820 pasty recipes

Double death by chocolate bundt cake built from a chocolate cake mix doctored with chocolate pudding, sour cream, and a full bag of chocolate chips. A no-fail rich chocolate bundt for parties and potlucks.

Flourless chestnut and pecan torte with a bourbon-coffee-chocolate filling, bittersweet chocolate ganache icing, and bourbon chantilly cream. Rich, nutty, and deeply warming. The kind of torte that ends a dinner party with a standing ovation.

This is an authentic family recipe that my mother taught me in 1950 in New Orleans. It makes a great dinner party main dish. Like chinese food, it is long on chopping and assembling, but goes together and cooks rather quickly.

Parkin is a variety of gingerbread, good warming stuff to eat out of doors in cold weather. When I was a child, it was always a firm favourite for the firework party on Bonfire Night each year. This is adapted from my mother's recipe.