60 Showstopping Christmas Cake Recipes

Recipe: White Cake with Peppermint Frosting

Garnish with a fondant bow or Peppermint Meringue Cookies.

Recipe: Spice Cake with Cranberry Filling

Pipe a ring of frosting around the cake layer, just inside the top edge, to keep filling from oozing out.

Recipe: Chocolate-Peppermint Cheesecake

Don't worry if your cheesecake cracks; the light and fluffy layer of whipped cream will cover it.

Recipe: White Cake with Bourbon Buttercream and Seven-Minute Frosting

Top this cake with Sugar-Coated Orange Slices and Sparkling Cherries.

Recipe: White Cake with Cranberry Filling and Orange Buttercream

This cake will be the star of your holiday meal. Your guests will be begging for the recipe.

Recipe: Acadian Syrup Cake with Roasted Pears and Caramel Sauce

A Cajun classic, this spice cake (aka Gateau au Sirop) gets much of its sweet flavor from a Southern staple, cane syrup. We love Steen's 100% Pure Cane Syrup, made in Louisiana. If you can't find pure cane syrup, don't sub a blended syrup; use honey instead. Roast the pears and make the caramel sauce while the cake cools. To dress up the cake for serving, we used a fleur-de-lis stencil to create a powdered sugar design atop this glorious dark and deeply delicious cake.

Recipe: Gingerbread Cake with Buttermilk Frosting

Warm spices and molasses blend beautifully with tangy buttermilk frosting.

Recipe: Rum-Glazed Sweet Potato Cakes

This mini Bundt cake recipe features pureed sweet potatoes, raisins, rum, and toasted pecans along with cinnamon and nutmeg and is a perfect pick-up treat for a holiday dessert party.

Recipe: Cranberry-Apple-Pumpkin Bundt

The topping on this bundt—a maple glaze with sugared pecans and pumpkin seeds—will make your guests ooh and ahh.

Recipe: Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake

Let this elegant chocolate cheesecake be the centerpiece of your holiday tablescape featuring a gorgeous White Chocolate Snowflake in the center.

Recipe: Hummingbird Cake

This ultimate recipe is the most requested in Southern Living magazine history and frequents covered dish dinners all across the South, always receiving rave reviews.

Recipe: Tennessee Jam Bundt

The best way to enjoy this blackberry and caramel confection is with friends—it makes 12 satisfying servings.

Recipe: Mama's German Chocolate Cake

Pure Southern perfection! Layers of moist German chocolate cake and sweet-and-nutty Coconut-Pecan Frosting will make this dessert an instant favorite.

Recipe: Marbled Pumpkin Praline Cake

Marbled Pumpkin Praline Cake garnished with sugared pecans, kumquats, and bay leaves.

Recipe: White Chocolate-Almond Cake

A decadent trio of dark chocolate cake layers is the delicious surprise inside this festive package. There's no need to worry about picture-perfect swirls of frosting—just spread it on. Then decorate like a pro simply by pressing finely chopped white chocolate and almonds into the top and sides of the cake. Tie on a ribbon, and you have a stunning dessert that tastes every bit as good as it looks.

Recipe: Red Velvet Cheesecake

If you love both red velvet cake and cheesecake, this perfect sweet-meets-rich-meets-creamy concoction is bound to be your new favorite dessert.

Recipe: Sugar-and-Spice Cake

Make a classic white cake for Christmas this year. This recipe starts with boxed mix, then adds a few key ingredients to make the end result light, fluffy, and totally delicious.

Recipe: Coconut Cake with Coconut Cream Frosting

If you bake anything this holiday season, let it be this. Not only is this 2020’s Big White Cake from the December cover, but it’s our 25th annual Big White Cake!

Recipe: Buche de Noel

Classic yule log cakes are a labor of love, but you should absolutely make one this year.

Recipe: Spiked Eggnog Bundt Cake

This ultra-rich cake combines your favorite holiday drink with a sweet glaze on top.

Recipe: Chocolate Peppermint Cake

The Italian meringue frosting on top of this minty-chocolatey dream is fluffy and festive.

Recipe: Snowy Vanilla Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream

We topped this Big White Cake with our adorable Cake Ball Ornaments.

Recipe: Upside Down Pear-and-Gingerbread Cake

If you’re a fan of spice cakes, you have to try this holiday upside down cake.

Recipe: Red Velvet Cheesecake-Vanilla Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

That’s right—we combined red velvet cheesecake and vanilla cake and THEN topped it with cream cheese frosting.

Recipe: Eggnog Spice Cake with Bourbon Custard Filling and Eggnog Buttercream

This eggnog-flavored cake with boozy filling is a reader favorite, and we have a feeling it will quickly become a tradition in your home.

Recipe: Red Velvet Peppermint Cake

Classic red velvet cake gets a holiday-ready makeover with the addition of peppermint and cream cheese icing.

Recipe: Sea Salt-Caramel Cake

The caramel frosting on this tender layer cake is the true star of this beautiful recipe.

Recipe: Cassandra’s “Light” Fruitcake

This fruitcake will change your opinion about the holiday tradition for good.

Recipe: Coconut Cake with Rum Filling and Coconut Ermine Frosting

If you’ve never baked with ermine frosting, you’ll fall in love with this vintage treat.

Recipe: Bourbon-Chocolate Cake with Browned Buttercream Frosting

This layer cake is appropriate for celebrations year round, but this boozy dessert feels especially festive for the holidays.

Recipe: Gingerbread Cheesecake with Lemon-Ginger Glaze

This absolutely gorgeous cheesecake can be made up to two days in advance to help you out during the busy holiday season.

Recipe: Our Best White Cake

If you’ve been baking from a box, try out this easy, classic white cake recipe.

Recipe: Peppermint Cake with Seven-Minute Frosting

We filled this layer cake with a pink peppermint buttercream for a fun surprise.

Recipe: Christmas Confetti Roulade

This colorful cake includes an orange liqueur-spiked filling for an ultimate grand finale to your Christmas.

Recipe: Buttermilk-Chocolate Cake

A decadent chocolate cake topped with silky Swiss meringue buttercream…What could make this dessert better? Gorgeous magnolia and camellia flower cake toppers, that’s what!

Recipe: Baklava Cheesecake

We love a dessert mashup more than anyone, and this silky smooth cheesecake that includes a serving of baklava in each slice is the best combo we can imagine.

Recipe: Coffee Baba au Rhum

This old-fashioned Christmas dessert is for all the coffee lovers in your life.

Recipe: Milk Punch Tres Leches Cake

If you’ve never tried Tres Leches Cake, you’re in for a tender, moist treat.

Recipe: Chocolate-Gingerbread-Toffee Cake

If you’re unsure if you should make this cake, read what one staffer said about it: "It tastes like all the wonderful flavors that come tumbling from a stocking: milk chocolate Santas, gingerbread men, and buttery toffee candy.”

Recipe: Butterscotch-Bourbon Lava Cakes

Looking for something a little more grown up than peppermint or sugar cookies? Try these photo-worthy, boozy lava cakes.

Recipe: Snowball Cake

This recipe turns a sheet cake into festive little snowballs with the help of your biscuit cutter.

Recipe: Chocolate-Mint Whipped Cream Cake

We published this recipe all the way back in November 1990, so if it’s stuck around this long, you know it’s good.

Recipe: Spice Cake with Citrus Filling

With frosting this fluffy and swirled, you don’t even need to add toppings to this layer cake.

Recipe: Gingerbread Latte Cake with Vanilla Whipped Cream Frosting

Three layers of spicy gingerbread are brushed with Espresso Simple Syrup and then covered in fluffy Vanilla Whipped Cream Frosting for your ultimate coffee shop order come to life.

Recipe: White Chocolate Poinsettia Cake

Leaf cookie cutouts make a festive poinsettia topping for this snowy white cake.

Recipe: Rudolph's Chocolate Truffle Cake

Your family full of chocolate lovers will rave about this cake for weeks.

Recipe: Coconut-Almond Cream Cake

Any coconut fanatics in your family? In this recipe, coconut cake layers are stacked with coconut-almond filling and topped with coconut-cream cheese frosting.

Recipe: Homemade Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes

Looking for an afternoon baking project to try with the kids? This copycat recipe tastes even better than the real thing, but don’t tell Little Debbie.

Recipe: Gingerbread Cake With Stout Buttercream

Because this rustic cake starts with a box of cake mix, you only need a few more ingredients to get it on your Christmas table.

Recipe: Mini Red Velvet Cakes

Mint leaves and fresh raspberries make for a festive green and red topping on these mini cakes.

Recipe: Bourbon-Praline Cheesecake

Graham crackers, pecans, butter, and brown sugar make the crust for this dessert, and it only gets better from there.

Recipe: Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

Instead of mint extract, this homemade cake gets its flavor from fresh mint leaves.

Recipe: Icebox Fruitcake

Just like the icebox cakes you love in the summertime, this holiday dessert doesn’t require any baking.

Recipe: Fresh Orange Italian Cream Cake

We added sweet, tangy orange curd between this Italian cream cake’s layers adds a bright holiday spin to this classic layer cake.