One of the nice things about the holidays is that friends and family drop by for visits, so it’s great to have some sweets on hand to serve your guests. The following cake recipes are all delicious, but the added bonus is that they’re also wonderfully aromatic — while they bake and cool, they’ll fill your kitchen with the aromas of sweet spices that we tend to associate with the holidays. 

These cake recipes also included nuts and fruits that are great for winter-time baking, and they all can be served warm or at room temperature and with some whipped cream or a scoop of your favorite ice cream. My personal favorite in this list is the walnut cake, a recipe I developed based on my visits to France over the years. I really like it for dessert with vanilla ice cream and dark caramel sauce, but it’s also very good the next day with your mid-morning cup of coffee.

Walnut Cake (serves 8)

8 oz . cold unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup  white sugar
4 whole eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground clove
2 cups walnuts, ground medium-fine in the food processor

Butter and flour one 8” round cake pan, similar spring-form pan, or a Bundt pan.

 Using a table-top electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter adding the sugar in three separate stages. When the butter-and-sugar mixture becomes light and fluffy, add the eggs and beat very briefly.

 Add the nuts and beat very briefly again. Fold in the dry ingredients. Turn the batter into the prepared spring-form pan and bake in the convection oven (300F) for about 45 minutes.

 When the cake has cooled slightly, remove it from the pan and serve it with warm caramel sauce and a spoonful of crème fraîche or whipped cream.

Gingerbread Cake (serves 12) 

Sift the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl and set aside.

 Separately, mix the molasses and the hot water together in a large measuring cup or stainless insert.

 In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg with the sugar by hand. Add the melted butter and continue to whisk. Add the chopped ginger, the orange zest and the salt.

 Add the dry ingredients and the molasses/water mix to the butter-egg mixture alternately, folding them in with a rubber spatula until the batter is smooth.

 Bake in a buttered and floured Bundt pan, or a small loaf pan, for 50 minutes at 325F.

Apple-raisin Spice Cake (serves 8) 

Core and dice the apples. Cook them in a large skillet with the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Add the raisins and pour in the molasses just at the end. Add the pecan pieces to this mixture and set aside.

 Cream the sugar and butter together until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Then quickly fold in the dry ingredients. Fold in the fruit and nuts. Transfer the batter to a medium size Bundt pan and bake in a 300F convection oven for 50 to 60 minutes with the fan on low.