This rich and moist Chocolate Stout Cake is infused with the deep flavors of dark beer and topped with raspberries and cream for a stunning dessert. Inspired by a memorable cake shared with friends in Scotland, this recipe is perfect for celebrations or any day that calls for chocolate. Will and I arrived in Scotland on a Monday night in October, weary from travel and, as usual, starving. Hunger follows us everywhere—it’s practically our third wheel ..read more

Let’s put a playful spin on pineapple upside down cake with a surprising secret ingredient that makes each bite extra moist and tender—Duke’s Mayo! Don’t worry; you won’t taste it, but it brings a bakery-quality richness that’ll keep everyone guessing. Friends, I’d tell you to buckle up, but you know how we do around here.  You know we like to sneak mayonnaise into our best cake recipes (see: Classic Hummingbird Cake made with Duke’s Mayo ..read more

Get ready for Pumpkin Texas Sheet Cake—the fall twist you didn’t know you needed. It’s the classic chocolate sheet cake we love in Texas, with a cozy brown butter and pumpkin spice twist. Trust me, your sheet pan is ready for this! If you’re in the Wilson family, you know that Texas Sheet Cake is basically a non-negotiable at every family gathering. Birthdays, church gatherings, holidays—if we’re together, there’s this chocolate cake.  ..read more

Friends, hi! Today we have a guest post from our friend and photographer Karlee Flores.  Karlee and I met, what feels like a decade ago (though I refuse to count), in a tiny restaurant kitchen where I was trying to make ten chocolate layer cakes in about 2 hours. I was very quietly losing my mind when Karlee walked over and offered to help.  I don’t remember asking if she even knew how to bake but Lordy was I lucky that day because Karlee is an incredible cake baker ..read more

It’s been entirely too long since our last perfect layer cake.  You know, the kind that’s moist, sturdy, sweet and spiced with generous lines of nearly too much cream cheese frosting between cake layers?  Yes, that sort of perfect cake. I had mistakenly thought that a classic carrot cake would scratch any itch I had for a spiced layer cake but, I’m not afraid to admit I was entirely mistaken because – Hummingbird Cake ..read more

This chocolate Bundt cake is an elegant dessert that’s also approachable enough for the everyday.  Let’s bake this moist, rich, and downright squidgy cake that’s as easy to whisk together as it is to devour. Let us grant ourselves a little January luxury – and I’m talking about the luxury of a Counter Cake. A Counter Cake is usually baked on a Thursday of Friday, likely following the hellscape of a Tuesday combined with a Wednesday.  ..read more

This cinnamon-swirled Sock It To Me cake is a staple in the Wilson house. It’s the easiest possible boxed-mix bundt cake baked into an entirely irresistible everyday, family sort of cake.  It’s the simplicity, cinnamon, and brown sugar that keep us coming back to this cake every year.  Just add cake mix to the grocery list and this cake just about bakes itself. Well, I say this cake practically bakes itself but that just because that’s how easy Mom makes it look when she spends the morning baking a cool DOZEN of these bundt cakes ..read more

Let’s make the easiest coffee ice cream! It’s creamy and scoopable, made with roasty-toasy coffee and a mega amount of crumbled chocolate cookies.  This is the dessert of summer that also sometimes doubles as dinner. Just here to introduce you to your newest kitchen superpower: ice cream without an ice cream maker. Really, this should have come a lot earlier in the summer considering we’re all basically melted to puddles at this point.  ..read more

A classic American flag cake made with a cream cheese sheet cake and light cream cheese whipped frosting.  This is a perfect 4th of July cake topped with fresh berries and, if you’re feeling particularly Texan, decorated as the Texas flag. It turns out, the amount of GIANT Texas flags that dot the interstate across Houston are contagious.  The Texas flag is as iconic as my old school pound cake recipe so it only made sense to join the two ..read more

I flipped through an old vintage cookbook to find one of my favorite birthday cake recipes. A light and tender white cake filled with an easy almond-studded butterscotch caramel, topped with smooth mocha buttercream.  A cake made for a “Distinguished Guest” as Martha Meade suggests is indeed also perfect for a Distinguished Birthday. Forgotten in my shelves piles of cookbooks was a cookbook from 1934 titled 50 Cakes for 50 Occasions.  ..read more