Baking

A chocolaty version of a rich French gâteau called, aptly, a financier, this cake shows how ground nuts, melted chocolate, butter, and beaten egg whites can result in a deceptively light texture. An elegant dessert, it needs nothing more than a dusting of confectioners' sugar to finish it off.

Sophisticated and simple—even more so with the help of a purchased pie crust.

A delectable new take on the old-fashioned summer shortcake.

"Instead of staring at the ceiling one night when I was having trouble sleeping, I passed the time by baking," says Angelo Monaco of Cambridge, Massachusetts. "The result of my insomnia was this chocolate cake. It's light, moist and really delicious."

A show-stopper centerpiece cake for February fourteenth. White chocolate provides a rich, buttery texture. To serve, remove the chocolate lid and break it into pieces to nibble along with the cake.

Begin making this treat a day ahead.

The tartness of the cranberries is accented by the sweet, crunch meringue filling served at Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia.

Here's a luscious fall dessert.

Espresso, chocolate and orange star in a very rich, very elegant cheesecake.

Some classic Scandinavian flavors show up in this simple-to-make, cross-cultural pizza, made even easier by the use of frozen bread dough.

For years, pumpkins were planted in central-state cornfields to help the corn's roots cool in the summer. This pretty roll cake is an impressive alternative to classic pumpkin pie.

Early French gardeners developed the espalier method of growing fruit trees-the trees are trained to grow flat against a wall or trellis-so they could take full advantage of the sun and use small plots of land efficiently. October finds markets full of newly harvested crisp apples that add wonderful flavor to this traditional French tart.