Electric Mixer

We're taking the highway to French elegance with these stacked desserts. Unsweetened whipped cream is a wonderful foil for gooey caramelized pears and flaky puff pastry.

These muffins are inspired by a favorite dessert: sticky toffee pudding. But they are revamped for breakfast and renamed with hope that as you present your beloved with a plate of these, you'll be invited to open your Filofax and check on next Friday night.

Marble cakes are both homey and festive. A marble cake looks slick when you slice into it and reveal the delicate pattern created when the two batters are swirled together. My first experience working with this type of mixture came about as the result of a marbled chocolate terrine that appeared first in the pages of the old Cook's Magazine, and then in my chocolate book. Everything about it was right—the texture, the flavor, the quantity of mixture in relation to the mold—everything, that is, except the marbling. Even when I barely mixed the white and dark chocolate mixtures, what I got was a few streaks of dark and white, and mostly a muddy combined color. After several frustrating attempts, I realized that I had too much dark chocolate mixture and I recast the recipe so there was twice as much white chocolate as dark and the terrine marbled perfectly. So this marble cake is proportioned in the same way: Rather than dividing the base batter in half, I like to remove about one third of it and add the chocolate. Thanks to my old friend Ceri Hadda, who shared her mother's recipe years ago.

Inspired by a dessert served at Le Bistro Paul Bert, in Paris, we used Indian spices to restyle this elegant classic custard. It takes its French name ("eggs in the snow") from the lightly poached dollops of meringue that top it.

A pretty centerpiece dessert that's a cross between a trifle and tiramisù. To give the flavors time to meld, you’ll need to put the trifle together at least one day ahead, but it tastes best when made two days ahead. Any leftover praline would be terrific sprinkled over ice cream.

In this fun take on pumpkin pie, a little whisky really puts the "Scotch" in butterscotch.

Purchased vanilla ice cream, pumpkin, and four different spices make up the delicious pie filling.

Forget marshmallows with the yams this year. Instead, use them to make the topping for this cheesecake. Because the cheesecake needs to chill overnight, be sure to begin one day ahead.

In an intriguing play on the combination of chocolate and chiles, this rich mousse gets its faint tingle from Sichuan peppercorns.

An incredible frozen treat that doesn't require an ice cream maker. Serve with crisp butter cookies.

A homespun look meets exotic flavor.

Ladyfingers may play only a supporting role in charlottes, but these delicate, small spongecakes are well worth perfecting. Folding in the egg whites requires a light but confident hand. Also, be careful not to overbake. Gaston LeNôtre's son Alain warns: "Thirty seconds too long, and it could be too late."

Fresh ginger and pear infuse a robust old-world favorite with newfound vibrancy.

Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted with permission from Cakes for Kids, by Matthew Mead. Use this recipe to make Mead's Jack-O'-Lantern cake. This frosting has a thick consistency that is easy to work with—you can contour it or add texture to it. Also, you can patch it if it becomes marred while you're arranging a cake. The recipe makes enough frosting to cover the tops and sides of two 8-inch or 9-inch cake layers. For a single-layer 9 x 13-inch cake, make just half the recipe. Shortening has a simpler taste then butter, with a melting point of 106°F. Butter melts somewhere between 88°F and 98°F, depending on the amount of fat in the brand. You can see that if you need to serve a pure buttercream-decorated cake on a hot day, you could have melted decorations and a less than desirable cake. Shortening yields a soft but durable frosting that can be molded with your hands.

Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted with permission from Cakes for Kids, by Matthew Mead. You'll need to make two batches of this frosting to create Mead's Host of Ghosts . This frosting is perishable, so make it the day you plan to serve the cake and refrigerate any leftovers after the party. The recipe makes enough frosting to cover the tops and sides of two 8-inch or 9-inch cake layers or one 10-inch tube cake, with some extra.