Looking for something fluffy and light? Or rich and dense? Looking for a project or something quick? Whatever your preference, there's a cake for that.
As someone who’s baked professionally for many years , I’m always looking for a good way to organize my cake recipes. For a long time I kept them in a disheveled stack of dog-eared cookbooks and internet printouts. Each time I went to bake a cake, I had to sift through the pile in search of a recipe for my favorite carrot cake, or, if I was feeling fancy and had several hours to spare, an Opera cake.
That’s what got me excited about building this Epicurious Cake Matrix—a tool to help you search for the perfect cake recipe based on how much time you have, what kind of texture you’re looking for, and whether you want it to be a fruity or chocolaty cake—or some other kind of cake entirely. And while you’re browsing, you can pick up some fun cocktail party anecdotes about each cake.
I’ve spent the past few months testing many, many cake recipes and researching the fascinating histories behind each of these desserts. I baked so many cakes that my neighbors began to refuse these gifts. I learned that financiers—little cakes in the shape of gold ingots—were inspired by visitandines, a cake created by nuns in France. Though Lamingtons are often thought of as Australian, the little coconut-dusted confections actually hail from New Zealand.
Cake is an essential part of so many celebrations around the world and is symbolic in many ways. It’s rare to see aiced in rich chocolate frosting without colorful birthday candles aglow. Red velvet cake, with its bright ruby hue and tangy cream cheese frosting, is an essential part of many Juneteenth parties. And in Sweden, the prinsesstårta—or princess cake—is part of many aspread.
To use the interactive matrix, click on a cake icon based on how much time you’d like to spend making the cake and the kind of texture you’re looking for. On the horizontal axis, you’ll find the number of minutes of active prep each cake requires, and on the vertical axis, you’ll see cakes arranged from fluffy and light to rich and dense.