For special occasions, there are few things as fitting as a cake—from elaborate tortes and luxurious cheesecakes for big events to simple, rustic creations for brunches, casual gatherings, and family events. To develop the tempting gluten-free gems on the pages that follow, I started with easy-to-adapt cheesecakes. Since the cream-cheese filling is naturally free of gluten, the cheesecakes just needed an updated crust made with ground nuts or crushed gluten-free cookies. Some of the other cakes took a little more experimentation to get right, as I needed to find the best combination of gluten-free flours, nuts, and eggs. Once you try the tempting cakes on the pages that follow, I hope you’ll agree that I got these right.