Simple Cooking

This recipe makes two kinds of mousse: bittersweet chocolate and milk chocolate.

Purchase high-quality pistachios, and pick through the nuts for the greenest ones. After roasting, rub the nuts between your palms to eliminate as much of the brown skin as possible.

This cake is best when served the day it is made. You can bake the cake in the morning and finish it later in the day. It can stand in a cool place for about 3 hours before serving. Marrons glacés (whole candied chestnuts) are available in specialty food stores.

Coating the muffin tins with butter and sugar gives these little chocolate cakes sparkle and a bit of crunch.

The most time-consuming step is making the coconut curls; in a pinch, you can use store-bought shaved coconut.

For Valentine’s Day, bake the layers in two 9-inch heart-shaped cake pans.

Draining the rhubarb keeps the cake from becoming soggy.

The fluffy exterior of this cake conceals a delicious pink filling, made simply by combining some of the frosting with raspberry jam.

This cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

This ganache thickens as it sits. The ganache used for the Inside-Out German Chocolate Torte and in step 7 of the Belgian Chocolate Birthday Cake (page 507) should be pourable but thick enough to fully coat the cakes.

The chocolate glaze takes time to cool; have it ready before assembling the torte. This ganache thickens as it sits. The ganache used for the Inside-Out German Chocolate Torte and in step 7 of the Belgian Chocolate Birthday Cake (page 507) should be pourable but thick enough to fully coat the cakes.