Martha Bakes - Episode Guide

A simple recipe for yellow cake becomes the foundation for extraordinary desserts. Martha shares her father's favorite birthday cake, with an orange curd filling and a rich chocolate frosting — and offers tips for creating a bakery-worthy layer cake, such as creating even layers and applying a perfect coat of frosting. From a mouthwatering stone-fruit upside-down cake to a batch of strawberry cupcakes, Martha covers the possibilities for this yellow cake recipe.

Martha demonstrates how easy it is to make a tender, flaky pâte brisée crust — one of the most versatile and essential elements in the baker's arsenal. This crust can be used to make sweet or savory dishes; Martha offers a variety of options, including mile-high apple pie, a sumptuous tomato tart and more.

Is there anything more indulgent than rich, creamy cheesecake? In this episode, Martha creates a feast of cheesecakes in a range of sizes and flavors, including an Italian ricotta cheesecake and individual cherry cheesecakes, and teaches viewers how to achieve perfect results every time.

Pound cake makes excellent use of the basic building blocks of baking — butter, sugar, eggs and flour — and offers nearly unlimited opportunities for adaptation (incorporating cream cheese or semolina, for example). Martha takes the viewer through variations, starting with the most traditional and finishing with a version inspired by her travels through Asia.

With Martha as your guide (and a little elbow grease), learn to make delicate, buttery puff pastry in your own kitchen. Martha demonstrates how to create the layers upon layers of buttery pastry, and then how to use it in a variety of sweet and savory treats, including the iconic French napoleon.

Follow along as Martha shares her tips and tricks for making light-as-air angel food cake, then learn how to vary the flavors with a few simple additions. Martha bakes a classic version, a coconut variation with Swiss meringue and mini brown-sugar cakes. As a bonus, she shares a recipe for espresso ice cream to serve alongside.

Devil's food cake has never been so tempting as it is with Martha's sinfully good adaptations. Learn to make "hi-hat" cupcakes — topped with a fluffy meringue frosting — irresistible fudgy brownies and more, all featuring the rich flavor of deep, dark chocolate.

Martha demystifies pâte à choux by demonstrating how easy it is to make. Though it may seem intimidating, it's made with only four ingredients and cooked on the stovetop. Once mastered, it can be used to make cream puffs, éclairs, profiteroles and cheesy gougères

Join Martha as she shares the secrets to foolproof meringue, such as using a copper bowl and adding a touch of cream of tartar. Once the basics are mastered, Martha teaches one of her favorites, pavlova with passion fruit, plus an impressive île flottante and a Huguenot torte.

What most people know as simply "tart dough" is called pâte sucrée, or "sweet pastry," in professional kitchens. Martha demonstrates how easy it is to create elegant desserts based on this classic crust. Learn how to make a traditional lemon mousse damask tart with candied lemon peel, and a contemporary chocolate tart shell layered with homemade caramel and chocolate ganache and finished with a sprinkling of sea salt.

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, you'll welcome Martha's expert tips and tricks for making a tasty and versatile yeast dough. Martha's recipe incorporates both butter and sour cream; in this episode, she uses it to make a variety of breakfast treats, from pecan sticky buns to pull-apart monkey bread that's as much fun to make as it is to eat.

Biscuits and scones are the perfect way to start the day; with Martha's recipes and tips, they're easy to make anytime. Learn how to make buttermilk biscuits, angel biscuits and cream scones. If it looks easy, that's because it is — the key is actually to work the dough as little as possible.

Breakfasts and brunches call for homemade muffins or popovers. Martha makes her blueberry muffins two ways, flavored with a little spice or finished with a crumb topping. She then demonstrates how to make airy popovers, equally suited to serving with fresh blueberry preserves or savory creamed spinach.

Peach cobbler; blueberry crisp; blackberry buckle; pear brown betty.

Dutch baby pancake; oven-baked French toast; quiche made with peas and ham; cheese, ham and onion strata.

Paris-Brest, a wheel-shaped ring of cream puffs; madeleines; Breton butter cake.

Orange chiffon cake; Shaker lemon pie; lime squares with pistachio graham cracker crust; upside-down cake made with three kinds of citrus

Pumpkin pecan pie; cheesecake swirled with pumpkin; pumpkin bread; deep dish pumpkin pie.

Traditional linzertorte; oatmeal cookies with a peanut butter filling; walnut cake; pecan tart.

Six-layer chocolate cake filled with salted caramel; dulce de leche; pound cake with caramel glaze; chocolate-caramel bar cookies.

Ruffled milk pie; Moroccan meat pie; baklava; spanakopita.

Banana cream pie; coconut cake; spoon bread; pecan tassies.

Milk chocolate pistachio tart; flourless Roberta heart cake.

Apricot bowties; cheese-filled Danish; brown sugar cinnamon Danish.

Three easy to prepare layer cakes -- a sprinkle cake, hedgehog cake with meringue spikes and a coconut-covered heart cake.

Napoleon; ice cream sandwiches; coffee cream pie; milk chocolate ganache-filled cappuccino-chocolate bites.

Four desserts feature the antioxidant-rich green tea.

Souffle with passion fruit; mango upside-down cake; biscuit-topped raspberry-rhubarb cobblers.

Preparing fruit curd for a lemon tart with brown butter cookie crust; cupcakes filled with passion fruit curd; raspberry curd for a genoise.

Preparing raspberry-filled doughnuts; apple fritters; beignet, a sugar-coated doughnut from New Orleans.

Dark chocolate filling for an almond-based tart shell; chocolate ganache frosting for a devil's food cake; milk chocolate pudding cupcakes.

Raspberry whipped cream jelly roll; multitiered caramel buttercream cake; making ladyfingers for tiramisu ice cream cake.

Incorporating frangipane into bostock and a classic English bakewell tart; apricot tart made with hazelnut frangipane; pecan-frangipane coffee cake.

Basic Japanese-style white bread loaf; cinnamon raisin swirl bread; jalapeno-cheddar rolls

Giant fruit and nut kitchen sink cookies; vanilla sugar cookie sorbet sandwiches; maple-pecan shortbread squares; double chocolate sandwich cookies.

Make-ahead dough; creating crust for spinach and cheese pizza; sausage and pepper calzone; skillet pizza with wild mushrooms.

Brown-butter coconut cashew blondies; skilled baked plum cake; single-serving size brownie sundaes; Scottish oatcakes.

Kouign-amann; sugar and spiced cinnamon-sugar knots; snails.

A cherry tart with cherry-spiked pastry cream; coffee pastry cream-filled cream puffs with chocolate glaze; and kremowka, a Polish dessert of cream mousseline sandwiched between golden brown puff pastry.

Cheesecake with apricot finish; chocolate cream tart; Atlantic Beach tart.

Maple custard pie; cranberry tart with a walnut crust; Boston cream pie cupcakes; buttermilk-blueberry tart.

Baltimore peach cake; kaiser rolls; black raspberry crumb cake; black and white cookies.

Polka-dotted, double-crusted sour cherry pie; St. Louis butter cake; kransekake; sweet custart pie made with navy beans.

A biscuit-topped blackberry cobbler; fig bars; Idaho potato cake; hazelnut cookies.

Hummingbird cake layered with banana, pineapple and pecans; sweet potato pie; old-fashioned hot milk cake with chocolate whipped cream frosting.

Cheddar-crusted apple pie; steamed Boston brown bread made in a can; lemon-blueberry tart; hermit bars.

Southern caramel cake; Mississippi mud tart; Lane cake; cheese straws.

Montgomery pie; cream cheese-filled pumpkin whoopie pies; apple dumplings; chocolate whoopie pies with vanilla buttercream.

Virginia peanut pie; Lady Baltimore cake; strawberry shortcake.

Blum's coffee crunch cake; gateau Basque, a desert filled with pastry cream and cherries; pineapple upside-down cakes; date bars.

Buttermilk pie; bourbon bread pudding; carrot cake with orange cream cheese frosting.

Belgian rice pie; blitz torte with layers of cake and meringue; Indiana sugar cream pie; quick bread made with cheddar.

Apple cider doughnut cake with whole grain wheat flour and applesauce; maple-glazed pumpkin spelt scones; seeded graham biscotti.

Learn techniques how to transform one basic recipe into a three stunning celebration cakes: a trend-worthy naked berry chiffon cake, a confection-topped caramel chiffon cake perfect for every sweet-tooth, and an awe-inspiring woodland stump cake that's truly a modern yule log masterpiece. Amazing cakes fit for any special occasion!

It's hard to believe the unusual 5-ingredient dough known as pâte à choux could be the foundation of so many popular desserts from profiteroles to cream puffs. Today on Martha Bakes, learn how to make this magical dough for three spectacular filled desserts: pâte à choux swans swimming in a pond of chocolate, custardy coconut eclairs, and a gorgeous, towering pink croquembouche. Impressive desserts fit for royalty!

Take your bread baking skills to the next level with everything you need to know to make three boulangerie quality breads: a crusty golden brown artisanal boule, a unique "edible landscape" onion and leek focaccia, and a buttery, multi-layered brioche feuilletée. Breads so remarkable your family and friends won't believe you baked them yourself!

We all have our favorite go-to cookies, but sometimes an occasion calls for something really special. Martha shares three recipes that turn the humble cookie into an art form: "faux bois" vanilla and chocolate shortbread decorated with chocolate bark and pistachio moss, embellished wreath cookies with sugared flowers and pretty-as-a-picture cherry blossom cookies.

Meringue is the foundation for so many captivating desserts and Martha shares three different meringue-based desserts: an ethereal meringue wreath with jewel-like sugared berries, chocolate angel food cake with a decadent milk chocolate frosting, and almond dacquoise bombes, the fancy cousin of baked Alaska. Scrumptious desserts you'll want to make again and again!

Everyone loves pastries for breakfast and they're even better homemade. Join Martha as she teaches how to make an easy-to-prepare sweet yeasted dough in three addictive recipes: sinfully delicious pear and frangipane pastries, a cinnamon and brown butter swirl designed for pull-apart shareability and mouth-watering jam-filled croustades. Professional quality breakfast pastries you can serve to family and friends.