a sweet pop symphony, the Abba of cakes. A pot of flowery, just-brewed chamomile isn't required for drinking with slices of this tender loaf but is strongly...
Author: Eric Kim
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 (dyed yellow frosting and a black cat of...
Author: Sara Bonisteel
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
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