Cake

This is the most often requested recipe in my repertoire, and I've passed it on to many, many people. It appears so often on Bay Area menus (sometimes called Dave's ginger cake, which, I admit, amuses and flatters me) that I sometimes think I'm responsible for too much of a good thing. Then I order it, taste it, and decide not to worry: This simple cake is wonderful.

Here's a great idea for a summer dessert. To make preparation even easier, use your favorite cherry or pecan ice cream.

Almond "Pound Cake" Panque is apparently a phonetic spelling of "pound cake," though it really isn't very similar. The texture is somewhat more like a sponge cake. My recipe is an adaption of one by Mària Concepción Portillo de Carballido.

An impressive-looking layer cake with great flavor—and lots of room for candles.

Velvety frosting and tender cake make this dessert rich and indulgent enough for any special occasion, any time of year.

You might wonder why we freeze the chocolate filling for these charlottes before baking them. The coldness prevents the chocolate from overcooking in the oven.

Can be made in 45 minutes or less.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

We liked this particular recipe with Lindt or Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate, which is around 50 percent cocoa solids. We tested the ganache with chocolate containing a higher percentage, and found the flavor too intense and the consistency less velvety. Active time: 1 3/4 hr Start to finish: 5 hr

English Christmas "pudding" is really a dense, moist spiced cake. This gingerbread version is flavored with orange marmalade and topped with a traditional hard sauce — butter and sugar mixed with brandy.

Caffelatte is what Italians of all ages have for breakfast at home. For small children it is a cupful of warm milk lightly stained with coffee, the ratio of coffee to milk increasing with one's years. It is often accompanied by some store-bought biscuits, but not in my assistant Nadia's family. She lives on her father's farm outside Venice with her husband and small boy, and for her son Tommaso she bakes wholesome cakes with fresh fruit. He has some with his caffeelatte and takes another piece to school to eat for merenda, recess. I was particularly taken with the cake Nadia makes when there is no more summer fruit on the farm. She uses pears and apples and always adds a banana she buys in town. The proportions of one fruit to another may vary, and indeed Nadia says they always do, but nothing much can go wrong or affect the cake's plainspoken, engagingly fresh taste.

Jamie Davies and her late husband, Jack, were pioneers in the California wine industry. In 1965 they purchased and restored Schramsberg, a vineyard estate established in 1862, and they soon began producing the first American sparkling wine. When Davies thinks about comforting desserts, she remembers her childhood in Pasadena. "I was about eight when I started making upside-down cakes with my older sister, Dallas. We’d come home after school and mix up the recipe; I loved the sensual pleasure of making the batter. We'd put the cake in the oven, then go play croquet with our friends. Then we’d all come in and eat it up. We thought we had died and gone to heaven." The easy upside-downer here has wonderful spice flavors. Using canned pineapple chunks keeps the preparation simple.