Skip to Content

The Cake Everyone Was Obsessed With The Year You Were Born

'90s kids, you have Barbie AND a Michelin-starred chef to thank for your fave desserts.

By
red velvet cheesecake cake slice
Chelsea Lupkin

'90s kids, you have Barbie AND a Michelin-starred chef to thank for your fave desserts.

1
Food, Cuisine, Ingredient, Dessert, Tableware, Recipe, Sweetness, Dish, Dairy, Baked goods,

Don't forget to pin it for later!

2

1950s: German Chocolate Cake

<p>Sam German created the mild, dark baking chocolate called Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate in 1852; in the late 1950s, a Dallas newspaper published a recipe for German's Chocolate Cake. The dessert took the South by storm and has been a staple ever since.</p><p><b>Recipe: </b><a href="/recipefinder/german-chocolate-cake-recipe-fw0811" target="_blank"><b>German Chocolate Cake</b></a></p>
Con Poulos

Like all great culinary innovations of our day — Deep-fried Twinkies! Tater dogs on a stick! Pickle dogs! — this treat became mainstream at a state fair. A year later, in 1957, the recipe started popping up in newspapers, and German chocolate sales skyrocketed 73 percent. 

Get the recipe from Delish.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
3

1960s: Pink Champagne Cake

Strawberry Mimosa Cupcakes
Jonathan Boulton

Back in the 1960s, Pink Champagne Cake was dubbed the "elite of party cakes," with its light, airy texture (thanks to several egg whites and 3/4 of a cup of Champagne). It remains one of the Los Angeles Times's most-requested recipes

Try a riff on the trend with these Strawberry Chapagne Cupcakes from Delish.

4

1966: Tunnel of Fudge Cake

Food, Cuisine, Sweetness, Dessert, Baked goods, Ingredient, Dish, Ciambella, Recipe, Glaze,
Flickr/Elaine Ashton

Ella Helfrich may not have won the grand-prize in the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-off (she nabbed second), but she launched a national obsession with her decadent, fudge-filled Tunnel of Fudge Cake. More than 200,000 letters were sent to the Dough Boy's HQ, all requesting the recipe — and where they could find a Bundt pan to make it their own.

Get the recipe from Pillsbury.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
5

1968: Sock-It-to-Me Cake

Food, Cuisine, Dessert, Baked goods, Dish, Sweetness, Plate, Amber, Orange, Ingredient,
Flickr/Stacy Spensley

That famous line from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In got immortalized in cake shortly after Richard Nixon uttered the line while campaigning for prez, writes Anne Byrn in American Cake. The dessert's a sour cream coffee cake, based on a cake mix, and was such a hit that Duncan Hines ran the recipe on the back of the box for years. 

Get the recipe from Duncan Hines.

6

1970-1975: Carrot Cake

<p>Layer for layer, this cake packs the most flavor into any dessert in our database. Crushed pineapple, chopped banana, and vanilla pudding mix keep the layers moist, while vanilla and almond extract, cinnamon, white chocolate, and coconut add dynamic flavor. Top with a White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and you've got a show-stopping dessert.</p><p><b>Recipe: </b><a href="/recipefinder/mile-high-white-chocolate-hummingbird-cake-recipe-mr0612" target="_blank"><b>Mile-High White Chocolate Hummingbird Cake </b></a></p>
Oxmoor House

The health-conscious movement of the early '70s affected everything, cake included (IS NOTHING SACRED?!). Carrot cakes loaded with the vegetable, nuts and plenty of raisins emerged as the uh, "healthy" alternative to traditional chocolate and vanilla desserts, according to The Secret Life of Baked Goods.

Get the recipe from Delish.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
7

1976: Watergate Cake

Food, Cuisine, Sweetness, Green, Cake, Ingredient, Dessert, Dish, Cake decorating, Baked goods,
YouTube/Nocolorlinesglobal

Watergate Cake, like its close cousin, Watergate Salad, proved that in the '70s, people loved topical desserts — and associating gobs of pistachio with then-president Richard Nixon. The recipe, which calls for pistachio pudding mix, was so popular Giant Foods had a hard time keeping the product on shelves. (YouTube user Nocolorlinesglobal demos exactly how to make it here.)

Get the recipe from FoodTimeline.org.

8

1977: Rum Cake

Food, Cuisine, Plate, Dish, Dishware, Sweetness, Baked goods, Ingredient, Input device, Serveware,
Flickr/Erin

Ah, rum. It's not just for tiki drinks and Jack Sparrow jokes. The spirit's been added to cakes since the 1800s, but it really took off in the late '70s, when Bacardi's president had his team create and market a recipe for the cake using 6 ounces of dark rum. 

Get the recipe from Better Recipes.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
9

1978-1979: Hummingbird Cake

<p>Hummingbird Cake is the most requested recipe in <i>Southern Living</i> history. The recipe first appeared in the magazine in 1978 as a reader recipe submitted by Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, North Carolina; since then it's been the star at the table at family gathering across the South. This updated version has less sugar and oil than the original, fewer eggs, and half the salt.</p>

<p><b>Recipe:</b> <a href="/recipefinder/updated-hummingbird-cake-recipe-sl0510" target="_blank"><b>Updated Hummingbird Cake</b></a></p>

This dessert — featuring a blend of mashed banana, cinnamon and crushed pineapple — has one seriously surprising genesis story: It was originally called the Dr. Bird Cake, and it was created as a marketing ploy to get people to visit Jamaica in 1969. It wasn't until Southern Living featured the dish in 1978 that it achieved widespread fame, becoming one of the magazine's most popular cake recipes, according to American Cake.

Get the recipe from Delish.

10

1980-1981: Wellesley Fudge Cake

Bruce Bogtrotter Cake
Jonathan Boulton

This dense chocolate cake, covered in a layer of fudge frosting, is so beloved it was actually added to Wellesley College's centennial time capsule in 1981, so future generations know how to make something other than Hot Pockets and Soylent Green, or whatever's en vogue 100 years from now. Its inclusion is also a subtle jab at the older administration; Wellesley's founder was against snacking and sweets, so students would secretly make fudge, melting chocolate and butter on Bunsen burners borrowed from the chem lab, according to American Cake. The frosting's a nod to those rebellious days.

Get the recipe from Kraft.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
11

1982-1983: Robert Redford Cake

Robert Redford Cake
Flickr/Tim Hoggarth

Wanna know when you've truly made it? When you have not one but two cakes vying to be named after you. These days, many people know a layered cheesecake and chocolate pudding treat by that name (or Fat Man's Delight, oddly enough), but in the early '80s, Robert Redford Cake meant Nutella on crack. The chocolate-hazelnut cake was coated in a rich, chocolate ganache, and American Cake states it's the treat the actor was served while dining at Hisae's restaurant in New York.

Get the recipe from the The New York Times

12

1984: Country Apple Coffee Cake

cider bubble up cake
Jonathan Boulton

Susan Porubcan of Jefferson, Wisconsin, took home the grand prize at the 1984 Pillsbury Bake-Off for her Country Apple Coffee Cake, which involved covering sliced apples with biscuit dough and a whiskey-cinnamon-brown sugar mixture, then baking and topping it with a vanilla glaze. Here's her recipe.

For a caramel apple take, try this bubble-up bake from Delish.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
13

1985-1987: Mississippi Mud Cake

<p>Just like the banks of the Mississippi River, this cake is ooey, gooey, and chocolate brown. The original Mississippi Mud Cake is thought to have been created by World War II–era cooks who found a way to use available ingredients to make a dense chocolate cake.</p><br />
<p><b>Recipe: </b><a href="/recipefinder/mississippi-mud-cake-recipe-sl0510" target="_blank"><b>Mississippi Mud Cake</b></a></p>

Big hair, big jewelry, big ... shoulder pads — the '80s were a time when everything was OTT, and desserts were no different. Decadent chocolate desserts reigned supreme, and recipes everywhere touted "mud" in the titles, suggesting a dense, fudgy treat. 

Mississippi Mud Cake isn't for the faint of heart; it combines a brownie-like base with marshmallow buttercream frosting, rich chocolate ganache and chopped pecans. 

Get the recipe on Delish.

14

1988-1989: Chocolate Praline Layer Cake

Food, Cuisine, Dessert, Cake, Sweetness, Baked goods, Dish, Recipe, Ingredient, Dairy,
Flickr/Tonydolor

Continuing the chocoholic '80s trend is the Chocolate Praline Layer Cake, which won the grand prize in the Pillsbury Bake-Off in '88. For good reason: It tricks out a Devil's Food Cake mix with whipping cream, brown sugar and chopped pecans, and the whole thing's topped with a fluffy whipped cream frosting, chocolate curls and more pecans. We're nuts about it.

Get the recipe from Pillsbury.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
15

1990: Better Than Sex Cake

Food, Cuisine, Ingredient, Dessert, Baked goods, Dish, Sweetness, Finger food, Recipe, Snack,
Courtesy of The Chic Site

If we didn't have your attention — and how could we not, given that you're staring at photos of cake?! — we're betting we do now. This racy cake has taken on several forms over the years (and titles: Holy Cow Cake, OMG Cake, Finger Lickin' Good Cake, just to name a few), though the two primary varieties are (1) cake mix, crushed pineapple, vanilla pudding mix, whipped topping, pecans and coconut; or (2), chocolate cake, caramel, sweetened condensed milk, whipped topping and crushed candy bars, according to The Secret Life of Baked Goods. In 1990, a humorist wrote about baking the dish for her family, who responded very matter-of-factly: "Mom, it's just a cake. You understand that, don't you?"

Get the recipe from The Chic Site.

16

1991-1992: Molten Chocolate Cake

molten chocolate cakes
Chelsea Lupkin

Jean-Georges Vongerichten may not have realized he was changing the future of restaurant desserts when he added a chocolate cake with a gooey center on the menu at his Michelin-starred restaurant back in '87, but by 1991, the craze had taken hold, with copycats popping up in high-end restaurants everywhere. Nowadays it's totally mainstream: You can't eat at a Chili's or Applebee's without seeing a similar version there, too.

Get the recipe from Delish.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
17

1993-1995: Barbie Birthday Cake

<p>Surprise your little girl on her birthday with this pink-frosted tribute to one of America's most iconic dolls. Be sure to use a brand-new Barbie for this festive confection.</p><p><b>Recipe:</b> <a href="/recipefinder/barbie-birthday-cake-recipe-mslo0710" target="_blank"><b>Barbie Birthday Cake</b></a></p>
Courtesy of Martha Stewart

If you went to a kid's birthday party in the early '90s, there's a good chance this cake was the centerpiece of the entire soiree (unless you only befriended Alex P. Keaton types). The cake was so undeniably popular it became a staple of supermarket bakery menus everywhere, and even inspired Martha Stewart to take on the trend.

Get the recipe from Delish.

18

1996: Boston Creme Pie

boston cream cupcakes
Chelsea Lupkin

Talk about stiff competition: The Boston Cream Pie beat out the chocolate chip cookie to become the official Massachusetts State Dessert in '96. And yes, it's called pie, but you can't deny that the layers sandwiching that creme filling are definitively cakes. It counts. 

Get the recipe from Delish.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below
19

1997-1999: Coca-Cola Cake

Coca Cola Cake
Flickr/Sheila Scarborough

When you're living in the South, you don't ask someone if they want a soda, you ask if they want a Coke, so it's only fitting a Coca-Cola sheet cake is also regionally famous there. The dessert started popping up at potlucks in the 1950s, but it hit nationwide fame in the late '90s, after Cracker Barrel added a version to its menu

Get the recipe from Coca-Cola

20

2000: Vanilla cupcakes

Magnolia Bakery Cupcakes
Chelsea Lupkin

Carrie Bradshaw started a cultural phenomenon — and the whole cupcakery trend, to some degree — after she discussed her relationship woes over one of Magnolia's famous, pink-frosted vanilla cupcakes during season three. The show may be long over, but the treats are every bit as delish.

Learn how to master Magnolia's signature swirl here.

Watch Next 
preview for Watch Our Newest Videos
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below