We beg to differ with whomever named this fetching creation. Sure it’s white and a cake, but don’t mistake basic for ordinary. Maybe she meant to say best.

Find yourself a little melancholy at the impending end of citrus season? Extend the ephemeral with these puckery–and perfect–preserves.

Whether your knack for cookie-decorating leans toward fancy schmancy or basic buttons on gingerbread people, you need a foolproof royal icing. Look no more.

This all-butter, no-fuss pastry crust comes together with ease and flakiness thanks to a little well-worded hand-holding that caters to pastry-making virgins.

An all-purpose white sauce that melds rich, creamy, and nutmeg-y, béchamel is nothing but milk, butter, flour, salt, pepper, and a pinch of spice. Simple, yes?

Perfect for lazy weekends as well as harried weekdays, these soft-boiled eggs with toast and a smidgen of butter take less than five minutes. You’re welcome.

Not your everyday vinaigrette, this one pushes the amount of balsamic to epic proportions—to great effect. Drizzle with impunity to lend anything oomph.

Drizzle, douse, souse, or otherwise acquaint this emerald elixir with anything you please, whether steak, chicken, chops, seafood, tofu, even a slice of white pizza…

Tastes just like what they slide in front of you at trattorias in Italy, with someone’s nonna in back rolling out sheets of fresh pasta, upper arms jiggling.

As the title promises, this recipe is simple. Maybe even beyond simple. Even so, this seasonal must tastes like summer in a can.

The name of this sweet and sturdy pie crust is French for “so much better than your silly American pastry dough.” Though we’ll let you be the judge of that.

This classic mac n cheese melds Cheddar and butter and milk, oh my, before being baked to bubbling, crumb-topped, ridiculously indulgent goodness.

This quickie hollandaise has all the luxuriant loveliness of the classic sauce yet comes together in just five minutes. Ideal for entertaining. Or the unabashedly lazy.

We know. Qe know. You already have an egg salad sandwich recipe. But trust us, it’s nothing like this one. Whoppingly old school in taste, blissfully healthful in actuality.

From the cooking icon Edna Lewis, this light, airy spoon bread whispers, in that inimitable Southern way, to be included on tables everywhere. Even in the North.

Hard-boiled eggs are a staple in kitchen. But, oddly, many cooks find it hard to make them. Here’s a simple foolproof way to cook eggs worthy of the cover of a food magazine.

Named for the time it takes to be beaten into delicious submission, seven minute frosting is delicate yet sturdy, light as air yet luscious as can be.

Equal parts grassy, nutty, and sweet, these tender spears buried in Parmesan may make converts out of even the most reticent veggie eaters.

Mmmmm…doughnuts. Ethereally fluffy, wonderfully drippy, sweetly glazed doughnuts. What are you waiting for? Go make some.

This crust recipe from Flour Bakery in Boston is simple to make, buttery beyond belief, and is the perfect pal for rich fillings, as with the Milky Way Tart.