For me, a chocolate cake is the basic unit of celebration The chocolate Guinness cake here is simple but deeply pleasurable, and has earned its place as a stand-alone treat.

Amanda Saab, a social worker and home cook who lives near Detroit, riffs on her Lebanese grandmother's recipe for namoura, a cake made from semolina flour, soaked in syrup while it's still warm When she serves it at iftar dinners during Ramadan, Ms Saab often doses the syrup with a little bit of lavender extract