Baking

Plums replace pineapple in a terrific rendition of a favorite dessert.

A savory onion-cheese spread turns ordinary packaged biscuit dough into inspired mini appetizer "pizzas."

Here's a flourless chocolate cake with a light, soufflé-like texture. Serve it with some coffee ice cream.

Perfect for the holiday season. Cranberries add tang to the filling of these colorful sandwich cookies. You will have some small unsandwiched cookies, too.

This almost flourless cake is easy to prepare.

Like the cake layers, the frosting is made in two separate batches; each batch yields about eight cups. Ivy is for decoration only; please remove ivy before cutting cakes.

"This was a Christmas teatime favorite when I cooked at castles in Scotland years ago," says Doon Fergusson-Howlett of Dublin, Ireland."My sister serves these as petits fours, and they are always highly praised."

Garnish with whole gingersnaps, cherries and mint for a beautiful presentation. Begin preparing the cake a day before the party.

This dessert, from The Cascades Restaurant, is made with a cookie crust and a brownie filling. The chef serves it with whipped cream, passion fruit sauce and raspberry sauce.

Homemade pizza is more accessible than you think, especially if you keep a supply of dough in the freezer, and a few topping ingredients on hand. If you make small pizzas ("pizzettas"), you can individualize the toppings, and satisfy the various tastes of everyone in you household without a whole lot of extra work.