Cake

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.

Begin preparing the dessert a day ahead.

While the cheesecake has been around for centuries, it was perfected in the 1920s by New York delicatessens. It first appeared at Arnold Reuben’s eponymous restaurant on East 58th Street and soon was featured at Lindy’s on Times Square and at Junior’s in Brooklyn. Marmalade tops this luscious cake; it also has citrus peel in the filling.

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 pull-out-all-the-stops cake for special occasions may be prepared in steps in advance and glazes on the day it is to be served.

Cups of steaming cappuccino inspired this chocolate cake accented with cinnamon and coffee. It's a perfect dessert for any birthday celebration. The velvety cake is easily cut into layers, each of which will hold a generous quantity of frosting.

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.

This dense orange cake, drizzled with orange glaze, is always a favorite at the annual P-Patch harvest banquet.

The upside-down cake—so popular in the fifties and sixties—has been making a come-back lately. This version has a banana, walnut and maple topping, and tender cake.

Two layers of tender orange sponge cake are embellished with a rich orange and honey chocolate glaze. Any leftover chocolate glaze can be chilled, rolled into small rounds and kept refrigerated to serve as truffles with coffee or tea.