Cake Flour

This cake, bursting with berries, is perfect for a picnic. Dress it up for company with unsweetened whipped cream and a simple vanilla custard sauce.

(Brutti-boni) Brutti ma buoni (which means "ugly but pretty") are cookies found in many regions of Italy, usually made from finely ground almonds in a meringue base. But the Mattei bakery, in Prato, makes them in typical Tuscan style, which is quite different. The egg whites are only beaten lightly, and the nuts are coarsely ground. They are known in the Tuscan dialect as brutti-boni.

The coffee foam attains its consistency with the help of a charged siphon. If you don't own one, don't worry—the coffee mixture can also be served, chilled but unfoamed, as a sauce. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

Maple syrup isn't exclusive to New England; Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin produce it, too. And walnuts — a perfect partner for maple syrup — are harvested throughout Missouri. The sweet syrup and crunchy nuts team up here in an old-fashioned pound cake.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Here's a fine-textured cake with a luxurious cream cheese and whipped cream frosting.

The trick to a successful pastry dough is to handle it as little as possible and to keep it cool. For 2 pies, you will need to make 2 batches of pastry dough (do not double the recipe).

The key to this crisp, flaky pastry is to handle the dough as little as possible and to keep it cool.

The cider sauce adds an extra spark of ginger to this old-fashioned cake.

Californian Harry Baker invented the chiffon cake in 1927, but he kept the recipe a tightly guarded secret for another 20 years. He finally relented and sold his formula to General Mills. The mystery ingredient? Vegetable oil, which gave the cake richness and a light, moist texture. We spike this one with all the flavors of a Margarita cocktail; the Strawberry Compote with Tequila and Lime is an elegant touch.

I have written about my favorite cake recipe — the Tre, Tre, Tre Cake — for Epicurious. Recently, with a rather empty larder and company coming for dinner, I played around with that recipe and came up with this delicious dessert, which I named Anarchy Cake, because with recipes, as with so many things, Italians are basically anarchists.

Adding Beaumes-de-Venise — a delicate, fruity dessert wine — keeps this cake moist and adds a whole new dimension to its flavor. Combining blackberries with blackberry preserves for the topping brings out the best in the berries, whether they’re tart or sweet. Active time: 40 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

"My cousin and I had a delicious chocolate cake at Watershed, a restaurant in nearby Decatur," writes Joyce Jue of Atlanta, Georgia. "I'd appreciate your getting the recipe so I can learn to make it."

Sweet potatoes make this moist; cranberries and walnuts add texture and color.

Pastel des Tres Leches con Rompope This special-occasion cake from the state of Sinaloa is spiked with rompope, a rich Mexican eggnog liqueur. It is heated with the tres leches until the mixture is reduced to a syrup that is poured over the hot cake.