246 better cake recipes

Coca-Cola tube cake with pecan frosting bakes a chocolate cola batter studded with mini marshmallows, then gets topped with a warm cola pecan glaze. Southern church-supper classic.

Cinnamon ribbon bread layers tender sour cream cake batter with cinnamon-sugar swirls and a pecan crown. A breakfast loaf with a marbled cinnamon ribbon running through every slice.

Glazed coffee cake with a crunchy Grape-Nuts cereal and instant coffee streusel layered inside a moist sour cream batter, topped with a brewed coffee glaze. Retro and uniquely crunchy.

Oreo cookie tube cake bakes 25 quartered Oreos right into a vanilla bundt batter, then gets drenched in glossy chocolate glaze. A nostalgic crowd-pleaser for birthdays and bake sales.

Marble squares swirl cream cheese filling through a tender chocolate sheet cake batter, topped with chocolate chips. Makes a big jelly-roll pan for a crowd, baked in 30 minutes.

A moist chocolate date cake baked in an 8-inch square pan with chocolate chips in the batter and a crunchy chip-nut-sugar topping. Dates softened in boiling water keep it impossibly tender. The kind of no-fuss cake you carry straight to the picnic in the pan.

Red plum spice cake with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves folded into a moist batter studded with chopped plums and nuts. Finished with a cream cheese frosting spiked with reserved plum juice.

Mother's fruit cake is a brandy-soaked holiday classic with cherries, apricots, pineapple, peel, raisins, and currants bound in a spiced chocolate-scented batter. Baked slow and aged for two months.

Pineapple upside-down cake with a cornmeal batter, fresh pineapple caramelized in Madeira wine and brown sugar, baked in a cast iron skillet. Extra-rich with whole eggs plus extra yolks and a hint of nutmeg.

Black bottom cupcakes drop a sweet cream cheese filling studded with chocolate chips into chocolate cake mix batter, baking into a self-frosting cupcake. Travel-friendly picnic dessert with no icing to melt.

Starlight double-delight cake, the retro Pillsbury bake-off winner where a chocolate-peppermint cream cheese frosting doubles as part of the batter. Two moist mint-chocolate layers, frosted in the same blend.

Spiced pound cake with mace, vanilla, and almond extract baked in a Bundt pan until golden and dense. Powdered sugar in the batter creates an ultra-fine, velvety crumb that melts on your tongue.

A classic Baltimore sheet cake with a soft, simple batter topped with rows of fresh peach slices, cinnamon sugar, and melted butter. This old-school Mid-Atlantic bakery favorite is summer in every bite.

Layers of cinnamon-kissed apples baked between swirls of orange-scented batter in a tube pan, then dusted with powdered sugar. This from-scratch apple cake is a showstopper that's surprisingly simple to pull off.

A self-saucing cocoa espresso pudding cake that creates its own hot fudge layer as it bakes. Boiling water poured over the batter before baking does all the work. Serve warm for 6 to 8.

Upside-down apple coffee cake with a sticky brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecan base under a tender sour cream batter. Flip it onto a plate and watch breakfast become the best part of everyone's morning.