Cakes

Between exacting methods and complicated construction, baking a cake can be a daunting affair. A loaf cake, however, pairs the polish of a more elegant confection with the ease of a quick bread. A green-tinged, nut-topped version from a bakery in Paris inspired our take with ground pistachios and orange zest, made richer with Greek-style yogurt.

In Ireland and the UK, a flapjack is a baked bar, cooked in an oven tin and cut into rectangles, made from rolled oats, fat (typically butter), brown sugar and usually Golden syrup or honey. As well as being baked at home, they are widely available in shops, ready-packaged, often with extra ingredients such as chocolate, dried fruit, nuts, yoghurt and toffee pieces or coatings, either as individual servings or full unsliced trayfuls. They are usually an alternative to a biscuit (cookie) or cake, and textures range from soft and moist to dry and crisp.

Sweet potatoes and apples add moistness and natural sweetness to this simple cake. 

This cake is also delicious the day after it is baked. The spices meld and the texture gets even more like a steamed pudding.

This rustic cake gets a zing from a tangy lemon glaze. The sauce dresses up the cake for dessert (or brunch). 

Baking the cake in one 12-inch round pan creates a dessert with presence. Assorted edible flowers make an easy, great-looking garnish.

Who can resist bringing home an entire flat of ruby-colored strawberries fresh from the fields? Once cereal has been garnished, jams have been made, and the whole family has nibbled a few out of the bowl, you need a plan for the rest. Baking with strawberries is a great way to use up imperfect fruit. Fan sliced berries artistically in the bottom of a 9-inch layer cake pan. They’ll be the showpiece when the dessert is turned upside down after baking. Cool the cake before you do this. If it’s too hot, the juicy topping will slide off; too cold and it might stick.

Clafoutis is a shallow French cake, something like a large puffy pancake, traditionally baked with cherries. The batter takes minutes to whir in a blender. Here, Central Kitchen’s Gary Strack uses blackberries, but you can bake a clafoutis with any fruit in season. In the fall, try it with apples or pears.

When I was growing up, upside-down cakes were made with pineapple, usually from a can. To create something reminiscent of that, but with a bit more seasonality and sophistication, I thought of a pear upside-down cake. It may not be obvious to beginners, but an upside-down cake starts with fruit on the bottom and batter on top; when it’s done, you flip it out of the pan so the fruit is on the top.