Cake

*Soy-free All I can say is TRUST ME. We use vegetables in other desserts (think carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie), so why not beets? No one would ever guess that the incredible moisture and beautiful color of this cake comes from an earthy root vegetable!

Akashah's tasty citrus torte is both gluten-free and a source of healthy unsaturated fat.

The alias for this cake might be "Extreme Chocolate." It is particularly rich and fudgy, calling for both bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder and topped with a glaze that is equally indulgent.

My son's teachers beg me to make this cake for his snack day at school. It isn't too sweet, and it has a moist, dense texture from the carrots and pineapple. It's also one of my most popular cakes at weddings and parties. When I make it at home, I throw more things into the batter—for example, a handful of pumpkin seeds or toasted pecans if I have them lying around. The beauty of this recipe is that you can increase the spices or omit the nuts, and it will still taste great.

Goldies, my organic twist on a Twinkie, have become one of my most notorious treats. I like to bake these with an easy chocolate cake (which just happens to be vegan) as a base, as it's the perfect partner to the sweet, creamy filling and dark, almost Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache . For a chic finish, I brush them with gold metallic dust. To give the Goldies their unique look, you will need specialty baking pans. These pans are commonly sold as éclair pans, but since éclairs went out of style two decades ago, you may have better luck ordering them (and the wrappers if you want) online through cooking-supply stores such as kitchenkrafts.com, sugarcraft.com, or cakedeco.com.

These cakes are delicate and golden, tasting subtly of vanilla with a faint hint of lemon.

Praline, a southern candy, forms the top of this showstopping cake.

Top these delicious bite-size cheesecakes with fresh raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and/or blueberries.

Simple, tender buttermilk cake with a sugary crunch: We like it full of raspberries, but you could substitute any berry you pick up at the farmers market.

An amazing mix of textures and flavors—nutty, sweet, salty, plus a touch of heat from the peppercorns.

Baking the cake in one 12-inch round pan creates a dessert with presence. Assorted edible flowers make an easy, great-looking garnish.

This luxurious treat is somewhere between a trifle, a tiramisù, and a summer pudding. The lime gives it a wonderful brightness.

This rich, delicate cake forms the basis for many filled, frosted, and glazed cakes. A good plain gênoise is hard to beat—it has an elegance that derives from its simplicity, and I even like them unadorned. Many recipes for gênoise add butter as an enrichment. Unfortunately, sometimes the extra manipulation the incorporation of the butter necessitates causes these light batters to fall. So I prefer to add a few extra egg yolks instead—they not only help enrich the cake, they also provide greater stability to the foam, ultimately making the batter easier to prepare. This recipe originally accompanied the Strawberry Roulade .

The fine, moist crumb of this cake makes it perfect for any type of filling or frosting.

This almost doesn't need a recipe because it is based on the classic proportions of a pound of each of the four main ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. I have played with the quantities a little bit so that the recipe doesn't make such a large cake. I like to flavor this type of pound cake with just a little vanilla—it keeps the flavor delicate and doesn't mask the lovely flavor of the butter. If you want more vividly flavored pound cake, try any of the variations.

This strawberry roll is elegant in appearance but less rich than a roll covered with whipped cream rather than the light meringue.

Editor's note: This recipe is adapted from Gabrielle Carbone, coproprietor of The Bent Spoon ice cream parlor in Princeton, New Jersey. This pretty, striped cake can be assembled either from freshly made sorbet and ice cream or from leftovers. If you make the components fresh, it's helpful to have more than one freezer bowl for your ice cream maker or a self-freezing machine. If you don't, remember that some models demand that you freeze the bowl overnight between batches. You can make the batches on successive days, packing each flavor into the pan as it's done, then freezing the pan and the bowl until you're ready to make the next batch. Try to keep everything that you use in the preparation of this cake — even your cake stand or serving plate — cold. This will help the cake look better longer, especially on a hot day. The simple, fresh flavors of the sorbets and ice cream don't need much embellishment, but crushed Newman's Own Organic O's (the organic take on Oreos) or chopped candied ginger make a nice addition and help separate the layers.

Editor's note: The recipe below is from Kimberly Kennedy's The Art and Craft of Entertaining. For Kennedy's baby shower tips click here.