Torte

Begin preparing this a day ahead.

At Valentino, pastry chef Michelle Robie cuts the cake into individual heart shapes and sometimes serves them with a blood orange sauce.

Loosely translated, tiramisù means "pick me up," and it has been picked up on practically every menu in America. Since the early eighties, it has been one of the most famous Italian-American desserts, and like spaghetti and meatballs, it is far more prevalent here than in Italy. Purchased angel food cake makes this especially easy.

This beautiful torte can be prepared three days before serving.

(Southern German and Alsatian Italian Plum Torte) This torte is served traditionally at the high holidays in early fall, when small blue Italian plums are in season. In southern Germany and Alsace the pie was made from zwetsche, a local variety of these plums. My aunt Lisl always used to make a murbeteig crust (a short-crust butter cookie dought) for this tart, and sliced each Italian plum into four crescent shapes. She lined the tart with breadcrumbs and then apricot preserves, which protected the dough during baking, leading to a crispy crust. She went light on the cinnamon, a spice she felt was overused in this country. (I agree with her.) My aunt's results, simple to prepare, were simply delicious.

Capri, Italy This decadent flourless chocolate and almond cake originated on the island of Capri, where it's called torta Caprese.

The crunchy honey-almond praline pieces in the ice cream are an easy, homemade version of turrón, a popular Spanish candy.

"I have prepared the plum torte from Marian Burros’s The Best of De Gustibus many times, and I’ve also tried variations using different kinds of fruit," says Peter Wayne Gagnon of Pineville, North Carolina. "My experiments helped me arrive at my own version of this dessert." Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 1 1/4 hr

A tweed cake gets its name from the classic wool fabric it resembles. The effect is achieved by folding coarsely grated chocolate into the batter before baking. If you can't find matzo cake meal, you can grind batches of regular matzo meal in a clean electric coffee/spice grinder until it's the consistency of flour.

You'll find halvah—Middle Eastern sesame seed candy—in the refrigerated deli case at the supermarket.

Perfect for celebrations, the elegant torte has a filling of strawberries and chocolate ganache, which is also used as the frosting.

This delicate cake can be prepared a day before serving. Try this easy orange sauce over ice cream, too.

You can make this up to three days ahead; be sure to start at least one day in advance.

The frozen berry sabayon is smooth and creamy, like ice cream.

This torte has a crisp top that shatters when cut and a fudgy tart cherry center.

The torte and compote are each great on their own, if you have time to make only one of them. A kosher-for-Passover sorbet would be nice with this dessert.