I Baked 640 Popular Dessert Recipes—Here Are My 10 All-Time Favorites (2024)

You know how recipes are always calling themselves “the best”? Back in 2017, a friend and I set out to test 12 chocolate chip cookie recipes in search of truly the best recipe. We wanted to put them to the test.

After baking all 12 and picking our favorite, I was hooked. Next came a brownie test, then a pumpkin bread test, and then sugar cookies, all documented on my blog, The Pancake Princess. As an enthusiastic home baker who was always saving recipes and pouring over recipe comparisons to decide which one to try, these bake offs really fed a specific part of my soul.

Six years later, I’ve tested more than 640 recipes across more than 70 bake offs.

The process for each bake off is no small feat. It requires comparing as many recipes as I can (usually around 50 to 60), culling them down to nine unique recipes, grocery shopping, and making all nine recipes in one day. Samples of each recipe then get passed out to tasters who submit their ratings for a data-driven analysis of how the recipes stack up.

Through testing all these recipes, I’ve learned many new techniques and tips that have added to my baker’s toolbox. For example, using a combination of butter and oil in a cake is ideal for balancing a moist crumb and rich flavor. The exact same bread or cookie recipe can change drastically based on how long you rest the dough or the baking temperature. A higher oven temperature can mean the difference between a gooey-centered cookie vs. an evenly baked cookie. And adding heavy cream to cinnamon rolls is the key to gooey-bottomed rolls.I've learned so much along the way.

Now when I bake, there are certain recipes I return to again and again. Most of them are surprisingly simple yet incredibly delicious. (The recipes that use the more complicated techniques or fussy ingredients don’t rise to the tops of the bake offs—nor am I inclined to make them again.)

Here are 10 of my absolute favorite recipes I’ve discovered through my bake offs!

1. Bravetart’s Lofthouse Copycat Cookies

Stella Parks’ dupe of the popular frosted grocery store cookies is absolutely genius. A simple ingredient list including butter, egg whites, heavy cream, and bleached cake flour yields a melt-in-your-mouth tender cookie that hits all the right nostalgic notes while tasting exponentially better than any grocery store cookie.

2. Cook’s Illustrated Key Lime Pie

I was never a big key lime fan, but the simplicity and clean flavor of this pie won me over! The filling is just lime juice, egg yolks, and sweetened condensed milk. (I omit the zest because I don’t prefer the texture.) The crust is equally simple—just graham crackers, sugar, and butter. The slices are delicate with a balanced citrus flavor that I find utterly addicting.

3. King Arthur Carrot Cake

I was also historically not a carrot cake fan (especially ones with nuts), but King Arthur’s changed my mind. A generous amount of sugar, oil, and eggs makes for an incredibly moist but not greasy cake. Topped with a sugary cream cheese buttercream, this cake is so good that it inspired this cake for Southern Living.

4. Hijabs and Aprons Levain Copycat Cookie

I was most skeptical about this recipe going into the original Levain cookie bake off as it calls for half the butter of most other recipes. But I was delighted when it took second place! It’s now my go-to recipe since it doesn’t require clearing out my butter drawer, but more importantly, I love the perfectly doughy texture and flavor.

5. Magnolia Kitchen Chocolate Cake

Bets Gee uses my favorite cake trick—a combination of butter and oil for the perfect tight-crumbed yet moist and plush texture. Dutch-process cocoa lends an appealingly deep hue and my hunch is that the all-brown sugar base along with the buttermilk yields extra depth of flavor that you don’t get with other chocolate cakes.

6. Divas Can Cook Yellow Cake

I was sure there must be some sort of fancy trick or ingredient to get the perfect yellow cake. Monique’s recipe proves that simple can be outstanding with just eight ingredients. The only slightly tricky part is beating the egg whites until stiff and folding them into the batter. This is the most moist, flavorful yellow cake I’ve ever made! I would reduce the baking powder to two teaspoons (from one tablespoon) as the excess leavener can cause the cake to sink in places.

7. Cake by Courtney Levain Chocolate Peanut Butter Copycat Cookie

If you love a doughy, gooey, uber-thick cookie stuffed with peanut butter chips, Courtney’s recipe truly delivers. Dutch-process cocoa powder ensures the cookies are deeply dark and chocolatey. A mix of all-purpose and cake flour along with an extra egg yolk ensures the most tender texture with a molten interior. I urge you to seek out Reese’s peanut butter chips specifically for these cookies as I think they are the best tasting peanut butter chips!

8. Divas Can Cook Red Velvet Cake

Like Monique’s yellow cake, there are no fancy techniques involved in this recipe. It’s easy to mix entirely by hand! There’s just enough buttermilk for a subtle tang and just enough cocoa for a hint of chocolate, amplified by hot coffee. The oil-based cake is the most perfect moist and plush version of red velvet cake that I’ve tried.

9. Cook’s Illustrated Lemon Bars

These lemon bars are so simple—just five basic ingredients (plus vanilla and salt). The shortbread-y crust is the perfect foil for the intensely lemony, just sweet enough lemon curd. I now omit the lemon zest because I don’t prefer the fibrous texture and don’t think it adds to the flavor.

10. Sarah Kieffer Cinnamon Rolls

This is perhaps the crown jewel of my bake off finds. If I’m trying to impress someone, I can always turn to these rolls. I haven’t found a more pillowy or plush dough than Sarah’s. Enriched with eggs, honey, and lots of butter, the dough is quite sticky. I always try to leave enough time for the overnight rest as the cold dough is much easier to work with. The only tweak I make to these is adding a squeeze of lemon to the cream cheese icing, a personal preference.