- Recipes
- Desserts
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Meghan Splawn
Meghan Splawn
Meghan was the Food Editor for Kitchn's Skills content. She's a master of everyday baking, family cooking, and harnessing good light. Meghan approaches food with an eye towards budgeting — both time and money — and having fun. Meghan has a baking and pastry degree, and spent the first 10 years of her career as part of Alton Brown's culinary team. She co-hosts a weekly podcast about food and family called Didn't I Just Feed You.
updated Dec 19, 2019
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Cake isn’t just for celebrations. In fact, the best cakes are everyday treats that you bake and frost (if necessary) in the same pan. That’s likely why simple pumpkin cakes, dump cakes, and the humble Gooey Butter Cake were some of Kitchn’s most popular cake recipes in 2019. Join us in taking a look at all the butter, flour, and sugar you baked into cakes this year with our 10 most popular cake recipes from 2019.
10. Easy Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
It isn’t surprising that a classic cake, turned into an easy cupcake, makes this list. We love having cake faster, and cupcakes are the answer. Not only do they bake quicker, but they also come together in one bowl and are just as welcome on a holiday table as they are as a classroom treat.
Get the recipe: Easy Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
9. Classic, Foolproof Angel Food Cake
Angel food cake can be a little fussy, which might be why it took us nearly a dozen years to finally publish a foolproof recipe. But the wait was worth it: We promise that this version will never, ever let you down.
Get the recipe: Classic, Foolproof Angel Food Cake
8. Sweet Potato Pecan Cake
This Thanksgiving cake was part of our recent story on the ever-evolving Southern Thanksgiving. The story of the cake’s origin is just as sweet as the cake itself. Surprisingly the frosting isn’t cream cheese — it’s a very luxe white chocolate frosting that balances the cake and pecans perfectly.
Get the recipe: Sweet Potato Pecan Cake
7. Pumpkin Dump Cake
Dump cakes took over the internet in 2019, but in case you missed the buzz, here’s the deal: Combine some canned fruit, cake mix, and liquid in a pan and then bake it and you’ve got a dump cake! This pumpkin beauty is a little more sophisticated. It calls for making a simple custard on the bottom, similar to the ever-popular magic cake. The result is pure decadence with minimal effort.
Get the recipe: Pumpkin Dump Cake
6. Instant Pot Cheesecake
We won’t get into philosophical debates about whether cheesecake is actually cake or pie, because we’re too distracted by the fact that, hello, you can bake cheesecake in an Instant Pot! And it turns out flawlessly! You do need a special 7-inch pan — and it takes 24 hours to cool in the fridge. But the texture alone is worth the time and investment.
Get the recipe: How To Make the Easiest Instant Pot Cheesecake
5. New England Spider Cake
If spider cake looks an awful lot like cornbread to you, you’ve got a good eye. It’s made with cornmeal, but this humble-looking cake has a surprise filling that separates it from even the sweetest cornbreads. It’s definitely a dessert, but one that is intriguingly distinct. Just trust us — you’ll want to try it.
Get the recipe: New England Spider Cake
4. Chocolate Bumpy Cake
This rich devil’s food cake gets its distinct look from a combination of sweet vanilla buttercream and rich, fudgy chocolate frosting that graces the top of the storied cake. Making this cake at home requires some dedicated time, but the results are absolutely worth it.
Get the recipe: Chocolate Bumpy Cake
3. Do-Nothing Cake
Spoiler: You don’t actually do nothing, but this vintage recipe did inspire the now-popular dump cake phenomenon (which is also included in this list). This super-quick cake gets topped with a butter-coconut-pecan topping that creates a whole layer of moist, fudge-like goodness on top of the cake.
Get the recipe: Do-Nothing Cake
2. Mahogany Cake with Ermine Frosting
Mahogany cake is a precursor to red velvet cake, and we’re here to tell you that it is way better. This lightly flavored chocolate cake has an incredible velvet-like crumb and gets topped with the world’s most interesting frosting — ermine — which is made with flour and milk, instead of cream cheese.
Get the recipe: Mahogany Cake with Ermine Frosting
1. Gooey Butter Cake
Sure, Gooey Butter Cake doesn’t look like much. It’s a little ordinary, even. But this cake was our most popular cake recipe of 2019, and it should be — because it is unbelievably good. And the story behind it is just as good.
Read more: How a Glorious Mistake Resulted in Gooey Butter Cake: A St. Louis Tradition Since the ’40s
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