Explore these 49 holiday cake recipes for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. From simple recipes to showstopper desserts, these will inspire you to bring cake this year instead of pie!
(Check these out if you have leftover egg whites or leftover egg yolks from your holiday baking.)

If you’ve ever wondered what’s a good cake to serve at a holiday gathering, you’re in for a treat!
49 Holiday Cake Recipes
Discover festive cake ideas that would suit all your family gatherings this holiday season. From popular cakes like yule log cake and crema de fruta Christmas cake to popular Christmas flavors like eggnog and pumpkin, from layer cakes to bundt cakes to cheesecakes, find your holiday inspiration here!
Learn how to make a Yule log cake, a special Christmas dessert with a soft chocolate sponge and creamy frosting.
Ube cake is a staple in any Filipino celebration. Light and fluffy ube cake layers frosted with the most luxurious ube buttercream. It doesn’t only look stunning, it’s mouthwateringly good too! Read on and find out why this recipe is a reader favorite and consistently has a 5-star rating.
Crema de Fruta is a Filipino dessert made of delicious layers of soft fluffy cake, rich creamy custard, and fruit blanketed in gelatine. Fun, festive, definitely deserves a place in your celebrations.
If you’re looking for the best holiday dessert, this no bake eggnog cheesecake is it! A delicious way to get into the holiday spirit. Easy to make, no need to bake, make-ahead, and packed with all the wonderful, warm flavors of the season.
This Biscoff cake recipe is made of tender vanilla cake layers, rich Lotus Biscoff spread filling and a delightfully creamy Biscoff frosting. It’s the best cookie butter cake and so easy to make! Keep reading for lots of tips, FAQs and step-by-step photos.
Pistachio sans rival is a mouthwatering variation of the popular Filipino cake, sans rival. Layers of crunchy and chewy pistachio meringue plus luxurious French buttercream, this is absolutely a cake for the ages.
Red velvet cake with ermine frosting is the red velvet cake of the good old days. It’s not weighed down with heavy cream cheese but paired with the most delicate whipped ermine frosting. The combination is delicious!
Raspberry vanilla cake — your favorite vanilla layer cake filled and frosted with raspberry buttercream. Soft, tender, delicious! And it’s very easy to make too.
Garam Masala Spiced Gingerbread Cake is my adaption of classic Gingerbread Cake with a hint of very Indian Garam Masala and sweetened with Nolen/Kajur Gur
Amazing rustic layered cranberry orange holiday cake recipe - perfect for a Christmas wedding or a holiday party. It's doable no matter your skill level.
This coconut flour cake recipe is light, fluffy and delicately sweet. Its paleo, keto and the perfect healthy dessert for any occasion!
This chocolate overload cake is what chocolate dreams are made of — a tender chocolate layer cake frosted with a rich dark chocolate fudge frosting. Perfect for birthdays, holidays, and all your celebrations.
Chocolate chiffon cake with whipped cream frosting – chocolatey chiffon cake that’s light as air frosted with whipped vanilla cream that’s equally light and fluffy!
This Irish Chocolate Cake with Baileys Buttercream Frosting. Layered chocolate cake with Baileys buttercream frosting & chocolate shards.
This chocolate raspberry cake with mascarpone frosting is a decadent and festive holiday dessert that is simple to bake up and even easier to decorate!
I've taken Nigella's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake and added an orange creme au beurre and a chocolate cremeux. A great gluten free celebration cake.
Simple, yet decadent, this super easy vegan chocolate cake recipe is guaranteed to become your new go-to. Feel free to change up the fruit seasonally!
Lemon cake with lemon curd filling – smooth and silky lemon curd reside between the layers of this soft lemony cake frosted with lemon buttercream. This is the ultimate lemon curd layer cake for lemon lovers. Did I mention there was lemon?
The best lemon cheesecake. Ever. Exquisitely light and lemony. Perfectly sweet and tangy. Gorgeous sunshine yellow. Delightful coconut cookie crust and topped with lemony whipped cream. This is it, the perfect lemon cheesecake.
Add a little beer to this light and citrusy dessert for a new take on a family favorite. This Lemon Beer Cake is a perfect option for breakfast or dessert.
Italian lemon olive oil cake, a mascarpone cake recipe with berries, lemon curd, blueberry sauce and blackberries.
Italian Fresh Cream Lemon Cake recipe,an easy made from scratch, the perfect homemade breakfast, snack cake. An Italian sweet cake. Enjoy!
Japanese cheesecake (also called soufflé cheesecake or cotton cheesecake) is a soft and fluffy Japanese cake. While this also has a cream cheese base, unlike its Western counterparts which tend to be on the rich and decadent side, Japanese style cheesecake is light and delicate, not too sweet, a delight!
Ube basque cheesecake is smooth, creamy and packed with the ube flavor you love. With its characteristic burnt exterior and a luxurious ube filling, it’s perfect for all your celebrations!
Bibingka cheesecake is the latest and greatest Filipino dessert mashup that will make your tastebuds sing. Sweet and salty bibingka and creamy, dreamy cheesecake combine for a truly extraordinary treat.
These no bake pumpkin cheesecake bars will be one of the easiest desserts you’ll make this holiday season. No bake, can be made ahead, always comes out fabulous. The perfect way to end your epic Thanksgiving meal.
Biscoff cheesecake is creamy, decadent and so good! It has a Biscoff cookie crust, a rich cheesecake filling, and topped with more cookie butter goodness. Just the kind of dessert to serve at birthdays, the holidays, and other celebrations.
This is the best pistachio cheesecake ever — rich, creamy, packed with real pistachio flavor. And it’s very easy to make you won’t even need a water bath. I give lots of tips for perfect cheesecakes below. Check it out!
This is the best no bake orange cheesecake ever! It’s so easy to make, incredibly creamy, and bursting with bright and vibrant orange flavour. Make it in the winter when oranges are at their best, or in the warmer months for a delicious, refreshing treat.
This is the best and the original ube cheesecake recipe. The recipe that’s inspired so many copycats; it just goes to show how outstanding this recipe is. And it does have everything you’ve ever wanted in an ube dessert. Luxurious ube cheesecake filling on a bed of crunchy coconut cookie crust then topped with creamy coconut whipped cream. So good.
Matcha cheesecake is rich, creamy and packed with that green tea flavor you love. With white chocolate in the batter and an Oreo cookie crust, it’s sure to become your new favorite matcha dessert.
Two layers of classic Italian Cream Cake and a complementary layer of coconut pecan cheesecake sandwiched in the middle make for one amazing dessert!
This raw cheesecake with a berry topping and vanilla bean center is gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, paleo...and one of my favorite holiday desserts.
Eggless tiramisu is one the easiest desserts you’ll ever make. It’s creamy, chocolatey and a hit at every party. Make it ahead of time for stress-free hosting.
Ube tiramisu is the no bake ube cake you’ve been waiting for. And unlike other tiramisu recipes, this recipe doesn’t contain eggs and only needs 7 ingredients, which makes it so easy to make! With its vibrant purple color and creamy dreamy texture, it’s destined to be the star of your celebrations.
Pistachio tiramisu is made with creamy mascarpone cheese, luxurious pistachio cream and crunchy roasted pistachios. Make-ahead, no-bake, easy to make, feeds a crowd and so good!
This yema cake recipe has everything you love about this favorite Filipino dessert. Soft and airy chiffon cake, rich and thick yema spread, and yema frosting that’s stable and so easy to decorate with.
Mango chiffon cake is light and tender, frosted with the most delicate mango whipped cream, and filled with creamy mango curd. Use the season’s best mangoes for the ultimate summer treat or use frozen mangoes so you can enjoy this delightful cake all year.
London fog cake with earl grey buttercream — layers of rich, moist, chocolate cake covered with luxurious earl grey Swiss meringue buttercream then topped with decadent salted caramel sauce. The components work perfectly together for one amazing cake.
Spiced Apple Cider Cake with Frosted Cranberries is perfect as a stunning centre pieces for any holiday event or a delicious Fall cake.
A soft, moist, delicious vanilla cake with lemon kiwi curd filling and a speckled blackberry buttercream frosting. Perfect celebratory cake!
Ube pound cake is a delicious twist on the classic pound cake. Swirls of purple marbled beautifully all over with hints of delightful ube in every bite of vanilla butter cake. The combination is divine. The recipe is easy to follow, too, with lots of tips, FAQs and step-by-step photos for perfect ube cake every time.
Old fashioned buttermilk pound cake is a classic for a reason — moist, delicious, simple to make and so buttery! It’s an excellent addition to your recipe collection and a great way to use that extra buttermilk.
Eggnog pound cake is everyone’s favorite pound cake with a holiday twist. With a tender crumb and so easy to make, enjoy it all season long!
This pumpkin bundt cake with cream cheese filling will be the star of your Thanksgiving celebrations. It’s a perfectly spiced pumpkin cake with pecans and a cream cheese center. So delicious and full of the warm, cozy flavors of fall.
This clementine almond bundt cake recipe is fruity and delicious. It’s a wonderful winter recipe and makes for a great dessert at a holiday dinner.
Real ingredients make holiday foods better. This fresh cranberry cake recipe is an example of that. The cranberry sour cream bundt cake features fresh cranberries and organic sour cream & butter. This Fresh Cranberry Cake recipe is a fun and festive that makes a pretty presentation with easy decorating. The fresh cranberries in this CranberryContinue Reading
This clementine cake is easy to make and naturally gluten-free. A delicious citrus flavor, festive glaze & wonderfully moist. Perfect for sharing.
This chocolate cherry bundt cake is packed with fresh cherries and dark chocolate chips. Easy to make and so good, serve to friends and family, bring to picnics, or simply enjoy with your favorite cup of coffee.
Whatever you decide to make, I hope you enjoy baking it and sharing with family and friends.
Happy holidays!
What holiday cake did you bake this year? I’d love to hear all about it! Leave a comment below. You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook. I’d love to see your creations!
You can also find me on Pinterest and YouTube.
And check out my Amazon Store to see the exact brands and tools I use for baking.







Lauren
Oh my goodness!! ALL of these look amazing!!
Jolina
I agree! So hard to pick just 1 favourite eh? 🙂
Jamie.
These are all so gorgeous. I really want to learn how to make pretty cakes like this.
Jolina
Hi Jaime! It’s really just practice. Start with the Wilton 1M tip, it’s a favourite tip among decorators, and just go for it 🙂 Or do as I do – cover my mistakes with sprinkles and be done with it haha 🙂 In any case, have fun!
Marlynn
Wow, how on earth does one choose from such an amazing collection of gorgeous cakes?! They are all stunning and sound delicious. I’ll take one of each please 🙂
Jolina
Haha I’ll take one of each too! Thanks Marlynn! Hope you get a chance to try one of the 32 🙂
John
Thanks for including my cake and in such fantastic company! Yum!
Jolina
Hi John! It was my pleasure. Your pumpkin pie looks incredible and so delicious! Perfect for Thanksgiving 🙂
Jolina
LOL that’s very true 🙂 You’re too funny Mariana. I have lots of ugly cakes believe me, but they still taste delicious and we still eat them!
Dawn
How about I just make a meal out of these cakes? What a collection! They all look so pretty too. I can’t believe we are THAT close to Christmas! It’s freakin’ unreal, but exciting at the same time. I better get goin’ on my shopping. Hope you guys are having a fantastic weekend 🙂
Jolina
Or, how about 1 cake per day until Christmas? Now that would be amazing (and unreal) haha! Although we have our decorations up, we have not done any shopping. Uh oh now I feel the pressure. Thanks Dawn! Have a fantastic weekend yourself!
Mary
These cakes are amazing looking, almost too pretty to eat!
Jolina
Thanks Mary! They are very pretty aren’t they? Sometimes when I decorate and I’m particularly successful (I’m not very good you see lol), it almost breaks my heart to slice into it hahaha. Do you have a favourite one in the collection?