When the weather turns cool and the days grow short, cranberry walnut pies creep out of Ann Arbor and make their way across America. They’re our top-selling pies, lauded by Good Housekeeping magazine for a reason.

Brown-sugar custard, made with real butter, vanilla and Mauritian brown sugar, is mixed with a generous amount of toasted walnuts and tawny cranberries inside an all-butter crust. Nutty, sweet, rich and just a little tart, it’s as beautiful as it is addictive.

Cradled in a re-useable embossed metal pie tin and nestled in our handsome wooden box.

Full disclosure: the price on this cake may cause sticker shock. Where most fruit cakes are cheap, somewhat industrial and terrible, this is another cake all together. It's by far the best of its kind I’ve ever tried.

Robert explained the origin: “The recipe is British, Victorian era. It’s based on my grandmother’s cake, but instead of the store-bought glacéed fruits she used, I make my own candied fruit.” He chooses blood oranges, bergamots, Rangpur limes and more, many that he picks himself. Each cake is soaked in cognac and aged for a few months then garnished with a slice of candied lemon and a bay leaf, all wrapped gently in cheese cloth.

A slice cut thin while the cake is cool — he recommends serving it chilled — looks like a stained-glass window and tastes fresh, clean and lively. Each cake is about six inches long.