Cake Recipes

This beauty is baked with a splash of Chambord and layered with a sweet raspberry filling, both of which offer bright counterpoints to the thick layer of chocolate-cream cheese frosting and whole berries scattered on top. You won't be able to have just one slice.

A dense yet not-heavy classic that can't be beat. For a silky-smooth batter, take care to bring the cream cheese, eggs, and sour cream to room temperature before blending. Using a water bath ensures the cake bakes evenly, so the center doesn’t crack.

For best results, bake these cakes at least a day before serving. Store, wrapped in plastic, for up to three days at room temperature, or freeze for up to three months.

Guaranteed to satisfy any chocolate craving, this is an excellent cake to keep in mind when you have a houseful of guests. The ganache glaze makes it dressy enough for dessert after a special dinner.

If you love the apple-cider doughnuts often sold at farmers' markets, you'll love this cake! Baked in a Bundt pan, it's essentially a giant cakey doughnut, made a little more wholesome with whole-wheat flour. A blend of olive oil and applesauce helps keep it moist. This classic fall dessert recipe appears in our cookbook, "A New Way to Bake" (Clarkson Potter). Martha also made this recipe on "Martha Bakes" episode 802.

We took the pumpkin out of the pie and baked it into a rich and creamy cheesecake; it's an especially memorable ending to a holiday meal.

Get the most lemon flavor into this pound cake by grating the lemon zest first, then squeezing out the juice. Lemon zest, juice, and glaze give you triple the lemon for a crowd-pleasing pound cake.

Birthday? Anniversary? Going-away party? This super-easy, one-bowl layer cake is the perfect dessert for any gathering of chocolate buffs.

Beneath this towering yet unpretentious appearance lies multiple layers of moist, mildly spiced cake that are flecked with carrots and pecans and enveloped by a generous coating of cream cheese frosting.

Layers of thinly sliced Meyer lemons lend a mellow complexity to this otherwise classic dessert. Thought to be a cross of a lemon and a mandarin, the fruit has an orange cast, a thin rind, and a heavily perfumed flesh that's valued by chefs.

In this elegant buche de noel, sponge cake is brushed with espresso syrup, filled with caramel, and swathed in seven-minute frosting. For the finishing touch, the snowy white exterior is bruleed with a kitchen torch to create a fabulous faux-bois effect.

This quick-and-easy dessert is lighter than traditional cheesecake, since it calls for ricotta instead of cream cheese.

Sticky toffee pudding is essentially a rich, moist cake permeated with a thick caramel-like sauce (with extra for serving). Most recipes say to soak the dates in hot water, but here we use coffee. It gives the holiday favorite a surprising depth of flavor. Martha made this recipe on Martha Bakes episode 505.

The most popular flavor at the celebrated New York City bakery is vanilla for a reason! With a moist, tender crumb and rich buttercream frosting, these cupcakes are a true classic. This recipe comes from "More from Magnolia: Recipes from the World-Famous Bakery and Allysa Torey's Home Kitchen."

Lemon zest and juice add sunny flavor to this moist olive-oil cake. A slice is lovely as is, but a topping of fresh berries and whipped mascarpone cream really makes it sing.

An old-fashioned layer cake conjures a winter wonderland when topped with white-chocolate buttercream as pale and thick as a fresh snowbank. Despite its black-tie formal appearance, this is a very pragmatic dessert because it's even better when you make it in advance: The milk-chocolate pudding in the middle and the icing have plenty of time to set, so the flavors intensify. 

Chocolate lovers will adore this dessert. The edges and top develop a delicately crisp crust while the center remains moist and fudgy.

If you don't own a candy thermometer, this cake offers a good excuse to buy one. It sounds a little nitpicky, but the caramel should reach exactly 238 degrees. (Any less and the cake layers won't hold together properly; any more and the caramel will turn hard.) Precision will also pay off with the chocolate frosting—it achieves its ideal spreading texture after standing for 30 minutes.

German chocolate cake is defined by its iconic coconut-pecan frosting; for this recipe, we've bucked tradition and tucked it inside of this Bundt cake instead. Here's the trick: Transfer the batter to the pan, then spoon on the gooey goodness—we used a small ice cream scoop for easy release and evenly distributed dollops. It settles into the middle while baking, so when you cut through that glossy ganache, a scrumptious surprise awaits.

The name of this classic French dessert means "crunch in the mouth"; Make the caramel and assemble the dessert as close to serving time as possible.

Lemon four ways amps up these sour-cream pound cakes: zest goes into the batter, and the loaves are finished with lemon syrup, glaze, and candied pieces of the citrus.

This easy all-purpose yellow cake takes just a bit longer to make than one from a packaged mix, but it's worth it.

There's something extra-special about an individually sized dessert -- especially when it's a molten chocolate cake served warm out of the oven. You can prepare these rich chocolate pudding cakes up to a day ahead and refrigerate them, then just pop them in the oven when you sit down to dinner. They'll be done by the time you're ready for dessert. And they reheat easily, so you can have two one night and two the next. This recipe appears in our cookbook "Martha Stewart's Newlywed Kitchen" (Clarkson Potter).

This lemon bundt cake is the perfect addition to any springtime dinner party.