Craving a taste of France? From rustic desserts to elegant pastries, I’ve rounded up 25 French cake recipes that you can make right in your own kitchen. Get ready to indulge in some seriously delicious gâteaux!
1. Traditional Gugelhupf (Kugelhopf in France)
Gugelhupf is a yeasted cake loved throughout Central Europe, and it bursts with lemon, rum, raisins, almonds, and butter. The flavor is special, and the light texture is wonderful because the dough proofs so much.
The shape is also part of what makes it so charming. It’s usually baked in a special mold.
2. Madeleines
Madeleines are cake-like butter cookies shaped like scallops, but their taste and texture are hard to get just right.
To create a soft cookie that dissolves in your mouth, you’ll need to gently incorporate the eggs and butter into the batter.
3. Fiadone-Style Cheesecake with a Cherry Coulis
Fiadone-style cheesecake is one of the simplest cheesecakes you could make because its batter only needs four things: eggs, ricotta cheese, lemon, and sugar.
It becomes a cake with an amazing flavor balance, and it’s best with a sweet cherry coulis on the side or on top.
4. Mille Feuille Cake
This cake will spark your eyes and taste buds with its sensational taste, texture, and visual appeal. This amazing treat is made up of custard and three layers of caramelized puff pastry and finished with fresh berries.
To make this cake, just grab some store-bought puff pastry, and you’re practically done!
5. Bûche de Noël Recipe (Yule Log Cake)
A Bûche de Noël, or “Log of Christmas,” is a Yule Log with light chocolate sponge rolled into a log that’s filled with whipped cream or chocolate frosting. To finish the holiday treat, add chocolate frosting or ganache and meringue mushrooms. Plain or spruced up with cranberries and blueberries, this cake is great for the holidays.
6. French Chocolate Cake
French chocolate cake is a special treat that’ll give your taste buds a reason to sing. It combines a moist, rich chocolate cake and a crisp outer crust.
Served warm or cold, French chocolate cake is a rustic treat that makes any occasion special.
7. Galette Des Rois (French King Cake)
The French King Cake, otherwise known as Galette des Rois, is eaten every year for the festival of Epiphany, and between the almond custard filling and the flaky pastry encasing, you will find it impossible to resist.
Commonly decorated with icing, this cake has a trinket inside, and whoever finds it gets crowned king or queen!
8. ULTIMATE Paris-Brest
A visit to Paris wouldn’t be complete without enjoying the decadent Paris-Brest. This ring-shaped choux pastry is filled with hazelnut praline mousseline and topped with almonds.
Crispy pastry and smooth mousseline cream will make you fall in love with Paris all over again.
9. Far Breton ~ French Custard Cake
Far Breton is a custard cake from the Brittany region in northwestern France, and this dessert is made of thick custard and rum-soaked prunes.
Baked in a round mold, the custard has a creamy texture that melts.
10. Kouign-Amann
Kouign-Amann is a truly delicious French pastry that’s caramelized on the outside with layers of delicate dough filled with sugar and butter. To make it extra flaky and amazing, the dough is folded many times, and the golden brown glaze gives it a great outer crunch.
Ditch plain old croissants once you try this.
11. Croquembouche (Profiterole Tower)
A croquembouche is a pastry tower consisting of choux buns held together with caramelized sugar. Stuffed with a pastry creme filling, these profiteroles are also called cream puffs.
Shaped like a tree or cone, a croquembouche is typically garnished with flowers, ribbons, and spun sugar. Dating back centuries, this sweet is used to honor birthdays and weddings.
12. French Fraisier Cake
Traditional Fraisier Cake, bursting with fresh strawberries, is a scrumptious summer dessert.
Make a Genoise sponge (like angel food cake with whipped eggs) and gently fold in the fat and flour. Genoise uses whole eggs, giving it a much richer finish.
It’s tangy, sweet, and super pretty when brushed with strawberry syrup and filled with diplomat cream.
13. Authentic French Financier
Financiers are dense, moist, and exceptionally buttery cakes made with almond meal, egg whites, honey, and butter for a pretty unique texture and flavor. With a flavor more dense than that of other traditional cakes, a Financier is great to pair with tea or coffee.
This recipe puts a mini muffin spin on the rectangular cake to make them ideal for parties.
14. Easy Opera Cake
The French opera cake is made of layers of almond sponge, coffee-infused cream, and chocolate ganache, and it tastes as great as it looks. The complex flavors in this cake come from the intense coffee, silky ganache, and soft cake.
If you want something special to enjoy, this French cake is the way to go!
15. Gâteau Basque
Gâteau Basque is a great dessert that comes with a flaky round pastry base and a lightly sweetened custard or fruit preserves filling. With the creamy filling and the pastry dough, it’s easy to enjoy alone or with fresh berries and cream.
Deceptively simple to make, it’s pretty and delectable!
16. Barefoot Contessa Baba au Rhum
Baba au Rhum has a light and moist yeasted cake soaked in rum sauce and brushed with glaze. The cake base can also have currants or raisins that enhance the sweetness and add texture.
This cake bursts with sweet and boozy flavors, so it’s great for the holidays.
17. Quatre-Quarts
The Quatre-Quarts is a pound cake that has equal parts of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. The name means “four fourths” because of its ingredients.
Also, it uses a rectangular pan for easy cutting, and you can enjoy the pound cake plain or dusted with cocoa powder.
18. Cherry Clafoutis
Cherry Clafoutis gives a special twist to a cake because it’s a combo of cake and custard made by pouring batter over arranged cherries before baking.
You’ll get a delectably sweet treat with a crisp top and creamy custard.
Yum!
19. French Apple Cake
Want the French flair but need convenience? This French apple cake does the trick.
It features tender apple slices in a rum-infused batter and is sweet and great with coffee. Top it with caramel sauce or powdered sugar for a great French dessert that takes minimal effort.
20. Ridiculously Easy French Butter Cake
Let’s kick things off with something simple: French butter cake! This treat is a lot like Kentucky butter cake, but it uses almond extract and Greek yogurt for extra moisture.
It gets a brushing of sweet butter sauce, so the rich flavor is greater. Finish it with powdered sugar for extra pizazz.
21. French Yogurt Cake
This French cake is a light and yummy treat that impresses, and the light sponge calls for eggs, yogurt, and flour.
While pretty dense, it’s soft and moist, and you can add toppings like seasonal berries or citrus zest for even greater flavor.
22. Marjolaine, aka Dacquoise
Marjolaine is made with layers of meringue or dacquoise sandwiched with buttercream filling, then it’s topped with caramel or chocolate ganache.
It’s served during marriage feasts or for the Christmas holidays, which gives it great significance.
23. Gâteau St. Honore
Like croquembouche, this great dessert has cream-filled choux buns and caramel-ribboned spun sugar, and it might even have a small tart or eclair.
Requiring dedication and specific ingredients, it’s not easy to make, but it’s highly rewarding for those who try.