Discover 30 irresistible American desserts. Whether they’re regional, national or global, they’re all delicious.
The USA has 50 states and even more desserts. And, thanks to the country’s varied terrains and multiple food cultures, the range of American desserts is vast.
We’re fascinated by the variety of desserts available in our home country, whether they’re made with Florida’s key limes or Pennsylvania’s Amish butter. We’d like to say that we’ve eaten every American dessert but that would be both impossible and untrue. However, it’s certainly more than fair to say that we’ve eaten a LOT of American desserts over the years both at home and during our travels.
This guide highlights are favorite American desserts. For ease of use, we’ve separated them into the following categories:
So, now that we’ve set the parameters, let’s get this dessert party started the best way possible – with cake.
American Cakes
Sweet, moist and fluffy, American cakes are some of the best cakes in the world. But they’re not all the same – they come in a variety of shapes, flavors and sizes. Some have multiple layers while others consist of a single sheet. And the icing! We love America’s butter cream icing more than we can proficiently express in words.
Whether we’re celebrating a birthday or simply ending a meal, these are our favorite American cakes:
1. Brooklyn Blackout Cake
We’re not fans of blackouts involving electricity outages. However, we’re fully in favor of dark chocolate Brooklyn blackout cakes filled with chocolate filling and topped with chocolate icing.
Bakers at Brooklyn’s Ebinger’s Bakery invented the dark and delicious cake during World War II and named it after the blackouts that occured frequently during that dark time. Originally opened in 1898, Ebinger’s was a local favorite for decades and eventually closed in 1972. Since then, other NYC bakeries have kept the recipe, and the power, going.
2. Chiffon Cake
Don’t confuse chiffon cake with chiffon fabric. While the French fabric is shimmery and sheer, America’s chiffon cake is moist and fluffy. It’s also a cake that comes in many flavors including chocolate, orange and vanilla. (Our favorite is lemon.) Some over-achievers top their chiffon cakes with chantilly cream, fruit compote and coconut flakes but those toppings are optional.
Harry Baker (yes, that was his real name) baked the first chiffon cake in California more than a century ago. He later sold his cake’s recipe, which replaces butter with vegetable oil and folds egg whites into the batter, to Betty Crocker.
3. Confetti Cake
The first person who added sprinkles to cake batter deserves a medal for making birthdays more fun. The popularity of that celebratory cake, now called confetti cake, has inspired bakers to add sprinkles to cookies, brownies and so many other desserts.
Those creative bakers aren’t alone. Both Betty Crocker and the Pillsbury Company have embraced the colorful concept by selling confetti cake and icing mixes. (Pillsbury sells their mixes under its Funfetti brand name.) Then there’s Kellanova which sells a confetti cupcake Pop Tarts flavor.
4. Cupcake
Amelia Simmons gets credit for publishing the first cupcake recipe at the end of the 18th century. She literally baked her cakes in mugs and cups. Today, most people use special cupcake or muffin pans instead.
Regardless of the baking vessel, the cupcake is essentially a miniature cake that’s designed for one person. Its appearance at children’s birthday parties and school celebrations also makes it a gateway cake for many Americans. However, cupcakes aren’t just for children. Big kids, like us, love eating them too.
5. Devil’s Food Cake
The polar opposite of light and spongey angel food cake, devils food cake is dark and dense. It’s also different from Geman chocolate cake which has coconut-pecan icing. Of these three American cakes, devil’s food stands out thanks to its ‘devilishly’ decadent chocolatiness.
Like many Gen-X’ers, we grew up eating Drake’s Devil Dog snack cakes. Now, as adults, we’re fans of layered devil’s food cakes topped with either buttercream or fudge icing. It’s a cake that’s ideal for chocoholics (like us) celebrating a birthday or other occasion.
6. Gooey Butter Cake
Despite the commoditization that’s impacted many regional American desserts, gooey butter cake is difficult to find in most parts of the country. But it’s easy to find the dessert in St. Louis. That’s where, according to local legend, a German-American baker accidentally invented goodey butter cake when he added too much butter to his batter.
We first encountered the Missouri dessert in Rocheport, half way between Kansas City and St. Louis, and immediately became enamored with the gooey, buttery cake. We ate a slice after dinner but understand why locals often eat gooey butter cake, with coffee, for breakfast. Talk about a sweet way to start the day!
7. New York Cheesecake
America isn’t the only country that loves cheesecake. The creamy cake is popular all over the world, espeically in Japan and Spain. It’s also not the country that invented cheesecake – Greece has a documented cheesecake recipe that dates back to ancient times. And, yet, there’s something special about the dense cheesecake styel that became popular in New York City.
Jewish immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe popularized New York cheesecake during the 20th century. Made with ingredients like Philadelphia brand cream cheese, sugar, eggs and sour cream, it’s rich and dense with just the right level of tanginess. Adding a fruit topping only makes it better.
8. Red Velvet Cake
Red velvet is everywhere. We’ve encountered red velvet cookies and pancakes all over Europe to the point that we often discount the flavor. But then we remember the joy of eating a slice of red velvet cake in America where the dessert was invented.
Made with buttemilk, vinegar and red food coloring in addition to typical cake ingredients, red velvet cake is a dessert standout thanks to its vivid scarlet red hue. Rich cream cheese icing completes the cake. It’s a great desset to eat any day of the year but especially on Valentine’s Day.
American Pies
Pi Day, which occurs on March 14th every year, is a day that celebrates the number π which starts with 3.14. It’s also a day when eating pie is a must. Then there’s Thanksgiving which is celebrated on the third Thursday of November every year. The number of pumpkin pies eaten that day is mind bogglingly massive. But let’s not forget about the other 363 days of the year – they’re great days for eating pie too.
These are our favorite Amereican pies regardless of whatever day it happens to be:
1. Chess Pie
Bobby Fisher wasn’t referring to chess pie when he stated that “chess is life.” However, It’s possible that some Southerners might think exactly that’s what he meant. The custardy pie is incredibly popular below the Mason-Dixon line all year long but especially on Thanskgiving.
Depending on the recipe, chess pie ingredients include flour, butter, sugar and eggs plus buttermilk and vinegar. Interestingly, fruit is not typically a chess pie ingredient. We didn’t miss fruit when we ate a slice at a famous Memphis fried chicken joint. We also didnt mind the addition of lemon when we ate another slice at a bakery on New York City’s lower east side.
2. Fruit Pie
Americans bake and eat all kinds of fruit pies. Apple is a popular pie filling throughout the year while blueberry, cherry and peach fillings shine during the hot summer months. Other fruits like key limes, huckleberries and marionberries are region specific.
While fruit pies weren’t invented in America, the concept of filling pies with sweetened fruit has become part of the country’s food culture. In fact, apple pie is so embedded in the culture that a car company famously paired its brand with the dessert along with baseball and hot dogs in an iconic commercial.
3. Key Lime Pie
While key limes aren’t indigenous to America, Floridians have been growing the tangy green citrus for two centuries. They’ve also been making key lime pies made with graham cracker crust, key lime juice and sweetened condensed milk since the late 19th century.
Like many desserts, key lime pie is best eaten in its homeland, which in this case is Florida’s Key West. However, it’s become fairly easy to find the tart custard pie in other parts of the country. We’ve eaten the keylime pie in Louisiana and New York during our travels.
4. Pecan Pie
There’s no debate that pecan pie was invented in America. Instead, the debate is how to pronounce this pie’s name. Some Northerners pronounce the word ‘pecan’ so that it rhymes with ‘man’ while Southerners rhyme the word with ‘don’. But we digress.
What really matters is that pecan pie is a sweet yet utterly nutty dessert favorite in the American South. Bakers from Tennessee to Texas add a healthy amount of karo syrup to a mixture that includes butter, eggs, sugar and lots of pecans.
5. Shoofly Pie
Drawing on their German heritage, the Pennsylvania Dutch eat an array of comfort foods that includes chicken pot pie, scrapple, pretzels and dumplings. They also bake and eat soul satisfying desserts. Of the lot, shoofly pie is the most iconic Pennsylvania Dutch dessert.
Originally baked in the 19th century as a crust-free cake, shoofly pie is ooey-gooey and sweet thanks to a recipe that includes both brown sugar and molasses. While Amish housewives make the regional dessert at home and serve it with coffee, the rest of us can eat grab a slice at a Lancaseter County market or in Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market.
American Cookies
Just because the cookie precedes the founding of the United States by centuries doesn’t mean that the USA doesn’t have great cookies. Instead, Americans deserve credit for creating and baking some of the world’s best.
Many American cookies are sold at bakeries, grocery stores and delicatessens while others are baked in home kitchens. These are the ones that make our hearts and taste buds happy:
1. Black and White Cookie
The black and white cookie isn’t a typical cookie for a some key reasons. For starters, its base is soft and cakey as opposed to firm and crumbly. In fact, some argue argue that the dessert is actually a cake disguised as a cookie. But the real differentiator is its two toppings – equal amounts of chocolate and vanilla fondant.
Eastern European immigrants baked the first black and white cookies on the Upper East Side more than a century ago. Big enough to share, the two-toned, upside down cookie remains popular at NYC bakeries and bagel shops to this day. Some of that popularity can be credited to Jerry Seinfeld who analogized the cookie with racial harmony.
2. Brownie
If you’re wondering if a brownie is a cake or a cookie, the answer isn’t so easy since a proper brownie has elements of both in its fudgy, cake-like texture. However, the answer is clearly ‘yes’ if you’re wondering if a brownie tastes good
The original brownie was invented in Chicago and served at the Palmer House Hotel with walnuts and an apricot glaze. The date is no mystery since its invention coincided with the 1893 World Fair. Since then, it’s appeared in movies like Knotting Hill and too many lunchboxes to count.
3. Chocolate Chip Cookie
When the chocolate chip cookie was invented in Massachusetts soon after the Great Depression, the drop style cookie was radical due to the addition of chocolates chips to a dough made with plenty of brown sugar and butter. It’s now a classic cookie enjoyed by kids of all ages.
If you think of the chocolate chip cookie as a childhood treat that’s often baked with Nestle’s famous Toll House Chocolate Chip recipe, you are correct. And, if you think it as a trendy sweet treat sold at coffee shops around the world, you’re also correct. This American chocolate chip cookie is practically everywhere!
4. Compost Cookie
Milk Bar rocketed to fame in 2008 thanks to Christina Tosi’s burgeoning fame and menu items like cereal milk ice cream, crack pie (now called milk bar pie) and compost cookies. Tosi created the recipe for her ‘everthing but the kitchen sink’ cookies using chocolate chips, pretzels, potato chips, graham crackers, coffee, oats, and butterscotch.
Fast forward to the present and cookie connoiseurs still buy compost cookies at Milk Bar’s NYC locations. Don’t despair if you’re not in New York – you can easily find copycat compost cookie recipes online. However, if you want to bake the real-deal version, the better option is to buy Tosi’s All About Cookies cookbook.
5. Fortune Cookie
The only thing worse than getting a fortune cookie without a fortune is ending a Chinese food meal without a fortune cookie. Luckily, both scenarios rarely happen in America where fortune-filled fortune cookies are de rigeur at Chinese restaurants.
Ironically, fortune cookies weren’t invented in China but by Japanese immigrants in America. The crispy, sweet cookie provides a pleasant ending to a savory meal. Plus, fortune cookie fortunes are fun to read – especially when followed by the words ‘in bed’. As a bonus, some fortunes include lucky numbers for those who play the lottery.
6. Oreo
The original Oreo is a chocolate sandwich cookie that’s filled with sweet sugary cream. However, despite its iconic status, the Oreo wasn’t America’s first first sandwich cookie. That honor goes to Hydrox’s cream filled chocolate cookie which hit the shelves in 1908.
Despite debuting four years after Hydrox , the Oreo has become the best selling cookie in both the United States and around the world. Oreo’s current lineup includes ‘double stuf’ and ‘mega stuf’ sizes plus eclectic flavors like java chip, peanut butter and mint.
7. Snickerdoodle
The snickerdoodle easily wins the award for the American cookie with the most colorful name. It’s also a confusing name. Despite popular assumptions, the snickerdoodle has nothing to do with America’s most popular American candy bar (i.e. Snickers) or cuddly doodle dogs.
Likely inspired by German schneckennudel pastries, the buttery cookie is unique for its tangy flavor and cinnamon sugar coating. The cookies gets its tang from cream of tartar while its coating is achieved when bakers roll cookie’s dough in cinnamon-sugar.
8. Whoopie Pie
The whoopie pie was invented in either Pennsylvania’s Amish Country or Lewiston, Massachusetts during the 20th century – both states (PA and MA) call it their own. Regardless of its place of origin, it’s practically impossible to not smile while eating a whoopie pie. Not only is the whoopie pie’s name amusing, but if’s also fun to eat.
For the uninitiated, the whoopie pie is an American dessert that connects two cake-like cookies with a layer of cream. And, while chocolate is the most popular whoopie pie cookie flavor, we’ve encountered other flavors including chocolate chip.
Other American Desserts
Not all American desserts fit into the cake, pie and cookie categories and that’s okay. Read on to discover our favorites.
1. Apple Cider Donut
Cider donuts transform simple cake donuts to something better with ingredients that include apple cider as well as allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg. And, while it’s possible to eat cider donuts all year long, autumn is the best time to find tasty treat at outdoor markets and festivals.
Although they have roots in America’s northeast region, cider donuts have gone global. We were thrilled to find the autumnal treat at a festival in Alto Adige, Italy’s most northern region. The Alpine region, commonly called Sud Tirol or South Tyrol, used to be part of Austria.
2. Baked Alaska
Proving that there’s no such thing as an original idea, the roots of baked Alaska, though touted as coming from singular inventive pastry chefs at legendary restaurants like Delmonico’s (New York) and Antoine’s (New Orleans), can’t be firmly traced. Earlier versions of the ‘hot/cold’ American concept date back to the 18th century in Europe.
Regardless of its origin, we love eating this inventive dessert with torched meringue, ice cream and a sponge cake center. Similar to bananas foster and cherries jubilee, it’s a veritable showstopper.
3. Banana Pudding
While Southerners have been eating banana pudding since the 19th century, the comforting dessert became a national treasure after home cooks started replacing the dessert’s ladyfingers with vanilla wafers. That tweaked recipe, later printed on Nabisco cookie boxes, requires sugar, salt, flour, eggs, milk and vanilla in addition to sliced bananas and vanilla wafers.
We’ve eaten banana pudding at restaurants down south in Tennessee and Texas as well as up north in Pennsylvania and New York. We’re big fans of Magnolia Bakery‘s delightful version; however, when it comes to banana pudding, there’s something special about eating a bowl at home.
4. Bananas Foster
Bananas foster debuted more than a half century ago at Vieux Carré, the restaurant which eventually became Brennan’s. Since then, the iconic New Orleans restaurant has perfected the flaming dessert over the years, with servers flambéing bananas tableside throughout the day and into the night.
This preparation of bananas foster involves combining butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and bananas (of course) in a pan before adding rum and banana liqueur. Flames flair and excitement builds before the caramelized mixture is plated along with heaping scoops of vanilla ice cream.
5. Cobbler
Some desserts are works of art made by skilled bakers who focus on every detail including aesthetics. Cobbler is not one of these desserts. Instead, it’s a lazy version of pie that’s baked without a pie crust or fancy lattice.
Originally cobbled together by bakers lacking the necessary ingredients and equipment to bake a proper pie, cobblers feature seasonal fruit like apples berries, peaches and pears. A scoop of vanilla ice cream typically provide cobbler’s finishing touch.
6. Cronut
Cronuts became an instant sensation when Dominque Ansel debuted the donut-croissant hybrid at his self-named Dominque Ansel Bakery in 2013. The French-trained chef hit a nerve with NYC dessert fans who continue to queue for this inspired pastry every day of the week. The happens in Las Vegas where Ansel’s bakery has a presence.
You can eat copycat versions in other cities as we’ve done in cities like Barcelona, Cape Town and Nashville. However, there’s nothing like eating a cronut in New York City where it was invented.
7. Ice Cream Sundae
All ice cream sundaes are not created equal. The standard sundae includes toppings like flavored sauce and whipped cream. However, sundae variations, including the banana split and brownie sundae, are as vast as the imagination allows.
Unlike the banana split which was definitively invented in Pennsylvania, the traditional ice cream sundae’s place of origin isn’t certain. Top contenders include ice cream shops in Evanston (Illinois), Ithaca (New York) and Two Rivers (Wisconsin). The origin of the word ‘sundae,’ is even more mysterious. Some believe the ice cream concoction is named after the day of the week since some local laws prohibited serving soda drinks on Sunday in the past. However, since there’s no clear documented history, we’ll never know for sure.
8. New Orleans Pralines
Pralines are wonderful in French cities like Lyon and Toulouse where the sweet nut confection appears in éclaires, tartes an tartelettes. But don’t rule out New Orleans pralines which replace the confection’s more typical almonds with pecans.
French settlers started making creamy pralines in New Orleans more than a century ago. Today, the physically demanding production process involves smothering local pecans with a mixture of real butter and sugar. Some New Orleans pralines feature additional ingredients like chocolate, caramel, marshmallows and even rum.
9. Suprême
The cronut isn’t the only croissant hybrid that’s popular at NYC bakeries. It’s also not the trendiest. That honor goest to the suprême – a round, coiled croissant that’s filled with flavored cream and decorated with colorful accoutrements.
After debuting at NYC’s Lafayette Grand Cafe and Bakery in 2022, the suprême has landed in bakeries around Europe. But it’s not called a suprême in Europe. Instead, it’s called a New York roll in deference to the pastry’s origin. Regardles of the name or flavor, this cream-filled croissant hybrid is a stunner both in appearance and taste. It’s also a popular pastry to post on social media.
📍Pin This Article for Later
