Martha Bakes - Season 1

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.