Baking

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Cake-making equipment and ingredients can be found at cake and candy supply stores. Be sure to use cake flour, not all purpose flour, and begin preparing the cake two days ahead. Buy one 1-ounce bottle of gel base color in the shade called Bakers Rose to tint both the frosting and the fondant a pale pink. Plastic drinking straws are used to support the middle and top tiers. Buy the straight—not bendable—kind.

Peanut butter cookies are an all-American classic, and the inclusion of honey, oats and chocolate chunks in this recipe makes for a terrific interpretation.

For the crispiest cookies, slice the dough no thicker than a half inch. The biscotti keep well and look great wrapped in tinted cellophane tied with a silk ribbon or raffia, or packed into pretty holiday bags.

This old-fashioned dessert separates into two delicious layers while baking - a moist sponge cake and a light custard.

Pumpkin is one of those tastes you either love or hate, so there is no point in half-measures. Its earthy flavor should not be overwhelmed by molasses or too much spice, particularly mace. If you’re a pumpkin lover, when you bite into a piece of pumpkin pie, you want to taste pumpkin. In this recipe, I cook the pumpkin and spices before baking, which makes for a more mellow and pleasing flavor. Puréeing the pumpkin in a food processor produces an unusually silky texture. The crunchy bottom crust is the result of creating a layer of gingersnaps and ground pecans to absorb any excess liquid from the filling, and also of baking the pie directly on the floor of the oven.

Active time: 1 1/4 hr Start to finish: 3 hr (includes cooling)

These cookies are absolutely delicious made with regular butter, but they become downright amazing with Plugrá or Land O Lakes Ultra Creamy.

The following recipe is adapted from one that the early Ohio Shakers made often. This lemon pie, a refreshing finish to a hearty meal, shows how the thrifty Shakers were unwilling to waste even the skin of a fruit that had to be purchased rather than grown in their gardens.

If mention of "pinto" brings to mind pink beans, think again this time: The following "pinto" bread pudding contains none of those beans beloved of chili fans but is named for the distinctive calico splotches that pattern the West's pinto pony.

Only half of the praline is used in the dessert; the rest will make a nice topping for ice cream, frozen yogurt or stewed fruit.

A light-textured baked apricot meringue.

These dessert packages are fun to make and a clever way to serve strudel. Try either tart dried cherries or the sweeter dried Bing - both available at specialty foods stores and most supermarkets.