Sara Foster's Southern Kitchen | Clarkson Potter, 2011 | Makes one 3-layer cake that serves 10 to 12

Surely, this most, pecan- and fruit-flecked cake must get its name from the sugary nectar upon which fluttering hummingbirds lunch. The namesake sweet is at least as popular among the birds’ Southern human counterparts. Indeed, it’s Southern Living’s all-time most requested recipe. This is my adaptation of the magazine’s classic rendition.–Sara Foster

LC Breakfast Stack Note: Let’s just be clear about one thing, shall we? Southerners know how to bake. To a faretheewell. As a happy consequence, this cake isn’t just tremendous to behold, it’s sweet almost beyond comprehension. It’s such an abundant stack of sweetness–and a stack of abundant sweetness–that skinny slivers seem sufficient for plating, which means it’s likely you’ll have a slice or three left to look froward to the following day. While we don’t know what transpires in your kitchen come morning, there’s never been a time when cake wasn’t welcome at our breakfast table.

Active time: 25 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, not including cooling

Hummingbird Cake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

Cook, Eat, Smile | Salt Yard Book Co., 2011 | Serves 8 to 12

This is an all-singing, whooped-up, somewhat-over-the-top, photo-opportunity cake that requires no cooking at all and can be assembled–because it is essentially an assembly job–by a five-year-old. Which is, after all, the point: that it has been, at least in some small way, prepared by the children.

You can use any shop-bought cake—maybe a Victorian sponge or a lemon drizzle cake. Here we’ve used a simple sponge cake that started out with jam in the middle and a dusting of icing sugar on top. Just make sure it’s a cake that isn’t iced or decorated, because that’s where the kids come in.

Smaller children may need a hand with some of this, but older ones can probably manage the whole lot. Let imaginations run riot with the decorations—use whatever the kids think is required. And yes, this could well mean we’re talking dog’s dinner, but it’s all in the spirit of the day, so bite your tongue on tasteful and go with the creative flow. If you’re supervising, all you should need to do is melt the chocolate…and manage the mayhem.–Bill Collison

LC Why Stop There? Note: Cookbook author—and, we suspect, dad–Bill Collison makes some savvy suggestions above when it comes to relying on a store-bought cake, understanding as he does the time constraints that go with parenting. lf you have the time and patience (and, if you’re under the age of 10, the adult supervision), we strongly encourage you to indulge in a made-from-scratch cake of any sort for this messy mom’s day surprise. Collison suggests a Victorian sponge or a lemon drizzle cake. And why stop short of chocolate? We think a chocolate cake or even a brownie could be lovely, too. If you don’t mind even more of a mess than what’s already in store, swap softened ice cream for whipped cream. Or heck, why not use both? And those “interesting edibles or decorating” called for in the ingredient list? Anything goes. We have our short list of items we’d fancy on a cake. Care to share yours?

Active time: 30 minutes | Total time: 30 minutes, barring perfectionism

Iced Berry Cake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

Tea with Bea | Ryland Peters & Small, 2011 | Serves 8 to 12

The frosting for this ever-popular red velvet cake recipe is very different from most other cream cheese frostings because it’s lightened with mascarpone and whipped cream. If you prefer a sturdier frosting, simply omit the whipped cream.–Bea Vo

LC Seeing Red Note: We’re not so into artificial coloring. We’re not trying to pass judgment or incite ire, mind you. We’re simply saying that if you’d prefer not to taint your red velvet creation with artificial tint, there’s an increasing array of natural food colorings nowadays. They still lend a rich hue, they just eschew multisyllabic ingredients and frighteningly numbered names like Red No. 40. Don’t worry, you’ll still be seeing red when you slice into this cake.

And if you wish to see quite a lot of red when you slice into your cake, rather than slicing a single cake into skinny layers that you plop on top of one another as this recipe suggests, bake an extra batch or two of red velvet goodness and stack each individual layer cake for the towering effect that you see in the photo above. Now THAT’S seeing red.

Active time: 45 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Red Velvet Cake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

Sugar, Sugar | Andrews McMeel, 2011 | Makes 1 layered cake

Catherine Watson fondly recalls her grandmother Luta Frierson Keith, who was born in 1892 and affectionately known as Ma-Ma. Everything Ma-Ma made was heavenly, but this cake was Catherine’s favorite. “Ma-Ma appeared at the door every Christmas morning wearing her wispy little hat, leather gloves, and that mink tail ‘thingie’ around her suit . . . you know the kind where the mouth opens and hooks to a tail? She carried this mile-high cake, looking just like one of the Wise Men!”

 Now Catherine carries on Ma-Ma’s tradition and makes Coconut Angel Food Cake every Christmas. “Tell me grandmothers don’t make major memories for the little ones,” Catherine reminisces. “I am over 60 and it’s as if it were yesterday.”–Kimberly “Momma” Reiner and Jenna Sanz-Agero

LC Any Way You Slice It… Note: Fancying up an angel food cake, to borrow a notion from the authors of this recipe, is as easy as slicing it horizontally into thirds, frosting each layer, stacking them atop one another, and lavishing the entire shebang with lofty swoops and swirls of icing. You can take fancying it up even more seriously by slipping some fresh berries or thinly sliced fruit between the layers. Conversely, if you’re in rather a hurry, simply leave the cake intact rather than creating layers, frost the top and sides of the cake in one fell swoop, and sprinkle with coconut. Any way you slice it, it’s food for angels, whether the occasion is Christmas, Easter, or just because.

Active time: 45 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 35 minutes, not including cooling

Coconut Angel Food Cake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

Canal House Cooking Vol., No. 7: La Dolce Vita | Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2012 | Serves 8

This tender ricotta cheesecake, sometimes referred to as a pudding (budino di ricotta), started out as a pancake. Food historian Clifford Wright notes that Sicilian Jews took their traditions of making and cooking with ricotta to Rome when they were expelled from Sicily in the fifteenth century and a version of this recipe came with them. You can still find this delicious dessert in Rome’s Jewish quarter in its simplest form—eggs, sugar, homemade ricotta and cinnamon. In our recipe, we separate the eggs and fold in the beaten whites, which makes the cake even more delicate.–Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hircheimer

LC Pretty and Puddinglike Note: This pretty, puddinglike cheesecake took us a little by surprise, being, well, prettier and more puddinglike than most. Not that we’re complaining. Besides, we find that a pretty darn good way to navigate life is to trust that when you encounter something that looks like cheesecake and tastes like cheesecake, chances are it’s cheesecake. And those cracks? Pshaw. This lovely creature is so light and airy, cracks are inevitable. Look at it this way: They add to the homemade quality of it all–if, that is, you made your own ricotta to grace the cake. Which you did, right? Right?

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, not including cooling

Ricotta Cheesecake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

The Butch Bakery Cookbook | Wiley, 2011 | Makes 12 jumbo or more regular cupcakes

There’s nothing like an ice-cold beer on a hot summer day or while you’re watching your favorite ball game. So we thought, why not make a cupcake with beer? We started with chocolate cake and then added our favorite stout to the mix. Next we frosted them with our pumped-up creamy vanilla frosting, again with lots of stout, and then topped them with crushed chocolate-covered pretzels. And on that day, a winning combination was born!

For a Virgin Beer Run, substitute your favorite soda for the beer. We like a cola or root beer the best.–David Arrick

LC The Right Time Note: There’s a time and place for everything, they say. There’s no better time and place for these than the present moment, we say.

Active time: 30 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

The Fearless Baker | Little, Brown & Company , 2011 | Makes 2 (9 x 2-inch) round cakes

This is my go-to cake. Get this recipe down and you can make variations so tasty no one will ever realize they all rely on the same basic recipe. Use it for cupcakes, as a layer cake with whipped cream and fruit, or with your favorite frosting. I’ve layered it with sautéed pears, roasted peaches, or crushed berries in the middle. I’ve filled it with coffee ice cream and poured chocolate glaze over the top.

There are so many ways to dress up this basic white cake, the combinations and uses are endless. Let me know what you end up doing with it. I’m sure you’ll come up with something original!–Emily Luchetti | Lisa Weiss

LC Not Your Basic White Cake Note: With apologies to the talented and lovely pastry chef Emily Luchetti, we beg to differ with her bold assertion that this recipe is a basic white cake. This is not your basic white cake. It is a cake. And it is white. But basic? Only if you mean “basic” in terms of simple and quintessential. But not basic. That just doesn’t seem to do justice to it. Perhaps she meant to say “best.”

Another thing we love about Luchetti? She doesn’t pretend to know which frosting we’ll be partial to on a particular day, instead trusting the home baker to rely on experience and preference when it comes to that momentous decision. [Editor’s Note: If you find yourself in need a suggestion, we’re partial to a billowy, whimsically named marshmallow frosting, also known as seven-minute frosting. Delicate yet sturdy, light as air yet luscious as can be, it boasts a sweet, sweet, sweetness that envelopes this cake to stunning effect.

Active time: 25 minutes | Total time: 45 minutes

Basic White Cake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

Tea with Bea | Ryland, Peters & Small, 2011 | Serves 8 to 12

This chocolate cake is vegan but we don’t tell people it is, and they love it. That’s how good it is.–Bea Vo

LC We’ll Second That… Note: We second the author’s sneaky sentiment about not telling people this chocolate indulgence is vegan, as it somehow makes it all the more gratifying when they go back for seconds. (And, uh, we also won’t divulge how long any remaining slices last after guests go home.)

Another lovely thing about this recipe? If you have no unsweetened soy milk in the house, you don’t necessarily need to run to the store or pass the recipe by. One of our trusted LC recipe testers, Natalie Reebel, smartly swapped soy for almond milk (regular almond milk, not the sweetened, flavored kind, notes another LC recipe tester, Sita Krishnaswamy) and found it to be a swell substitute given how “beautifully” the cake turned out. A word to the wise, though it may be tempting, don’t swap rice milk for soy, as it has a profoundly different consistency.

Active time: 20 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

Cooking in the Moment | Clarkson Potter, 2011 | Serves 8 to 10

Looks like an upside-down cake, doesn’t it? Fooled you. This right-side-up cake is far simpler, with no scary moment of reckoning–or wrecking, for that matter–as you attempt to invert both cake and sticky sweet topping. (By the way, “satsuma” may sound sort of exotic and conjure notions of samurai or visions of sumo wrestlers, but they’re actually cute little citrus that show up at grocery stores come cool weather. If you don’t see them at your store, tangerines, clementines, even smallish navel oranges will also work just dandy. All of these citrus share the traits you’re seeking for this cake: easy-to-peel thin skins, nary a seed, and diminutive segments.)–Renee Schettler Rossi

LC Peel Appeal Note: The most critical attribute of the citrus that you select for this recipe–whether satsumas, tangerines, clementines, or smallish navel oranges–isn’t the tartness of the segments so much as the thickness of the peel. The peel remains on the citrus during cooking, both to keep the lovely circles of segments intact and to impart a slight bitterness to offset the stunningly sweet glaze. The recipe calls for simmering the peel-on citrus slices in the glaze, which makes the rinds soft enough to be fork-friendly and sweet enough to be palate-pleasing. But we found that the precisely timed simmering works for thin-skinned citrus, such as clementines. Thicker-skinned citrus such as blood oranges or regular oranges just can’t be coaxed to play nicely in the time allowed, and simmering them a little longer brings somewhat bitter consequences, as the citrus segments tend to sag. One of our veteran recipe testers, Helen Doberstein, was so taken by this recipe–yet vexed by the thick peel situation–that she tinkered with the recipe until she had an aha! moment–nuking thicker citrus slices prior to simmering them. You’ll find all the essentials of her trusty trick in the recipe below.

One More Thing: The recipe calls for 1/3 cup of semolina flour, which lends a little texture to the cake. If you don’t have any on hand, you can simply substitute 1/3 cup all-purpose flour and no one will be the wiser.

Special Equipment: 9- or 10-inch springform pan

Active time: 30 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Satsuma Orange Cake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.

Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food | Ten Speed Press, 2011 | Serves 10

This rich chocolate sour cream Bundt cake is one of the all-time best-sellers from the Creamery. We use this recipe to make cakes of all different shapes and sizes, from cupcakes to tea cakes to ice cream cake bases. The cocoa powder gives the caek a more intense chocolatey flavor. Be sure to use a high-quality cocoa powder; it makes a huge difference in the final product.

This bullet-proof recipe translates easily to the home kitchen. Unlike many cakes, this one is mixed entirely by hand. No electric mixer needed. And the cake stays most for days.–Sam Mogannam and Dabney Gough

LC Moan of Unabashed Glee Note: Easy. Failproof. Decadent. That’s all we’ve got time to share. We gotta go get us another slice of this cake–and moan in unabashed glee–before it’s gone.

Special Equipment: 10- or 12-cup Bundt pan

Active time: 25 minutes | Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes, not including cooling

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake Recipe

Directions

Want it? Click it.