Baking

This moist Christmas cake takes its cues from the flavors and spices found in the classic Lebkuchen cookie. It's brushed with an orange-scented honey syrup, frosted with a creamy white chocolate icing and then surrounded by sliced almonds.

The graham cracker crunch topping is delicious on its own, but combined with ripe peaches, cinnamon syrup and ice cream, it makes for positively addictive sundaes.

Rich chocolate cookies get some Mexican flair when spiced up with cinnamon, cloves and cayenne pepper. Blanched almonds or pistachios can be used instead of cherries.

Enjoy this dessert at room temperature if you like a creamy texture similar to that of a soufflé, or serve the cake cold if you prefer a dense, fudgey texture.

Pumpkin pies have long been favored in New England; there is a recipe for a "pompkin" pie in Amelia Simmons's 1796 American Cookery. New England colonists, in spite of their puritanical reputation, were known to enjoy a tot of rum now and then. And if the liquor was hidden in a pie, even the ladies were able to indulge.

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.