Raspberry

Here's a variation on the classic raspberry-jam-filled Viennese specialty, Linzertorte. Show off these cookies in a box that's lined with lace or a linen napkin, and trimmed with wire ribbon.

Many of the cake's components can be made a head, and once the tiers are filled and decorated, they can be refrigerated up to two days or frozen up to two weeks before the wedding. The rich, lemony cake has a dense texture like that of a pound cake. To prevent discoloration of the filling, use a saucepan with a nonreactive interior, such as enamel or stainless steel. (The lemon juice acid will adversely affect the filling if it's made in an unlined iron or aluminum saucepan.)

This recipe originally accompanied epi:recipeLink="101021"Pork Medallions with Mustard Cream Sauce</epi:recipeLink>.

A fresh and simple dessert that's quick to put together. The flavors develop better if it's made one day ahead.

Syllabub—a thick, frothy dessert made of wine, sugar and cream—originated in old England. This raspberry-topped version is served at Christiana Campbell's Tavern. Begin preparing it a day before serving.

Passion-Fruit Champagne Cocktail

For a light alternative to traditional Thanksgiving pies, tequila-poached pears (above) provide a southwestern twist. Popular in Mexico and Central and South America, prickly pear jelly is paired with raspberries for the sauce. Serve with the Lemon Bizcochitos and dessert wine, such as Muscat.

A milk pudding that dates back to the Middle Ages, syllabub was first prepared by milking the cow straight into a bowl containing "Sille," a wine that used to be made in Silléry, in France's Champagne region. "Bub" was medieval slang for a bubbly drink. There are a number of syllabub recipes in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Irish cookbooks. This modern version calls for a sweet dessert wine and whipping cream.

This is a cross between two English classics. The Bakewell tart, named after the town in Derbyshire where it was supposedly invented by accident in the nineteenth century, is a layered jam, custard and almond treat. Burnt cream is the English cousin and forerunner of the French crème brûée. It's also known as Trinity cream, since it is thought to have originated at Cambridge's Trinity College in the eighteenth century.

Purchased Mexican wedding cookies or any buttery nut cookie would be good with this dessert.

When ripe, fresh apricots have a velvety-soft deep golden skin with a faint blush and the most delicate flavor. When picked before maturity, the flavor is less than exciting but baking surprisingly intensifies the flavor even of the pallid ones, bringing them more toward the piquancy of dried apricots. Since baked aprictos are so vivid, I always bake them entirely open-faced in a pie. Glazing them with strained apricot preserves adds extra flavor and makes them glisten.

An easy substitute for the mascarpone, a soft Italian cream cheese, is 12 ounces cream cheese blended with six tablespoons whipping cream and 1/4 cup sour cream.

In this show-stopping dessert, moist chocolate cake is layered with a luxurious combination of rich chocolate glaze and raspberry whipped cream.

One of our food editors has made wedding cakes for family and friends and, in fact, made her own, based on the following recipe. The techniques involved are straightforward, although the endeavor takes a bit of planning, the proper equipment, and sufficient freezer and/or refrigerator space. Once you have all the components ready to go, allow 3 to 4 hours for assembling the cake, depending on your level of experience.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The classic Passover sponge cake transformed: Here it's layered with raspberry sauce, lemon custard and sliced bananas.

Pears are eaten widely in this part of the country, and Campari-based aperitivi begin many meals. Here the herb-based drink shows up after supper, adding its festive color and distinctive flavor to an easy-to-make pear dessert topped with a sauce incorporating Italy's famous mascarpone cheese. The pears are even better when accompanied by glasses of the Italian dessert wine Malvasia delle Lipari.