German Dessert Recipes

Favourite German desserts and cakes

Traditional German dessert recipes are timeless. Pastries, puddings and cakes are abundant, delicous, and they are worth a sin.

Discover your sweet tooth with easy dessert recipes and tempting German cakes for special events. Apple strudel, black forest cake, light fruit tarts are well-loved and all-time favourites.

We Germans love a sweet dish at the end of a meal, even if it is just a light fruit salad, an ice cream, or a pudding.

German women (and men) are great pastry chefs, and proud of their treasure trove of traditional German cake recipes. Some recipes are very old, and handed over within families for generations.

I clearly remember those Saturdays when mom put the food processor on the table to make the Sunday cake. Oh, and the lovely smell when the cake came out of the oven, we knew it was weekend.

Fancy German Dessert Recipes

Dessert recipes - Puddings

Even if I am rather full after a meal, a pudding is a light dessert that always fits. Puddings are amongst the easy dessert recipes that don't require a lot of effort.

The quickest way to make a pudding is to take advantage of convenience products. Pudding powders are available with various flavours, vanilla, chocolate, caramel are definitely my favourites.

Cook the pudding according to the instructions, rinse a pudding mould in cold water, and fill in the hot pudding. Refrigerate a couple of hours. Loosen the pudding along the edges and turn it on a plate. Decorate with fresh fruit and serve with vanilla or chocolate sauce.

If you want a creamy pudding, add beaten egg whites or whipping cream when the pudding has cooled, and you have a delicious & creamy pudding dessert.

Vanilla Pudding

Traditional German pudding recipes include

Bavarian Creme - Bayerische Creme is a luscious dessert for special occasions
Rice Pudding - Reispudding, Reisbrei, served as a cold sweet, or hot with cherry compote as a full meal
Red Fruit Pudding - Rote Grütze, originally a specialty of the northern states, it is a favourite in the entire country.
Jelly - Wackelpeter, this is an all-time favourite of children

German dessert recipes - Cakes

German cakes can be anything from a quick fruit cake (Obstkuchen) to an opulent gateau (Torte).
Look at this amazing Torte in the picture! My sister in law made it for my mum's 80th birthday. I didn't even dare to ask for the recipe yet, it looks like so much work. However, the result is scrumptious.

Marvellous Birthday Cake

Traditional German cake recipes include

Black Forest Cake - Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte
Apple Cake - Apfelkuchen
Cheesecake - Käsekuchen
Apple Strudel - Apfelstrudel
Sheet cakes - Blechkuchen like butter cake, streussel cake, plum cake

Metric weights for cooking and baking

You might know that Germany, and many European countries, use the metric system. In my opinion using metric weights is the most accurate way to describe recipes.

Although I add info for American cups on the recipe's ingredients lists, I am not sure if this is always correct. So, for the best results, get a kitchen scale and weigh the ingredients. Remember, measuring in cups depends on the density of the ingredients. Different sorts of sugar and flour have different densities. One cup of wholemeal flour is not the same as one cup of plain flour.

If a recipe doesn't work for you, please let me know. I try to be as correct as possible, but sometimes a typo, or inaccurate conversion might happen.

Easy dessert recipes - Various Desserts

Would you believe there are people who don't like sweet desserts?

Cheese Platter

According to the saying "Käse schliesst den Magen" (cheese closes the stomach), they prefer a cheese dessert.
From the traditional cheese platter to fried camembert & Bavarian Obatzter, the range of cheese desserts is wide.

Other German desserts include

Ice Cream

Fruit Salads

Jam Doughnuts - Kreppel, Berliner

Kreppel - Jam Doughnuts

Click here for a Kreppel recipe

I will add more recipes in the future, so don't forget to check the recipes section on my website frequently.

Now, are you tempted to try your hand at German dessert recipes? Let me know which one is your favourite.

Readers' Favourite Dessert Recipes

I am sorry, but new contributions are disabled right now. Feel free to subscribe to our newsletter to get German food tips.

Black Forest Cake Hi,I am really really enjoying this page so far. But, I was wondering if anybody has the recipe on how to bake a black forest cake? Please tell me if you ...

Kreppel - Jam Doughnuts I would like to know the recipe for Kreppel - Jam Doughnuts.

Kreppel Recipe
by Rita
Jam donuts have many names, depending on the region in ...

Apple cake
30 years ago in London my German neighbor baked every Saturday, but would never share many recipes. My favorite was an apple cake, the top and bottom ...

Please test my other delicious German desserts as well.