36 simple cake recipes

Apple or pear upside-down cake baked in a cast iron pan with a buttery base and golden caramelized fruit. A simple six-ingredient cake with crisp sugary edges and tender fruit on top.

Red and golden raspberries marinated in a honeyed raspberry puree. A simple, elegant fruit dessert or topping for ice cream and angel food cake.

Carrot muffins with cinnamon, made with corn oil for a moist, tender crumb. A simple carrot cake-style muffin that springs back when done.

Pumpkin bundt cake made with Bisquick baking mix and canned pumpkin, spiced with pumpkin pie spice and drizzled with a vanilla glaze. A simple fall dessert.

Fresh apple cake with macerated apples that release their natural juices into the batter for an extra-moist crumb. Cinnamon, allspice, and chopped nuts in a simple loaf or tube pan. The fall apple cake worth pulling out the bushel.

Dense one-bowl apple cake with orange juice, almonds, and apple pie spice for a simple everyday dessert that's moist and tender from chopped whole apples.

Three fluffy vanilla layers meet brown-sugar caramel frosting that's silky, not fussy: simple counting-cake proportions topped with butter-toffee sweetness that'll make you swoon.

Simple Irish soda-style bread with butter, raisins, and no yeast. Creamed butter and sugar give it a tender, cake-like crumb. Just mix and bake.

A buttery bundt pound cake with a tight, tender crumb, crowned with sweetened whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries. Simple from-scratch baking at its finest.

Depression-era eggless, milkless, butterless cake with brown sugar, raisins, ginger, and cinnamon. A simple wartime recipe that bakes into a spiced, dense loaf with minimal pantry staples.

Fudge Bundt cake made with cocoa powder and buttermilk for a deeply chocolatey, moist crumb. Simple one-bowl method, dusted with powdered sugar for an elegant no-fuss finish.

Rich Brazilian chocolate cake baked in a tube pan with two kinds of chocolate melted into strong coffee. Intensely fudgy with a tender crumb, finished with a simple dusting of powdered sugar.

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.

A simple chocolate crumb cake made with chocolate syrup and topped with a buttery sugar crumble, all from one bowl. Mix the base, reserve some for the topping, and bake. Ready in an hour.

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.

Andagi are Okinawan doughnut balls, crisp and golden outside with a dense, cake-like center. This deep-fried treat is a Hawaiian festival favorite made from a simple sweet batter dropped straight into hot oil.