Bulk up your baking knowledge! Get to know the different types of cake and how their ingredients and techniques lend to their signature looks.
11 Types of Cake Everyone Should Know
Published on Apr. 16, 2025
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Butter Cake
Type of Butter Cake
How many times have you read “cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy” in a recipe? That’s the making of a butter cake, and that step is crucial to getting it just right. Creaming butter and sugar aerates them, which creates a lighter and puffed-up cake.
The most famous type of butter cake is yellow cake, but Devil’s food cake, red velvet cake, white cake and the vintage pineapple upside-down cake are all examples of butter cake.
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Oil Cake
Type of Butter Cake
Oil cakes are the most beginner-friendly of all the cakes, which is why boxed cake mixes so often call for oil. There’s no long creaming method required in this type of butter cake, and it’s usually a one-bowl operation. Besides its ease, though, oil cakes tend to make the most tender cakes of all. Why? Unlike butter, oil is liquid at room temperature, which keeps the crumb moist longer and, honestly, gets better as it sits.
The only downside to oil cakes is that oil isn’t as flavorful as butter. Butter cakes are simple because butter is flavorful (hence yellow cake and white cake being so popular) so oil is best for more flavorful cakes. You’ll usually see oil in carrot cake, banana cake, hummingbird cake, German chocolate cake and Black Forest cake.
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Pound Cake
Type of Butter Cake
Pound cake gets its name from the traditional weight of its ingredients: equal parts butter, flour, sugar and eggs. They are the most dense and moist of all the butter cakes. You’ll often see pound cake recipes baked in loaf pans or decorative fluted tube pans, creating Bundt cakes. Since these cakes tend to be light on decoration, they’re great everyday bakes. Bake one for dessert and have it the next day for breakfast and a sneaky slice in the afternoon.
Butter is the most common fat in pound cakes, but many recipes use a mix of fats. Our lemon-blueberry pound cake contains both butter and cream cheese, and our chocolate pound cake uses butter and shortening. Also, most pound cake batters are finished with sour cream or yogurt for extra fat, instead of milk as we commonly see in a basic butter cake’s batter. Coffee cake is one of the most popular pound cake varieties.
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Genoise Cake
Type of Sponge Cake
Genoise (pronounced “zhen-wah”) is a classic European sponge cake. When I was in culinary school, it was the first cake taught to us as it’s so prevalent in European desserts. Genoise cake uses the ribbon stage technique, then is carefully folded with flour a little at a time, being sure to not accidentally knock out and deflate any of that important air.
When made properly, genoise is a very strong, stable cake with a spongey texture. The cake itself doesn’t have a ton of flavor, so it usually gets a light brush of simple syrup for added moisture, sweetness and flavor.
Genoise cake transforms into a layer cake with the addition of jam, curd or buttercream filling. It’s then frosted in one of the five types of buttercream, though usually French, Italian or Swiss. Genoise cake can also be found in cake rolls. This cake’s texture needs to be spongey and springy so it can be rolled into a tea towel while it’s still warm from the oven. Even olive oil cake falls under a type of genoise sponge, as it starts with a ribbon stage, and then the olive oil is emulsified into the batter.
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Hot Milk Sponge Cake
Type of Sponge Cake
If butter cake and sponge cake had a baby, it would be hot milk sponge cake. This type of sponge cake contains almost as much fat as butter cake, where typical sponge cake contains little to no fat.
Hot milk cake starts by whipping eggs and sugar to ribbon stage, then mixing in the dry ingredients (including a bit of leavening agents—not usually on par with sponge cakes.) Finally, milk and butter simmer together on the stovetop, then blend right into the cake batter at the end. But why heat the milk? It gives the cake a head start on cooking, creating a loftier final sponge cake structure!
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Angel Food Cake
Type of Sponge Cake
Angel food cake is a type of sponge cake that starts with a meringue base: a whipped mixture of egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar. (Save those egg yolks for another recipe, like ice cream!) After the meringue whips to a stiff peak, fold in cake flour, then bake the cake in a tube pan so the delicate cake can cling to the sides and center so it can grow nice and tall.
Whipping egg whites can be a tricky thing. Some of the biggest meringue mistakes a baker can make is using dirty tools, or egg whites that have a speck or two of egg yolks in them. Either of those faux pas will inhibit the meringue from whipping up.
Another often overlooked step is bringing the egg whites to room temperature. I’ll never forget when my dad and I tried to make an angel food cake for Mother’s Day. We used cold eggs straight from the fridge, wondered why nothing was whipping up, then, after a quick Google search, spent the next 30 minutes trying to warm up the bowl with our hands. Oops! Lesson learned.
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Chiffon Cake
Type of Sponge Cake
While many sponge cakes use either egg whites or yolks, chiffon cake uses both. Like an angel food cake, chiffon (pronounced “shi-fahn”) cake starts with a meringue base for structure and stability. However, egg yolks whipped with oil (no-no ingredients in angel food cake) get folded in, too, for even more rise but also for richness, flavor and moisture. Finally, cake flour and a leavening agent are folded with the whipped egg mixtures.
Chiffon cake is baked in a tube pan, just like angel food cake, so it can climb up the sides and grow nice and tall. Between two whipped egg mixtures, leavening agents and a tube pan, chiffon cake is the tallest type of sponge cake. It’s finished simply with homemade whipped cream, berries, jam or curd. Our chocolate chiffon cake and lemon chiffon cake add a ton of flavor without taking away any of the delicate, pillowy texture we expect from this type of cake.
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Biscuit Cake
Type of Sponge Cake
Southern biscuits or English biscuits? Neither! Biscuit (pronounced “bis-kwee”) cake is a less commonly known type of sponge cake. Here, egg whites and egg yolks are whipped separately with sugar, then folded together with cake flour or cocoa powder. Some recipes will split the flour amount between cake flour and either potato, corn or wheat flour.
Once it’s baked, biscuit cake gets served at teatime with jam, curd or creme Anglaise. This is also the type of cake used to make ladyfingers for tiramisu or Charlotte cake!
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Cheesecake
Other Type of Cake
Cheesecake is technically a baked custard like creme brulee, but we call it “cake” and request it on our birthdays. That feels like an appropriate measure to make our ‘types of cake’ list! A traditional cheesecake has a graham cracker crust (or sometimes shortbread) and is filled with a batter made from cream cheese, eggs, vanilla and sugar. The cheesecake bakes in a water bath so it can slowly set up without losing any of its precious moisture. There are all kinds of cheesecake recipes out there, from classic flavors to modern twists.
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Ice Cream Cake and Icebox Cake
Other Type of Cake
Ice cream cake is set up just like a traditional cake, but the cake layers are, you guessed it, made up of ice cream! Some ice cream cake recipes also have a cake layer built in, but all of them are frosted just like a cake.
Icebox cakes have a looser “cake” identity. The cake has layers of chocolate wafers and whipped cream. Plenty of lovely icebox cake recipes have been created from the original overtime.
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Mille Crepe Cake
Other Type of Cake
Layers and layers and layers of crepes (with a smidge of frosting in between) make up a mille crepe cake. This is the best birthday cake for someone who doesn’t love a ton of frosting. Decorate the top simply with chocolate ganache, whipped cream and fresh fruit.
