Baking season is here, and so is the latest batch of baking cookbooks

Colder weather is an invitation to turn the oven on and start baking. Eight new books about baking offer recipes for everything from warm bread to trays of crunchy cookies; cakes five layers high or in a loaf; plus pies, tarts and popovers.

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CAKES, COOKIES AND PIES

-"Cake Keeper Cakes" offers 100 recipes for honest-to-goodness everyday cakes, the kind meant to be kept on the counter under a plain glass dome. Author Lauren Chattman's recipe for Cinnamon Pudding Cake and Almond Brown Butter Cake conjure winter days and warm milk. Pear Cake with Sea Salt Caramel Sauce appears dinner-party worthy without being fussy.

Meanwhile, cakes like Fig and Cornmeal with Pine Nuts or Chocolate Chipotle - a rich buttermilk loaf with a subtle, smoky kick - strike just the right balance between comfort and sophistication. Make no mistake: these are not quick cakes. They are simply simple cakes, no frosting, no flower cut-outs, no intimidation.

(Laura Chattman's "Cake Keeper Cakes," Taunton Press, 2009)

-If Chattman gives us grown-up cakes, "Birthday Cakes for Kids" is a one-stop shop for over-the-top creations sure to please any 6-year-old. Recipes go from relatively simple "Ice Cream" Cupcakes served in cones, to bunnies, dinosaurs, tractors, train sets and carousels. Yet author Annie Rigg has made it seem simple.

Basic recipes for yellow cake and buttercream serve as the base for many recipes, and step-by-step instructions (and diagrams!) for cutting patterns, piping decorations and using food coloring guide the determined parent. The "Fantastic Chocolate Cake," a three-tiered chocolate buttermilk extravaganza stacked like a wedding cake and frosted with rich buttercream, lives up to its name.

(Annie Rigg's "Birthday Cakes for Kids," Ryland, Peters&Small, 2009)

-And then there's pie. Mythologized and elusive, the perfect pie stands as some bakers' Holy Grail. "Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies," with recipes from Staunton, Va.'s "Pie Lady," offers a primer that will launch beginners and inspire experts.

Six varieties of crust - from plain to vinegar to cookie crumb - form the base for more than 50 different pies. Five kinds of apple pie alone front the section on fruit pies, followed by extravagant delights like Mrs. Brown's Grape Pie, heaped with Concord grapes and topped with sweet cream, and Damson Plum Pie, full of nothing but plums, sugar and butter.

Of course, Southern favourites like Sweet Potato Pie, Coconut Cream, and Pecan Pie get their space, but specialties like Green Tomato Mincemeat Pie and Watermelon Pie are even more intriguing.

(Mollie Cox Bryan and Mrs. Rowe's Restaurant and Bakery's "Mrs. Rowe's Little Book of Southern Pies" Ten Speed Press, 2009)

-Even people who love to bake often find themselves short on time to do it. Enter "The Ultimate Shortcut Cookie Book."

Like the Cake Mix Doctor books before it, this handy volume upscales refrigerated dough and cake mixes with butter, chocolate chips, oatmeal, fruit and other "from-scratch" ingredients.

The 745 recipes for drop cookies, fancy cookies, bars, brownies and frostings presented in easy-to-read broad type are appealing and well-suited for kids to help.

Almond Joyfuls boost prepared sugar cookie dough with coconut, almonds and chocolate chips. More exotic treats like Blackberry Sage Thumbprints and spicy Chocolate-Filled Aztec Cookies aim beyond the chewy, gooey kid-friendly cookies at a more adult palate.