Layer Cake

Root vegetables were often used to lend sweetness to eighteenth-century cakes and puddings. The carrot cake layers in this recipe are sandwiched with marmalade and iced with a cream cheese frosting.

Cream of coconut is added to the batter and the whipped cream frosting. You can make and chill the cake up to one day ahead.

Tall and beautiful, sweet and tart, this cake has lots of lemon flavor and plenty of style, too. It's the perfect finale for a St. Patrick's Day dinner or other special occasion.

For many Southerners the holidays wouldn't be the same without coconut cake. Because coconuts can be difficult nuts to crack — especially for cooks new to the task — we offer an easy method that involves baking the coconut briefly (which does not alter the coconut's flavor appreciably). If the coconut doesn't crack while in the oven, it will once force is applied.

A thick layer of pure white chocolate truffle separates the amaretto-brushed layers, and a bit more truffle filling is used to flavor the whipped cream icing.

Begin making this one day in advance. For best results, use a rich, premium ice cream, as it will freeze firmly.

You'll need two dozen lemon leaves or camellia leaves to make the chocolate decoration. If you don't have unsprayed leaves from your own or a friend's garden, get them from a florist.

Melissa Harden of Omaha, Nebraska, writes: "To celebrate our recent engagement, my fiancé and I spent a long weekend at the Mondrian in Los Angeles. Our stay was perfect, as was dinner at the hotel's Asia de Cuba restaurant, where I couldn't get enough of the rich Cuban Opera cake." A traditional Opera cake is made from very thin layers of cake, coffee buttercream, and coffee mousse — all covered with chocolate glaze. This version, which is perfect for a special occasion, is taller than your average Opera cake, owing to its thicker layers.

Buttermilk makes the cake tender, and cream cheese adds great texture to the frosting.

Here's a three-layer cake that makes a sensational finale to any meal.

This moist Christmas cake takes its cues from the flavors and spices found in the classic Lebkuchen cookie. It's brushed with an orange-scented honey syrup, frosted with a creamy white chocolate icing and then surrounded by sliced almonds.

Cake-making equipment and ingredients can be found at cake and candy supply stores. Be sure to use cake flour, not all purpose flour, and begin preparing the cake two days ahead. Buy one 1-ounce bottle of gel base color in the shade called Bakers Rose to tint both the frosting and the fondant a pale pink. Plastic drinking straws are used to support the middle and top tiers. Buy the straight—not bendable—kind.

This classic chocolate cake gets its unlikely moniker from its color--the same as the deep, rich soil that lines Old Man River. It's usually made in a single-layer rectangular baking pan, but we dressed ours up and fashioned it into a layer cake.