Cake

Barm brack is a dark and fruity yeast-raised cake (barm means "yeast"; brack means "speckled"). Tea brack is the much more common baking powder version.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

Upside-down cakes made with fruit became popular in America only at the end of the nineteenth century, although they had a long history in Europe. The addition of pineapple, a New World food, most likely came about after 1903, the year a Hawaiian businessman named James Dole began marketing cans of the tropical fruit on the mainland. The modified dessert found particularly wide acceptance in the Midwest.

This luscious homespun treat is great with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Bright red berries and a sour cream topping make this luscious cheesecake a Christmas favorite at the Old Manor Estate & Hotel on Nevis. Begin preparing the dessert a day before you plan to serve it.

I line the buttered pans with buttered wax paper, then flour them, to make unmolding the cakes easy after baking.

Terrific when served with vanilla or coffee ice cream, and a very appealing breakfast or snack cake on its own.

Whole eggs, angel food cake, light cream cheese and light sour cream bring the calorie count of this Italian dessert way down.

Cakes resembling Yule logs are very popular at Christmastime in Canada and the United States. Though you'll see them in bakery windows elaborately decorated with marzipan woodland animals and meringue mushrooms, we went with a simpler but more elegant look. Active time: 1 1/4 hr Start to finish: 3 1/2 hr (includes making buttercream and brittle)

Seasonal fruits star in a lovely rustic dessert.

Begin preparing this a day before serving.

The streusel here is both a filling and a topping — for twice the crunch and flavor.

(GATEAU DE BEAUMES-DE-VENISE AUX RAISINS) Named after a town in the Vaucluse and the sweet, fortified wine produced there.

Taller, heavier-weight paper molds — typically used for individual panettone, the Italian holiday bread — are used instead of regular muffin papers to create a more elegant look. Vanilla and Almond Frosting is an accompaniment for this recipe.

Coffee cakes rank among the most popular of comfort foods, welcomed at breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and as the name indicates, coffee breaks. A coffee cake batter is generally more liquid than a quick bread one and contains a bit more sugar, and as a result, the final product is lighter and moister. On the other hand, coffee cakes tend to be less sweet than butter cakes. There are many versions of kuchen, this streusel-topped sour cream type being a very popular one. It is commonly served at the meal following Yom Kippur, or Shavuot, and on Sabbath afternoons or the melaveh malcha ("accompanying the queen") party following the Sabbath. For the later occasion, spices are added to the batter and topping, reflecting those used during the havdallah ceremony signaling the end of the Sabbath.

Prepare this cake a day ahead.