By ALBERT STUMM

for every year diwaliHetal Vasavada’s family would pick her up from her New Jersey elementary school to visit friends and family who lived nearby.

The colorful South Asian holiday is the Hindu Festival of Lights. For some, it also marks the start of a new year, and observers believe that what you do on Diwali sets the tone for the rest of the year.

In that spirit, Vasavada’s family made a point of wearing their best new clothes and waking up to a clean house. And they would always bring sweets or mithai to share during visits.

“So desserts are a big part of it,” said Vasavada, author of the popular cooking blog. Milk and Cardamom. “You want to start this year with: something sweetSo the rest of the year will be very sweet.”

Her new book, “Desi Bakes,” is full of these mithai-inspired desserts, but it’s definitely not a catalog of traditional Indian desserts.

Rather than Western-style baked desserts, Diwali desserts are traditionally made with fried dough, such as gulab jamun, a spherical, milk-butter donut dipped in cinnamon, cardamom and rose syrup. Others are nut-based, such as kaju katli, which resembles syrup-soaked candied cashews. Or they can be puddings like gajar ka halwa with finely chopped carrots, slowly cooked with oil, sugar, cashews and cardamom.