Baking

If you manage to have any leftovers, this moist spice cake makes a nice afternoon treat with a cup of tea. For an extra-tart garnish, serve with Citrus-Cranberry Compote .

Based on a dessert that Lo serves at Annisa, this custardy bread pudding is shot through with poppy seeds for a stunning visual and textural effect. The bread soaks overnight; begin 1 day ahead.

One slice of this classic dessert can pack 480 calories, 22 grams fat and 35 g sugar. (No, that's not á la mode.) Crust in time for the holidays.

This classic Cajun cake uses Steen's cane syrup, a deep caramel sweetener of reduced sugar cane. Look for it at better supermarkets, at specialty foods stores, and at steensyrup.com.

The trick to making great challah is to add just enough eggs and oil to the dough so that it tastes rich and moist without becoming heavy and sticky. My friend Kathy Cohen gets it exactly right—her bread, stuffed with apples, raisins, and cinnamon, is the highlight of her annual Jewish New Year feast. For years, I'd count the days between slices, until I finally decided to ask for the recipe. Apple Notes: There aren't a lot of apples in this bread, so you want a variety that really stands out. Therefore, green firm-tart apples, such as Granny Smith and Rhode Island Greening, are the perfect choice here. Equipment: 2 large baking sheets, rimmed or unrimmed

Chocolate Cake with fluffy Marshmallow Frosting is a fabulous birthday treat for children and adults alike. To make a layer cake, simply double the recipe below and use two cake pans.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. King Arthur's white whole-wheat flour is preferable for these yummies. Use festive sprinkles on them if baking them for the holidays.

This rich, sweet dessert is almost candylike, though still nourishing with a decent dose of high-protein pecans and almond flour.

Nothing satiates the sentient like the gooey, almost raw central mass of a freshly baked sweet roll. As true seekers of new ways to sedate each other with homebaked carbs, we flipped the Cinnabon on its noggin' one New Year's Day and whipped up what has become our favorite recipe for savory rolls. Take everything sweet about a cinnamon roll and invert it: soft sweet bread becomes tart and savory, gooey brown-sugar butter morphs into salty caramelized shallot goo, and frosting slumps into melted aged cheese. Yeah this will take a few hours to a day … but it will hurt your friends and lovers in the most wonderful way.

There's a special place in the lexicon of American layer cakes for the classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It's practically the standard for birthdays and anniversaries, so it was my top choice when creating a cake to celebrate the first year of publication of Gourmet Live. And if ever there was a version that will elicit either a string of excited OMG's or the low-humming purr of rapturous mmmm's, this is it. Tender, buttery cake layers sandwich a creamy frosting so light and airy it's as if you're nibbling a chocolate cloud. (No offense to dense, fudgy ganache-style icings—of which I'm also very fond—but they don't lend themselves to the kind of exuberant flourishes and swirls of frosting that convey the excitement of a first birthday.) Even a strong-willed soul won't be able to resist a second slice.

For the softest dough, use a potato ricer or simply mash the potatoes until smooth.

These little citrus-scented cakes cook in just 10 minutes, which means that if you prepare the batter ahead of time and bake them right after the table is cleared, you can serve them warm for an extra-special touch. They're especially delicious dipped into Ginger-Yogurt Mousse with Pistachio Meringue .

To encourage the soufflé to climb up the sides of the dish, grease the dish with butter and sprinkle it with sugar. The sugar prevents the soufflé from sticking to the sides.

Falkner's over-the-top homage to the patron saint of French pastry features a crunchy puff pastry foundation, ringed walls of caramel-filled cream puffs, and a rich chocolate cream center. To serve, cut it into small slices, or, better yet, encourage your guests to gather around with knives and forks and dig in.

This buttery yet crisp New England cracker is a close cousin of the oyster cracker. Here's our delicious version.

These ethereal, savory puffs are easily frozen and reheated. Serve half the yield from this recipe at the party, and save the rest for another time. Feel free to mix and match any semisoft melting cheese such as Gruyère, cheddar, or Fontina with any hard cheese such as Asiago, Parmesan, or Manchego.

It's best to make and assemble this stunning layer cake at least one day in advance to let the chocolate, nut, and brandy flavors meld.

Four ingredients never tasted so good! Vanilla ice cream makes a great fifth.

If you’re only going to make one pot pie from scratch in your life, this is the recipe to use.