Cake Flour

Pumpkin and apricot are a winning combination in this cake; it's topped with a spiced cream cheese frosting. For decoration, place several dried apricots between sheets of plastic wrap, and using a rolling pin, roll to flatten. With scissors, cut out leaf shapes from the apricots, and arrange them on top of the cake.

Cake-making equipment and ingredients can be found at cake and candy supply stores. Be sure to use cake flour, not all purpose flour, and begin preparing the cake two days ahead. Buy one 1-ounce bottle of gel base color in the shade called Bakers Rose to tint both the frosting and the fondant a pale pink. Plastic drinking straws are used to support the middle and top tiers. Buy the straight—not bendable—kind.

If time is short, omit the streusel topping.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. These tender biscuits are especially light when made with cake flour.

Only 1/3 cup of flour is used in this recipe, so the cake has a deliciously dense texture.

If you think novelists do research only in libraries, think again. Culinary mystery writer Diane Mott Davidson has a different approach: She caters. Far-fetched? Not when your perennial protagonist is one Goldy Schulz, a caterer who has cooked her way through such delicious mysteries as Dying for Chocolate and Killer Pancake, stories that include the author's own enticing recipes and mentions of cranberry and orange, both significant flavors in her comfort-dessert memory file. "My husband was in the Navy and was often away at sea, so there was little opportunity to cook," she says. "One day I was with some Navy wives, and somebody set out a cranberry-orange bread. I raved about it. Not long after that, I drove to Norfolk to meet my husband's ship, and stayed with the woman who had baked the bread. While I was there, she slipped another loaf of it into my suitcase. It was the nicest thing anybody could have done." Prepare the cranberry glaze for this lovely orange layer cake a day ahead to allow it to firm up and chill. And consider presenting the finished cake as a gift; you're sure to make someone's day.

This recipe yields an extra cake layer that can be reserved for another time. Wrap it tightly in foil, and freeze it for up to a month. Keeping the cake wrapped, defrost it at room temperature; then serve it with berries and whipped cream or ice cream.

Mango sauce enhanced with crystallized ginger complements this delicious low-fat cake.

This simple white cake has a lemon curd filling and glaze. Big cakes like this are typical special-occasion desserts in the South.

Vary this yellow cake according to your mood and what's available. For instance, add sliced and lightly sugared fruit on the top of the unbaked batter, or top it with crushed nuts before baking, or split the baked and cooled cake to spread it with a layer of preserves, then dust it with powdered sugar.