Sweet Potato Pie
The South and sweet potatoes have a long history. For this cake, roasted sweet potatoes get mashed with sugar, eggs, butter, and warm spices, then poured into a buttery crust. Some folks top it with toasted marshmallows, others stick with a dollop of whipped cream
Hummingbird Cake
Think banana bread meets carrot cake, but more tropical. Hummingbird cake is made with ripe bananas, crushed pineapple, cinnamon, and plenty of pecans, then layered with cream cheese frosting. Don't forget to decorate it attractively, the first bite is with the eyes!
Coca-Cola Cake
Only in the South do you mix soda into cake batter and make it work. Coca-Cola cake is a rich chocolate cake with cola in both the batter and the frosting, giving it a fudgy, gooey texture. The frosting gets poured on while warm, soaking into the cake.
Lane Cake
Lane cake is famous in the South – it even gets a mention in To Kill a Mockingbird. A fluffy white cake is layered with a filling of egg yolks, butter, sugar, pecans, and a splash (or two) of bourbon. Some folks add raisins or coconut as well.
Chess Pie
Chess pie looks easy, but it takes a true Sourtherner to nail that custardy filling without making it too runny or too stiff. It’s basically sugar, eggs, butter, and a splash of vinegar, baked until golden. Locals know the trick is not overbaking it - it should jiggle just slightly in the middle.
Buttermilk Pie
Buttermilk pie is a cousin to chess pie, but with a twist. The custard filling is made with sugar, eggs, butter, and - you guessed it - buttermilk. The tang balances out the sweetness, giving it a light, custardy flavor. Southerners try not to skip the nutmeg dusting on top, too.
Banana Pudding
Banana pudding may not be strictly from the South, but it’s considered a Southern dish nonetheless. Layers of vanilla pudding, sliced bananas, and vanilla wafers get stacked into a dish, then topped with meringue or whipped cream. It’s delicious!
Derby Pie
Straight from Kentucky, Derby pie is a chocolate-and-walnut-filled concoction baked into a buttery pie crust. It’s like pecan pie meets a gooey brownie, and some versions add a splash of bourbon for good measure. Eat it during the Kentucky Derby!
Shoofly Pie
Shoofly pie might be more Appalachian than Deep South, but that doesn’t matter to the person eating it. Made with molasses, brown sugar, and a crumbly topping, it’s a little smokier than some other desserts. Southerners love it with a strong cup of coffee to balance the sweetness.
Pecan Pie
No Southern dessert list is complete without pecan pie. It’s a buttery crust filled with eggs, sugar, butter, and a whole lot of pecans. Some folks use corn syrup, others use brown sugar. The real secret is baking it until the nuts are toasty but the filling is still gooey.
Coconut Cake
Tall, fluffy layers of white cake with cream cheese or buttercream frosting, all covered in shredded coconut… it gets you hungry just thinking about it. The trick is keeping the cake moist, often with a splash of buttermilk or sour cream in the batter.
Red Velvet Cake
Red velvet isn’t just chocolate cake with food coloring - it’s got a subtle cocoa flavor to go with that iconic cream cheese frosting. Southerners believe buttermilk and a splash of vinegar are what makes the cake as iconic-tasting as it is.
Mississippi Mud Pie
This indulgent dessert consists of a chocolate cookie crust, gooey brownie-like filling, and an even more chocolatey topping, sometimes with whipped cream or marshmallows. It comes, of course, from Mississippi, and we should all thank them for creating it.
Pralines
Pralines are a Southern candy staple, especially in New Orleans. Made with sugar, butter, cream, and pecans, they’re cooked until thick and spooned into little rounds to harden. Done right (which is harder than you’d think), they’re creamy with a melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Pound Cake
Pound cake technically comes from Europe, but it’s considered a Southern food in the USA. It got its name from using a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. These days, recipes are a little more flexible, but the basic idea stays the same.
Lemon Icebox Pie
This no-bake classic gained popularity when fridges became common in the South. It’s made with sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, and egg yolks poured into a graham cracker crust, then chilled until firm. Some top it with meringue, others stick to whipped cream.
Texas Sheet Cake
This chocolate cake is baked in a thin sheet pan, then topped with warm fudgy frosting that gets poured on while the cake is still hot. The result is a moist, tender cake with icing that soaks right into the surface. It's a great choice for birthday parties!
Apple Stack Cake
This delicious Appalachian dessert is made by stacking thin layers of cake with spiced apple butter in between. The secret is patience - the cake needs to rest for a day or two so the apple filling softens the layers and merges the flavors.
Peach Cobbler
Even people outside America have heard of peach cobbler. Sweet peaches are tossed with sugar and a touch of cinnamon, then topped with either biscuit dough or a cake-like batter before baking. Southerners like to use peaches they picked themselves, not ones bought from the store.
Blackberry Dumplings
This old-fashioned dessert simmers blackberries with little doughy dumplings that puff up as they cook. The berries turn into a rich sauce while the dumplings soak it up. It’s every bit as delicious as it sounds, and Southerners are very proud of it.
Fried Pies
These little “hand pies”, as they’re sometimes called, are a Southern staple. They’re filled with spiced apples, peaches, or even sweet potatoes, then folded into pastry dough and fried until golden. The crust turns crispy while the filling stays warm and gooey.
Fig Preserves Cake
Made with spiced cake batter and chunky fig preserves folded in, this cake is moist, rich, and full of warm flavor. It’s usually topped with a buttermilk glaze or cream cheese frosting. Southerners love it around the holidays.
Bread Pudding With Whiskey Sauce
Southerners hate wasting bread, so bread pudding was born - chunks of stale bread were revived by being soaked in a custard of milk, eggs, and sugar, then baked until golden. But the kicker? A warm whiskey sauce drizzled on top. Don’t leave New Orleans without trying some!
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
This cake took off when canned pineapple became available. Rings of pineapple and bright red cherries caramelize in brown sugar and butter before the cake batter is poured on top and baked. Flip it out of the pan, and you’ve got something that looks as good as it tastes.
Persimmon Pudding
In rural parts of the South, when persimmons are ripe, this dessert shows up. It’s a dense, custard-like pudding made from ripe persimmon pulp, sugar, eggs, and warm spices. Just don’t tell a Southerner that Indiana claims this recipe too!
Molasses Cookies
These soft, chewy cookies are flavored with molasses, ginger, and cloves, giving them a slightly spicy sweetness. Southerners know the secret is rolling the dough in sugar before baking - it gives the cookies those signature crackly tops.
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Don’t let the name fool you – this is definitely a dessert, and a great one at that. A salty pretzel crust is topped with sweetened cream cheese, then finished with strawberry Jell-O and fresh berries. It’s often served at Thanksgiving dinner.
Jam Cake
This spiced cake is flavored with blackberry jam right in the batter, which gives it its trademark sweetness. It’s often filled and frosted with caramel icing that adds depth. It’s thought that the cake actually tastes better after a day or two, once the jam has fully melded with the spices.
Rice Pudding
Rice Pudding isn’t strictly Southern, it has variants all over the world. But Southerners consider it one of theirs and make it all the time. Just combine cooked rice with milk, sugar, and eggs, simmer until creamy, and add a bit of nutmeg on the top.
Butter Rolls
Not rolls like bread - this is a Southern dessert made by rolling biscuit dough with butter and sugar, then baking it in a sweet milk sauce. It’s gooey, buttery, and downright addictive. Southerners have it eaten warm straight from the oven, with a spoon.
Bourbon Balls
Bourbon balls come to us from Kentucky, where they were invented by Ruth Hanly Booe. Crushed cookies, pecans, cocoa, and a splash of bourbon get rolled into bite-sized balls, then dusted with powdered sugar. The longer they sit, the stronger the flavor becomes.
Oatmeal Cream Pies
Forget the packaged kind - homemade oatmeal cream pies are much better than that. The secret Southern touch? A hint of molasses in the cookies, which makes them extra moist and flavorful. They’re so delicious Jay-Z has even rapped about them.
Watergate Salad
This green “salad” is really a dessert, and Southerners adore it. Pistachio pudding mix, canned pineapple, marshmallows, and whipped topping all get stirred together into a sweet lumpy mixture. Sometimes it’s topped with pecans or cherries for extra flair. This dish had its heyday in the 70s, but Southerners dream of it dominating again.
Cornbread Pudding
Cornbread isn’t just for savory dishes - it makes a mean dessert, too. Cornbread cubes are baked in a custard of eggs, sugar, and milk until soft and golden, and the result is somewhere between bread pudding and cake. Some folks like to dunk it in milk!
