Baking

To get a neater slice, chill the bars first.

The honey makes these delicate cookies light and crisp. Offer them with Vin Santo (an Italian dessert wine made from dried Malvasia and Trebbiano grapes), cream Sherry, Port or Sauternes.

A new look for Australia's favorite dessert -- this recipe from Martin Webb, chef at Georges in Melbourne can be prepared a day or two ahead, leaving only the brief final assembly to be done before serving.

Pear and Dried Cherry Frangipane Cake Recipe

In this pie, dried cherries, cherry preserves and fragrant spices accent crisp green apples.

This cake is a southern tradition for festive occasions. It can be completely assembled and chilled one day before serving.

We like to serve these with href=">Lemon Curd for dipping.

Caffelatte is what Italians of all ages have for breakfast at home. For small children it is a cupful of warm milk lightly stained with coffee, the ratio of coffee to milk increasing with one's years. It is often accompanied by some store-bought biscuits, but not in my assistant Nadia's family. She lives on her father's farm outside Venice with her husband and small boy, and for her son Tommaso she bakes wholesome cakes with fresh fruit. He has some with his caffeelatte and takes another piece to school to eat for merenda, recess. I was particularly taken with the cake Nadia makes when there is no more summer fruit on the farm. She uses pears and apples and always adds a banana she buys in town. The proportions of one fruit to another may vary, and indeed Nadia says they always do, but nothing much can go wrong or affect the cake's plainspoken, engagingly fresh taste.

Bake this at least one day ahead.

Be sure to save a few of these buttery biscuits for mini ham sandwiches the next day.

The torte and compote are each great on their own, if you have time to make only one of them. A kosher-for-Passover sorbet would be nice with this dessert.

The pleasingly chewy biscotti are coated on one end with white chocolate. In our test kitchen, imported white chocolate, such as Perugina or Lindt, yielded the best results.

Speculoos, a specialty of Belgium in which flat gingerbread cakes are cut into different shapes, are the inspiration for this recipe. Similar cookies called speculaas are made in Holland, Germany and Austria. These are decorated with melted white chocolate and some pretty red sugar.

(Apricot Almond Cake) Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.