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Texas sheet cake is an American dessert made with a combination of buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, sugar, flour, butter, and cocoa. Once baked, the hot chocolate cake is topped with a crunchy icing featuring pecan pieces. In Texas, it is a staple at funerals, but it is also often seen in churches.
The cake is beloved because it is easy to prepare and has a moist and gooey texture. Although its place of origin is still unknown, most people agree that it was invented in Texas due to the usage of local ingredients such as buttermilk and pecans.
Mississippi mud pie is a flavorful American dessert consisting of a cookie crust filled with numerous variable ingredients such as biscuits, ice cream, pudding, whipped cream, liqueur, and marshmallows. The pie is usually prepared in layers and often topped with almonds, pecans, chocolate syrup, or marshmallows.
The origins of the dessert are still murky, so some believe that the pie is an updated version of Mississippi mud cake from the 1970s, while others claim that the pie was invented much longer ago in the Vicksburg-Natchez region near Jackson.
MOST ICONIC Mississippi Mud Pie
Designated as the official dessert of the state of Maryland, Smith Island cake is a layered cake filled with either icing, fudge, cream, and/or crushed candy bars. The best-known variety is the one with yellow layers and a chocolate icing filling, but the recipes vary in the number of layers, and the cakes can be made with various different flavors.
MOST ICONIC Smith Island Cake
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Traditionally associated with the American South, this creamy cake usually consists of at least two thick sponges coated with a coconut-flavored pastry cream or a simple meringue. The whole cake is decorated with buttercream or a cream cheese frosting and a sprinkling of desiccated coconut.
Once an irreplaceable element of every birthday party, the traditional coconut cake nowadays appears in numerous versions, which often employ citrus or almond flavors, or the slightly tart lemon curd.
MOST ICONIC Coconut Cake
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This American classic is traditionally made for Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Red velvet cake is typically covered in a French-style butter roux icing, though recently cream cheese frosting and buttercream have both been used as a simpler and tastier alternative.
During World War II and the Depression, this moist cake got its vibrant coloring from boiled beets, but has since adapted into red food coloring courtesy of a Texan company called Adams Extract. The cake gets its light and fluffy texture from the reaction caused by mixing buttermilk and vinegar together in addition to eggs, sugar, butter, baking soda, flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
MOST ICONIC Red Velvet Cake
This colorful, cinnamon-flavored cake hailing from Louisiana supposedly takes its name from the Biblical Magi—also known as the Three Kings or Wise Men. King cake is associated with the Epiphany, the Twelfth Night, and the pre-Lenten celebrations of Carnival or Mardi Gras.
The purple, green, and gold colors that are often found on King cakes represent justice, faith, and power, respectively. Beginning on the 6th of January, the people of New Orleans throw King cake parties that bring their community and families together.
MOST ICONIC King Cake
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Caramel cake is a traditional layer cake with southern roots. Layers of soft and buttery yellow sponge cake are stacked on each other with sweet caramel icing or frosting slathered in between them and all over the cake. What makes this southern classic special is not the cake itself, but the caramel frosting which is quite tricky to prepare and requires practice.
If made properly, the caramel frosting will set nicely on the cake, and it will harden at room temperature. The cake batter, which is traditionally baked in round cake pans, is usually a mix of butter, flour, eggs, milk, sugar, salt, baking powder, and vanilla extract.
MOST ICONIC Caramel Cake
This layered dessert, inspired by the famous Hungarian Dobos cake, was invented by a New Orleans baker and pastry chef Beulah Levy Ledner in the 1930s. A Louisiana favorite ever since, Doberge cake is usually filled with either chocolate, lemon, or caramel custard, and is then covered with a thin layer of buttercream and fondant icing or, alternatively, a silky ganache glaze.
In 1946, Ledner sold her business and the original recipe to Joe Gambino whose New Orleans bakery continues to make the popular cake even today.
MOST ICONIC Doberge Cake
Stack cake is a traditional cake from the Appalachian region consisting of multiple cake layers, usually six to eight, that are layered with dried apples, apple preservers, or apple butter. Since the cake is quite dry, it needs to sit for at least a day so that it soaks up the filling and turns moist and succulent.
Several countries and places in the region claim to be the place of origin, the best-known one being Harrodsburg, Kentucky where the cake is said first to have appeared in 1774. An interesting fact is that due to the way that it’s prepared, it is often claimed that in the past this cake was commonly used as a wedding cake throughout the entire Appalachian region - each woman who attended the wedding was supposed to bring a layer, and the bride's family then assembled the full cake.
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Smearcase is a traditional cheesecake variety originating from Baltimore, Maryland. The base for the cake is usually made with a combination of flour, baking powder, sugar, oil, eggs, and salt; while the custardy filling is usually made with a combination of cream cheese, sugar, milk, flour, vanilla, and eggs.
As a final touch, smearcase is dusted with cinnamon before serving. When compared with standard American cheesecakes, smearcase should have a lighter and less sugary flavor, while the crust is more cake-like. It's usually cut into large rectangular pieces before serving.
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