Cakes

Sweetly tart cranberries make an unexpected yet inspired match for this rich, creamy, vanilla-inflected, perfect-for-fall cheesecake. Bye bye, pumpkin pie.

Quick bread. Tea cake. Spice bread. Whatever you call it, this recipe has pedigree--and you don't need to know its geneology to know this. One taste tells all.

"This was beyond the best carrot cake I have ever had." That's what we're hearing about this cake, which ingeniously relies on puréed, rather than grated, carrots.

Chock-full of crunchy nuts and moist dried fruit, this cake is a taste sensation. May we suggest a choice of apricots, plums, pears, or peaches?

Part bread, part cake, kugelhopf is made like brioche except it's studded with raisins, brushed with butter, and dusted with sugar.

Sweet-tart lemon infuses this soft pudding cake. On top is a sweet vanilla whipped cream. Lovely any time of year.

This dreamy and creamy alternative to pumpkin pie has won us over. We think it'll woo you, too.

What's with the thankfulness, you ask? For starters, this sleek, sophisticated, tender-crumbed cake smothered in butterscotch and stacked to the heavens.

An exceptionally, deeply chocolate dessert that feels light and cool. It makes an elegant finish on a warm summer night.

These chocolate-y devil's food cupcakes boast a creamy cheesecake-y addition. You may never go back to plain chocolate.

This classic French dessert is an eggy cake that's studded with currant, soaked with a vanilla-rum sauce and brushed with an apricot glaze.

What makes this apple cake so incredibly moist that it stands out from the rest? Lots of things, including a lovely swirl of cream poured on top of the batter and baked right in.

Easy enough for everyday yet sufficiently elegant for anytime you need a little oomph, this honey-inflected walnut cake never disappoints. Ever.

Decadent is the only way to describe these cupcakes. The rich, mocha cake is filled with even richer chocolate cream, then topped with white chocolate frosting.

This lofty cake is so crammed full of chocolate and butter and air, there's no room for flour--although we made sure to leave space for ample swoops of softly whipped cream.

Know when you taste something and can't help but pause and sigh with content? This subtly sweet lemon cake does that to us each and every darn time.

Sonhos--Portuguese for "dreams"--is an apt name for Portugal's dreamy doughnuts that are as easy to make as they are to eat.

Sometimes called a volcano cake, this much ballyhooed molten dessert is, quite literally, bursting--er, oozing--with chocolate.

Light, airy, lofty, tender, and lovely, this classic chiffon cake from the venerable Joy of Cooking deserves a comeback.