20 French Cakes You Need To Try At Least Once

The French are masters of pastry, so it's no surprise that their cakes are some of the very best in the world. When it comes to dessert, French cuisine is the gold standard of precision and aesthetics. Classic French cakes are ingredient-forward, celebrating the flavors of anything from chocolate to fruit without masking them with sugar. France is steeped in the tradition of cuisine, and French chefs take their pastries (and cakes) very seriously. The resulting recipes have been passed down over generations and perfected.

Some of these cakes are humble, everyday affairs: The classic French yogurt cake, which many a French cook would know by heart, relies on a jar of yogurt as the unit of measurement. But most of them are technical, requiring an understanding of some of the more difficult skills in pastry, like achieving the perfect temperature of caramel or a knowledge of lamination to make flaky homemade puff pastry.

As a veteran baker and longtime writer for King Arthur Baking Company, I've spent countless hours discussing the merits, architecture, and technique of French pastry and cakes. Here, I'll dive into 20 of the very best French cakes and what makes them so distinctive.

What holiday dessert tableau is complete without a bûche de Noël, or Yule log, as a centerpiece? This jelly-roll style cake is adorned with sugared decorations to resemble a real log topped with holly leaves and miniature mushrooms. The history of the cake isn't very long, but the inspiration for it dates back centuries. In Europe, a Yule log (a large, heavy log) would be lit on Christmas Eve and rekindled each day until Twelfth Night.

The Yule log was central to the holiday festivities, and the Yule log cake is a celebration of that tradition. While bakers make all varieties of bûche de Noël cakes, varying the fillings and flavorings, the traditional form is a chocolate or vanilla sponge cake (or Swiss roll) filled and frosted with chocolate buttercream. Typical flavor enhancements echo the season: chestnuts, rum, and eggnog.

The history of this intricate, iconic cake is a contested one. Two different Parisian bakeries claim to have invented it: Maison Lenôtre in the 1960s and Maison Dalloyau in 1955, but no definitive account exists. Layers of almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup alternate with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache, all enrobed in glistening chocolate. It gets its name from its architectural layers, which are said to resemble an opera house.

This layered cake puts a basic American layer cake to shame. All marjolaine cakes rely on dacquoise — a nutty, typically flourless almond cake — as their base, which is covered in layers of praline buttercream and swathed in rich chocolate ganache. It is a study in contrasts from creamy and crunchy to light and rich. The dacquoise cake itself is moist and almost chewy.

It's a close cousin to the base of a macaron, as both are made with ground nuts (almonds or sometimes hazelnuts) and whipped egg whites to give the pastry body and structure. When combined with the buttercream, the sponge layers soften slightly, creating a dense and rich mouthful of cake.

Decidedly booze forward, this is a dessert for spirit lovers. In an unusual twist, it is a yeasted cake, similar to a kugelhopf. The baba was said to have been brought to France by way of Poland by the deposed king Stanislas Leszczynska, who was exiled to Lorraine. The baba is noticeably different from its yeasted cousin, the kugelhopf, because it is soaked in a rum syrup, making it especially moist and flavorful. Both are baked in bundt-style molds, although the baba is often baked as an individual-sized cake.

This simple, humble cake requires no measurements when made the traditional way — a yogurt jar. The yogurt jar, once emptied into the mixing bowl, becomes the unit of measurement for the eggs, flour, and fat. The cake has a tender crumb and barely sweet flavor. The yogurt cake is such a simple, everyday dessert that bakers in households all over France learn it by memory. It typically calls for oil instead of butter, increasing the moisture of the cake, and is often flavored with citrus.

The most sophisticated icebox cake you'll ever eat, a Charlotte Russe cake has a stunning appearance with its characteristic ring of ladyfingers circling the outside. A cake pan is lined with ladyfingers then filled with Bavarian cream, before chilled until set. Don't let the name fool you; it's not Russian in origin but likely invented by a French chef in the early 1800s who worked for a Russian czar. 

Bavarian cream, which makes up the filling of a Charlotte Russe, is sliceable but lusciously smooth. Made by folding whipped cream and gelatin into a custard base, it has a firm but mousse-like texture. Like a simple custard, it's a blank canvas that pastry chefs like to flavor in myriad ways using fruits, extracts, chocolate, coffee, alcohol, and more.

If a cake and a crepe had a baby, you'd get a clafoutis: An eggy, custardy cake baked in a buttered dish and studded with fruit. Not to be confused with other fruit-forward desserts like a cobbler or a crisp, clafoutis has an unctuous, smooth filling. Think of the interior as having the same texture as a very good quiche: Wobbly but firm and easy to slice. The iconic version of a clafoutis is dotted with halved cherries and — you guessed it — infused with rum, but you can make a clafoutis with any fruit: pears, peaches, apples, blueberries, and on and on. The name clafoutis comes from the French verb clafir which means "to fill," because of how the dish is filled with custardy batter on top of the fruit.

The Savarin cake is a close cousin to a baba au rhum, but soaked with a syrup other than rum and baked in a ring shape. Traditionally garnished with fruit and cream, it's a celebratory cake in looks and flavor. It was invented in 1845 by the pastry chef, Auguste Julien, and is now a staple in French cuisine. While the syrup varies by baker, kirsch is often used. The savarin can be made in any bundt-style pan, but bakers prefer to use a crown-shaped pan to give it an intricate, multi-faceted surface, which is perfect for soaking up syrup.

This golden almond cake, flavored with rum and citrus, is a specialty in the French city of Nantes. Nantes was once the capital of Brittany, which is known for its sea salt harvest. Thus the cake relies on salted butter for some of its flavor. The rich and tender almond sponge is soaked with a rum syrup and topped with a thin layer of glaze, often citrus-scented, which is reminiscent of a royal icing.

These sticky, moist cakes are like a deeply flavorful gingerbread sweetened with honey, thanks to the use of rye flour and a heavy hand with spices. The name translates to "little nuns" which refers to their diminutive size. Sometimes glazed but often enjoyed plain, they're a common sight around the Christmas holidays, although you'll find them in bakeries year-round. These flavor-packed cakes are filled with orange jam or marmalade, giving the sticky crumb even more moisture.