Deck the Halls With These Holiday Cakes From Around the World
Whip up Babka, Budapest Rolls, Black Cake, and a Bûche de Noël to crown the sweetest season of the year.
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Almond-Cardamom Budapest RollHoliday dinners and parties all over the world call for cake, whether soaked with liquor, rolled with chocolate, layered with fruit, or covered with nuts. We’ve collected our favorite recipes for your next dessert buffet or dinner, including a Panettone from Italy, French Bûche de Noël, Jamaican Black Cake, German Kuchen, and an epic Chocolate Babka.
Panettone
Toasted hazelnuts and softened chocolate make this rich, buttery Italian panettone recipe from Chicago baker Greg Wade a favorite during the holidays.
Jamaican Black Cake
The delicate nuance of raw almonds (and almond extract), the warm spiky notes of allspice, and plenty of rum inform Brigid Ransome Washington’s version of Black Cake with a uniquely Jamaican sensibility.
Bûche de Noël
A few smart moves make this Bûche de Noël by Paige Grandjean a cut above the rest. Allowing the cake to cool while still rolled helps prevent cracking. Mascarpone stabilizes the whipped cream filling so that it can be chilled up for hours without weeping. Butter and corn syrup in the ganache keep it smooth and glossy. And stirring slivered toasted almonds into the ganache frosting gives it a “tree bark” look and adds contrasting texture to the silky filling and tender cake.
Christmas Boiled Fruit Cake
This easy and forgiving recipe is inspired by a boiled fruit cake Andrew Zimmern tasted when visiting Newfoundland. By boiling the dried fruit with rum, molasses, cream and spices the cake turns out deliciously spongy and moist.
Plum Pudding
This dessert is not pudding in the American sense of the word, but in the British sense—meaning dessert. The bright orange zest, warm spices, and dried fruit in this rich, moist, dense steamed cake bring all of the holiday feels to the table. The hard sauce that accompanies it is basically brandy butter. When you dollop it on top, it slowly melts into the warm cake, infusing the pudding with the richness of the butter, the sweetness of the sugar, and the warmth from the brandy.
Almond-Cardamom Budapest Roll
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Almond-Cardamom Budapest RollThis decadent roll cake by Ann Taylor Pittman pairs an almond flour meringue base with sweetened whipped cream and orange segments.
Saffron Tea Cakes
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Saffron Tea CakesThese fluffy brioche-based tea cakes play off the flavors of lussekatter, a Swedish pastry featuring saffron, spices, and raisins.
Chocolate Babka
Melissa Weller’s amazing babka cake gets extra flavor in the swirl from cookie crumbs. As a bonus, it's topped with a thick, luscious chocolate glaze.
Apricot Kuchen
Kuchen is a traditional German fruit- or cheese-filled yeast cake that's common in North Dakota (Nancy Olson says it's in countless church cookbooks) and served at any time of day. This is Olson's adaptation of her grandmother's version. "I love that this is a hearty, rustic, belly-filling pastry; nothing dainty about it," she says.
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