Lemon

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less but requires additional sitting time.

If you don't have the pastry rings we call for in this recipe, you can use 1/2-cup muffin cups. However, the batter will fill 6 muffin cups, making smaller cakes.

Extra-virgin olive oil is the the secret ingredient in this moist, dense, lightly sweet cake. Perfect as an afternoon snack or for breakfast with a cup of fluffy cappuccino.

You can use Meyer lemons in this cake for a lighter, more floral flavor.

This Franco-American combination of bourbon and bubbles gives you another reason to be thankful. It doubles easily to accommodate the number of guests around your holiday table.

This tart has a looser texture than typical lemon tarts. Chill overnight before serving.

This delicious salad is from Johannes.

"To celebrate my recent promotion, my sister treated me to dinner at Radius here in Boston," says Jill Thompson, Boston, Massachusetts. The dessert we shared was unforgettable—a hazelnut meringue concoction made by pastry chef Paul Connors. As we polished it off, my sister and I agreed that we had found the city’s best new restaurant." Each component can be made ahead.

Fresh kernels of raw corn are so sweet and tender that they don't need to be cooked. Their natural sugars and crisp juiciness pair wonderfully with the salty Parmesan and peppery arugula.

This salad was inspired by one we had in Rome that was made with Stracchino cheese, but we've used mascarpone, which makes an admirable and accessible substitute. (Stracchino, a springtime cheese, is difficult to find here, even in season.) Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 25 min

These toasts are also delicious without the foie gras or with a slice of country pâté substituted for the foie gras.

Carrot Torte This cake is from the Veneto region in northern Italy. Use the sweetest, most flavorful organic carrots you can find—otherwise it will be a big "so what."

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A pretty pink dessert that is refreshing and light. Plums with dark purple skin or flesh will give the sherbet beautiful color. Serve a pot of green tea alongside.

Having run the cake table at my daughter's school last year, I can say that there are two types of optimum bake sale fare: small, individual pieces that look cute and fetch high unit-prices and sheet cakes that can be made without effort or dexterity and sliced up easily. This recipe fits the latter category and has the added virtue of appealing to parents and grandparents who feel that something from the sale should be gratifyingly old-fashioned. The fresh ginger is a modern touch, admittedly, but I always keep some in the fridge and wanted to try it in a less contemporary, pan-Asian way one day (it worked.) The lemon icing may not be conventional either, but there is another starkly practical reason for it: brown things — if they're not gooily chocolate — don't sell so well; and the lemon spruceness of the topping is perfect with the musky sweetness beneath it.