Electric Mixer

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The German plum harvest is celebrated every year with a festival in Bühl in the southwestern part of the country. In this simple German dessert, cake batter is covered with wedges of fall plums; a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar bakes into a crunchy topping.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

In this recipe, applesauce is used instead of butter to cut back on the fat.

Because the torte is so rich, a small piece really satisfies. Start preparing this the day before you plan to serve it.

Named for the famous resort island in the Bay of Naples, this chocolate nut cake is one of Italy's few chocolate desserts. It's a specialty of all the fancy pastry shops in Chiaia, the district of Naples closest to the dock where the ferries leave for Capri. The cake is often decorated with a stencil of the island and of a solitary palm tree.

This cake, also called fraisier (French for "strawberry plant"), is usually made with almonds, but pistachios are used in this rendition. The delicate cake is layered with fresh strawberries and a mousselike white chocolate buttercream and then topped with marzipan.

There's an extra hit of flavor from crystallized ginger in this scrumptious layer cake.

Chocolate ganache and hazelnut cream are encased in a tender nut cake.

Wonderful sugar cookies with the crunch of poppy seeds and a luscious lemon cream cheese filling. Assemble them shortly before serving to keep them crisp. If you like, you can always skip the filling and serve the cookies on their own.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A remarkably easy dessert that doesn't even require an ice cream maker.

Festive pipe cookies spread with minted white chocolate and coated with dark chocolate. Great for after dinner.

This recipe yields 2 regular-size loaves or 5 mini-loaves. When we tested the smaller loaves (which innkeeper Debby Hayden prefers), we used disposable 6- x 3- x 2-inch loaf pans—sometimes called baby loaf pans—and baked the bread for about 45 minutes instead of 1 hour.