10 Most Popular Cakes in the United States

Walk into any American kitchen on a birthday, holiday, or Sunday afternoon and there is a good chance one of these cakes is on the counter. We pulled together the 10 most popular cakes in the United States – the ones home bakers search for, request, and bring to potlucks year after year – and looked at what makes each one a classic worth keeping in your recipe box.

1. Chocolate Cake

No list of the most popular cakes in the United States gets far without chocolate cake at the top. Rich, moist, and endlessly customizable – from a simple buttercream to a mirror glaze – it’s the default answer whenever someone asks what kind of cake to make. Its popularity comes down to how forgiving it is: even a slightly overbaked layer still tastes like a treat.

2. German Chocolate Cake

Despite the name, german chocolate cake is an American original, named after Samuel German, who developed the sweet baking chocolate the cake is built on. What sets it apart from a standard chocolate cake is the coconut-pecan filling spread between the layers instead of frosting – a texture combination that’s kept it a Southern staple for generations.

3. Hummingbird Cake

The hummingbird cake – also known in parts of the South as doctor bird cake, after Jamaica’s national bird – is a spiced banana and pineapple cake finished with cream cheese frosting. It’s been a fixture of Southern Living reader polls for decades, and its dense, moist crumb makes it one of the few cakes that tastes even better the day after baking.

4. Bundt Cake

Named for the fluted pan it’s baked in rather than any single flavor, bundt cake earns its spot through sheer versatility – lemon, marble, pumpkin, and pound cake batters all work. Its ring shape means more crisp, caramelized surface area than a standard layer cake, and no frosting is required, which makes it a weeknight-friendly favorite.

5. Caramel Cake

A Southern celebration cake through and through, caramel cake pairs simple butter-cake layers with a cooked caramel icing that has to be poured and spread quickly before it sets. It takes practice to get the icing right, which is exactly why a good caramel cake is treated as a point of pride at family gatherings.

6. Sour Cream Pound Cake

Classic pound cake gets its name from the original recipe’s pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. The sour cream version adds a tangy richness and an especially tender, tight crumb, which is why sour cream pound cake shows up so often as the base for strawberry shortcake or a simple glaze-and-serve dessert.

7. 7Up Cake

A retro favorite that’s never really left, 7up cake is a lemon-lime pound cake made with the soda folded into the batter, which adds lift and a subtle citrus sweetness. It’s a fixture of church cookbooks and potluck tables across the South and Midwest, prized for being simple enough for a beginner to pull off on the first try.

8. Chantilly Cake

Popularized by Whole Foods’ bakery counter, chantilly cake layers a light sponge with mascarpone whipped cream and fresh berries. It reads as a fruit-forward, less-sweet alternative to traditional American buttercream cakes, which has made it a go-to for spring and summer birthdays.

9. Jello Poke Cake

Jello poke cake takes a baked sheet cake, pokes it full of holes, and fills those holes with liquid gelatin before topping it with whipped topping. The result is a strikingly marbled, ultra-moist cake that became a mid-century potluck staple and is still one of the most-searched cake recipes for backyard cookouts.

10. Cloud Cake

Cloud cake – a whipped, egg-white-based cake in the same family as angel food and chiffon cakes – is the cake people reach for when they want something light enough for a second slice. With little to no fat in the batter, it relies entirely on whipped egg whites for structure, giving it the airy texture that gives the cake its name.

Honorable mention: Tous Les Jours Cake

If you live near one of the hundreds of Tous Les Jours locations across the U.S., you’ve likely seen their cream cakes – a Korean-French bakery chain style built on ultra-light sponge and stabilized whipped cream instead of buttercream. It’s not a traditional home-baked recipe, but its growing popularity is shifting what American cake lovers expect from a “light” cake.

Honorable mention: Honey Bun Cake

Built on a yellow cake mix swirled with a cinnamon-brown sugar layer and finished with a simple powdered sugar glaze, honey bun cake trades the ring shape of a cinnamon roll for the ease of a sheet cake. It’s a weekday breakfast-table favorite as much as a dessert, and its short ingredient list keeps it in heavy rotation for busy households.

Which cake should you bake first?

If you’re new to baking, start with a bundt cake or 7up cake – both are forgiving and don’t require frosting technique. If you want to impress a crowd, hummingbird cake and caramel cake deliver the most flavor per slice. And if it’s summer, chantilly cake or cloud cake will feel far lighter than a classic layer cake without sacrificing flavor.