The holiday baking season is upon us. Although we're kind of famous for our love of pie here at Good Food, we're also big fans of cake. Mmmmmm… a soft sponge with a few layers of frosting. What could be better? Have a hankering for a show-stopping chocoflan, a classic Bûche de Noël, a delicious vegan, gluten-free cake, or a sugar-free Bundt? We've got recipes.
Want more sweet treats? Check out:
- 45 of Good Food's best pie recipes
- 48 of Good Food's best holiday cookie, brownie, tart and dessert recipes
Claudia Fleming adapted this older recipe for a gingerbread cake from her cookbook, "The Last Course." Photo by Johnny Miller
Ginger Stout Layer Cake
Claudia Fleming reworked her gingerbread recipe, published in The Last Course, and wound up with this cake. She's not the biggest fan of frosting, so she ices between the layers and on top but leaves the sides au naturel. If you want more frosting, increase her Buttermilk "Ermine" Frosting recipe by half. Get the recipe
Satin-Glazed Midnight Black Chocolate Cake
This one is for the chocolate fanatics. It comes to use from food scientist Shirley Corriher, who explains the chemical world of baking in her book, BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes. Get the recipe
Comprised of a fudgy, chocolate cake and a traditional flan, Esteban Castillo’s Classic Chocoflan went viral because when the cake is baked and inverted, the ingredients flip, creating a visual magic trick. Photo by Esteban Castillo
Classic Chocoflan
Esteban Castillo, the blogger and cookbook author behind Chicano Eats, describes chocoflan as "a magic trick you can eat." When you make it, you add the cake batter to the pan then pour in the flan. During the baking process, they switch places. You'll find this recipe in his cookbook, Chicano Bakes: Recipes for Mexican Pan Dulce, Tamales, and My Favorite Desserts. Get the recipe
Kardemummakaka (Cardamom Cake)
Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall, authors of Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break, describe kardemummakaka as the quintessential fika snack. Swedes are big fans of cardamom and it shows in their baking. They suggest purchasing whole cardamom seeds and crushing them yourself. Get the recipe
It's vegan, it's gluten-free — it must be Claire Ptak's California Cake. Photo by Maren Caruso
Gluten-Free California Cake
A Northern California girl moves across the pond, opens a sweets shop, and winds up baking the wedding cake for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The premise sounds like an elevator pitch for a '90s rom-com but this plotline is real life for Claire Ptak. A Chez Panisse alum, Ptak runs Violet, where she incorporates gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and vegan treats into her repertoire. This vegan and gluten-free cake is a popular one. Get the recipe
Portuguese Orange Olive Oil Cake
Food writer David Leite, who grew up in a Portuguese American family in Massachusetts, loves sharing recipes on his site, Leite's Culinaria. That's where this cake comes from. It's a perfect use for navel oranges, which hit their peak in winter. Get the recipe
Apple-Olive Oil Cake
Olive oil helps with texture, typically producing light and moist cakes. The flavor of the oil itself pairs especially well with fruit, as in this recipe, which comes from Emily Luchetti. Get the recipe
Pastry chef JR Ryall shares his recipe for his Irish coffee meringue. Photo by Cliodhna Prendergast
Irish Coffee Meringue Gâteau
In this cake, the cream is flavored with Irish whiskey and the meringue is flavored with coffee. JR Ryall, pastry chef at Ballymaloe House in County Cork, Ireland, assembles it a few hours before he plans to serve it in order to give the boozy cream a chance to slightly soften the meringue. His book, Ballymaloe Desserts: Iconic Recipes and Stories from Ireland, features more treats from the famous Ballymaloe dessert trolley. Get the recipe
The French yule log, aka the Bûche de Noël, is a classic Christmas cake. Photo via Shutterstock
Mocha Bûche de Noël (Mocha Yule Log)
Don't be intimidated by this classic Christmas cake. "The recipe may look elaborate but, broken down, it's quite simple," says Aleksandra Crapanzano. "All you are really doing is making a génoise in a sheet pan, rolling it up so it stays malleable, brushing it with coffee, slathering it with buttercream, rolling it back up, running the tines of a fork over the buttercream, dusting it with sugar and cocoa, et voilà!" However, you will need a candy thermometer and two 10 x 15-inch rimmed baking sheets to complete it. Get the recipe
Nigella's Chocolate Gingerbread Cake
Pulling from Nigella Lawson's book Feast, this recipe adds chocolate chips to the gingerbread batter. Some instructions — like adding baking soda to the liquid or lining a roasting pan with parchment — might seem odd to an American baker. She also warns that the baked cake "will be slightly damp underneath the set top and that's the way you want it." Here, we've topped Nigella's Chocolate Gingerbread by adding Evan Kleiman's Lemon Curd. Get the recipe
Another Delicious Death by Cake
Inspired by Agatha Christie's mysteries and the era of WWII rationing, the recipe isn't for the chocolate cake that Mitzi baked for Dora "Bunny" Bunner's birthday celebration, but Patrick Simmons probably would die for this delicious chocolate cake. Get the recipe
Sweet potato flour is used in place of sugar in this cake recipe and complements the persimmon flavors. Photo by Kristin Teig
Persimmon and Spice Bundt Cake
This sugar-free recipe from Brian Levy, author of Good & Sweet: A New Way to Bake with Sweet Ingredients, "tastes like early winter and conjures visions of logs glowing in the fireplace while snow wafts beyond the window." Where does it get its sweetness? Ripe persimmon puree, sweet potato flour, dried apples, dates, and dried Zante currants. Get the recipe
Rose Levy Beranbaum's Golden Lemon Almond Cake
How about giving a cake as a gift this Christmas? This one, from Rose Levy Beranbaum, certainly fits the bill. We'd expect nothing less from the author of The Cake Bible. Get the recipe
Kentucky Bourbon Cake
Of course this recipe comes from a book titled Vintage Cakes. A quarter-cup of bourbon goes into the cake and another quarter-cup goes into the glaze so the cake delivers what its name promises. Get the recipe
Andrea Nguyen's mocha cake, which you can see in the upper left corner, took 30 trials to perfect. The cake in the center is the Spice-Citrus Marble Cake, which is also delicious. Photo by Aubrie Pick
Vietnamese Mocha Cake (Bánh Moka)
Inspired to make a Vietnamese coffee cake, but not in the style of a traditional American coffee cake, Andrea Nguyen went at least 30 rounds before she perfected the recipe. The result is an absolutely delicious cake that tastes like Vietnamese coffee. Look for it in her latest cookbook, Ever-Green Vietnamese: Super Fresh Recipes. Get the recipe
Funny Cake
A traditional Pennsylvania Dutch treat, Funny Cake began as a sweet breakfast but people started eating it after dinner, too. This recipe comes from Jennie Cook's 2013 book, Who Wants Seconds?: Sociable Suppers for Vegans, Omnivores & Everyone in Between. Get the recipe
Chocolate Wafer Cookies & Ice Box Cake
What is an icebox cake? The perfect dessert when you don't want to bake. It involves layering whipped cream with cookies. There are all sorts of variations using different flavored creams slathered on everything from graham crackers to sandwich cookies. Chocolate wafers are a favorite. This version includes a recipe for homemade chocolate wafers but you can also use store-bought ones. Get the recipe
Carrot cake has carrots in it so it must be healthy, right? Photo via Shutterstock
Classic Carrot Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Abby Dodge, author of The Weekend Baker, developed this classic carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for a "carrot cake smackdown" held by the now shuttered magazine Fine Cooking. We don't know if it won the top prize but it won our hearts. Get the recipe
Lovely Lemon Yogurt Cake
Odette Williams knows that cakes don't have to look elaborate or require a complicated baking process to be delicious. That's why she wrote the book Simple Cake. Get the recipe
Pumpkin Upside-Down Cake with Cranberry Pecan Topping
There's always room for dessert. Emily Luchetti includes recipes for plenty of delicious ones in her book, A Passion for Desserts. With its use of pumpkin, cranberries and pecans, this is a perfect cake for autumn and winter holiday feasts. Get the recipe
The humble pound cake is a crowd pleaser. Photo via Shutterstock
The Great American Pound Cake
An excess of sugar and butter make this cake wonderfully moist, explains BakeWise author Shirley Corriher. She blends the flavoring with the fat, because the fat distributes the flavorings so well. Make sure you do a good job of beating the flour, the leavening, and the dry ingredients together or your cake will have holes. Get the recipe
Dairy-Free Coconut Pound Cake
"Made from four different coconut-derived products — oil, flour, flakes, and milk — the rich flavor of this dairy-free pound cake will bring you back for a second slice," says Carla Bartolucci. "I've made a few tweaks to the mixing technique and proportions used in a classic pound cake to give it a better spring in the oven. The batter might seem thick, but the cake will bake up very moist." Get the recipe