Panettone is a tall, domed sweet bread from Milan, made with a long-rising sourdough and enriched with butter, eggs, raisins and candied citrus peel.

Tiramisù is layers of savoiardi biscuits soaked in coffee and a cream of mascarpone, egg yolks and sugar, dusted with cocoa.

Panforte, "strong bread", is a dense, flat cake of honey, sugar, almonds, candied fruit and spices such as pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg, held together with a little flour.

A sfogliatella is a shell-shaped pastry of many thin, crisp layers, filled with semolina, ricotta and candied orange peel, flavoured with cinnamon and vanilla.

Pastiera is a Neapolitan Easter tart of shortcrust pastry filled with wheat grains cooked in milk, ricotta, eggs, candied fruit and orange-flower water, topped with a lattice of pastry strips.

Cannoli are tubes of crisp fried pastry filled with sweetened sheep's milk ricotta, often with chocolate, candied fruit or pistachio at the ends.

The gianduiotto is a Turin chocolate shaped like an upturned boat and wrapped in gold or silver foil.

Polenta e osei is a cake from Bergamo that pretends to be a savoury dish.

Apple strudel, Apfelstrudel in German and strudel di mele in Italian, is a roll of very thin dough wrapped around sliced apples, raisins, pine nuts, cinnamon and breadcrumbs, baked and dusted with sugar.

Pandoro, "golden bread", is Verona's Christmas cake: a tall, star-shaped loaf of rich yeast dough with butter and eggs, light and yellow inside, dusted with icing sugar before serving.

Gubana is a festive cake from the Natisone valleys and the town of Cividale del Friuli.

Cantucci are hard almond biscuits from Prato, near Florence, baked twice: the dough is shaped into logs and baked, then sliced on the diagonal and baked again until dry and crisp.

Castagnaccio is a flat cake of chestnut flour, water and olive oil, topped with pine nuts, rosemary, walnuts and sometimes raisins, baked until the top cracks.

The maritozzo is a soft sweet bun from Rome, split open and filled to overflowing with whipped cream.

Pizzelle are thin, crisp wafers made in a hot iron that stamps a pattern on both sides, usually a snowflake or flower.

Parrozzo is a dome-shaped cake from Pescara made with almonds, semolina or potato starch and eggs, covered with dark chocolate.

Fiadone is a pastry from Molise and Abruzzo, eaten at Easter.

Babà is a small yeast cake soaked in rum syrup, served in Naples' pastry shops and cafés.

The pasticciotto is the breakfast pastry of Lecce and the Salento: an oval shell of shortcrust pastry made with lard, filled with custard and baked until golden.

Tartufo di Pizzo is an ice cream ball from the seaside town of Pizzo, in Calabria: hazelnut and chocolate ice cream with a centre of melted chocolate, rolled in cocoa or sugar.

Pitta 'mpigliata is a Christmas cake from San Giovanni in Fiore, in the Sila mountains of Calabria.

Cassata siciliana is a cake of sponge soaked in liqueur, layered with sweetened sheep's milk ricotta, chocolate and candied fruit, covered in green marzipan and white icing, and decorated with colourful candied fruit.

Granita is a Sicilian frozen dessert of water, sugar and fruit juice or coffee, stirred while it freezes so that it forms fine crystals.

Seadas, or sebadas, are large Sardinian pastries: two discs of thin dough filled with fresh, slightly sour sheep's or cow's milk cheese and lemon zest, deep fried and covered with warm honey, often bitter corbezzolo honey from the strawberry tree.

Churros are lengths of simple dough of flour, water and salt piped through a star-shaped nozzle into hot oil and fried until crisp, then dusted with sugar.

The pastel de nata is a small tart of crisp, flaky pastry filled with egg custard and baked at very high heat until the top is scorched in spots.

In 1832, 16-year-old Franz Sacher, an apprentice in the kitchen of Prince Metternich in Vienna, had to make a dessert when the head chef fell ill.

Kaiserschmarrn, "emperor's mess", is a thick, fluffy pancake torn into pieces in the pan, caramelised with sugar and butter, often with raisins, dusted with icing sugar and served with plum compote or apple sauce.

The kanelbulle, Swedish cinnamon bun, is a yeasted wheat dough spiced with cardamom, rolled with a filling of butter, sugar and cinnamon, twisted into a knot or spiral, and sprinkled with pearl sugar.

A stroopwafel is two thin, crisp waffles pressed together with a layer of warm caramel syrup, the stroop.

In Denmark this pastry is called wienerbrød, "Vienna bread", which points to its origin.

Skyr is a thick cultured dairy food made from skimmed milk, warmed, soured with a bit of an earlier batch and strained until very thick.

Yomari is a steamed dumpling of rice flour shaped like a fig or a fish, filled with chaku, molasses, and sesame seeds, or with sweet milk solids.

Layered pastries of thin dough, nuts and sweetness were made across the Middle East and Central Asia, and several peoples claim them.

Lokum, known abroad as Turkish delight, is a soft, chewy sweet of sugar and starch, flavoured with rosewater, lemon or mastic, or packed with pistachios or hazelnuts, cut into cubes and dusted with powdered sugar.

Laz böreği is a sweet pastry of thin, buttered layers of yufka dough filled with a thick milk custard, baked and then soaked in syrup.

Maraş dondurması is a thick, chewy ice cream of goat's milk, sugar, salep and mastic, so firm that it is beaten with long paddles and can be cut with a knife and eaten with a knife and fork.

Künefe is a dessert of shredded kadayıf pastry layered with a soft unsalted cheese that melts and stretches, baked in a small round metal pan until crisp and golden, then soaked in syrup and topped with pistachios.

Tavuk göğsü, "chicken breast", is a milk pudding that contains finely shredded chicken.

Kestane şekeri is candied chestnut, Bursa's best-known sweet.

Höşmerim is a soft dessert from Balıkesir, in the southern Marmara region, made from fresh unsalted cheese cooked with semolina or flour and sugar, stirred until it turns grainy and golden, and topped with syrup and walnuts or pistachios.

Peynir helvası is a sweet made from soft unsalted cheese, flour or semolina, butter and sugar, cooked slowly and then baked until golden on top.

Mesir macunu is a sticky paste of sugar and 41 spices, herbs and roots, made in Manisa.

Lokma, "a mouthful", are small balls of yeast dough fried until golden and soaked in syrup.

Cezerye is a sweet from Mersin made from carrots cooked with sugar until they turn into a thick paste, mixed with walnuts, hazelnuts or pistachios, and cut into bars covered in grated coconut.

Kerebiç is a small biscuit from Mersin and Tarsus, filled with pistachio or walnut, and served with a white foam called çöven, made from the root of the soapwort plant boiled with sugar and egg white.

Kadayıf dolması is a dessert from Erzurum: dried pastry shreds, kadayıf, are rolled around a filling of walnuts, fried and then soaked in syrup.

Katmer is the breakfast pastry of Gaziantep: a sheet of dough stretched until it is thin as paper, filled with clotted cream, ground green pistachios and sugar, folded into a square and baked quickly.

Kleicha are small cookies of a dough flavoured with cardamom, filled with dates, walnuts or sweet coconut, and baked.

Bint al-sahn, "daughter of the plate", is a round cake of many thin layers of buttery dough, baked until golden and served warm, drizzled with honey and sprinkled with black seeds.

The butter tart is a small pastry shell filled with butter, brown sugar or maple syrup, and egg, baked until the filling is runny or set with a crisp top.

The Nanaimo bar is a no-bake dessert of three layers: a base of chocolate, crumbs, coconut and nuts; a middle of yellow custard-flavoured butter icing; and a top of chocolate.

Habichuelas con dulce is a sweet, creamy dessert of red beans cooked and blended with coconut milk, evaporated milk, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and sweet potato, often with raisins, served cold with small milk cookies on top.

Dulce de leche is milk and sugar cooked slowly for hours until the mixture thickens and turns a deep caramel colour.

Chajá is a cake of sponge, meringue, whipped cream and peaches, sometimes with dulce de leche or strawberries, covered with crushed meringue pieces.

A lamington is a square of sponge or butter cake dipped in chocolate icing and rolled in desiccated coconut, sometimes cut in half and filled with jam or cream.

Pavlova is a large disc of meringue, crisp outside and soft like marshmallow inside, topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit such as kiwifruit, strawberries and passion fruit.