Delicious desserts from the decade you were born (2024)

Sweet treats we used to love

Our dessert preferences have changed a lot over the last 80 years, from 1940s potluck pies and box cakes to 1990s cake pops and liquid nitrogen desserts. Find out what sweet treat everyone was eating the decade you were born and whether it’s still around, or as forgotten as the chocolate fondue set you were given as a wedding gift.

1940s: banana pudding

A cooling Southern dessert best associated with family gatherings, banana pudding features layers of vanilla wafers, sliced bananas, custard and cream. It was first made at the end of the 19th century, but went big time when Nabisco put the fruity recipe on Vanilla Wafers boxes in the 1940s. While it was previously made from scratch, it could now be made entirely using shop-bought ingredients.

1940s: pecan pie

The popularity of this seriously decadent dessert exploded in the 1940s. Crispy on the top and gooey and dense inside, it soared in popularity after the invention of Karo-branded corn syrup. Sugar, molasses, butter, eggs and vanilla extract go into the mix too. Plus, it always has a traditional pie crust.

1940s: box mix gingerbread cake

One of the first boxed cake mix flavours was gingerbread cake, created by P. Duff and Sons as a means of getting rid of surplus molasses. The company pioneered the idea of a kit that required home cooks to add a fresh egg. Betty Crocker and Pillsbury followed suitand by the end of the 1940s, hundreds of companies had put out their own version.

1940s: key lime pie

1940s: chiffon cake

Advertised by General Mills as “the first really new cake in 100 years”, chiffon cakes were everywherein the late 1940s. Elegant and tall, they were made withoil instead of butter which gave them a super-soft texture and were baked in a cake tin with a metal tube in the middle to help them rise high.

1950s: peach cobbler

Although this dessert of baked fruit topped with biscuit dough has been around for centuries, it came to be associated with the Deep South in the 1950s.This was the decade that adverts for tinned peaches were everywhere and the Georgia Peach Council declared 13Aprilto beNational Peach Cobbler Day, to further promote the fruit.

1950s: pineapple upside-down cake

1950s: bananas Foster

This sticky, caramelised dessert was invented at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans, named after the New Orleans Crime Commission chairman Richard Foster for whom it was created. Bananas are added to a sauce of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, then doused with rum and flambéed tableside – and you can still order it from the menu there today.

1950s: baked Alaska

The most impressive dessert of the decade has to be baked Alaska, a pudding that features a layer of cake, ice cream and a crisp, meringue shell. It was invented to markthe purchase of Alaska in 1867, but made a comeback as a dinner party showstopper in the 1950s.

1950s: banana split

First created in the 1900s, the banana split was a soda fountain favourite all the way up to the 1950s. The classic recipe consists of a banana cut lengthways, served with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream, a drizzle of pineapple, chocolate and strawberry sauce, plus whipped cream, maraschino cherries and chopped nuts. It’s served in a boat-shaped dish and still features as a retro throwback on diner menus today.

1960s: lane cake

1960s: crêpes suzette

1960s: chocolate fondue

With cheese fondue the height of fashion in the US during this era, it was only a matter of time before its chocolate cousin was invented. Created by Swiss restaurateur Konrad Egli at Chalet Suisse in New York, the original was made from cream, kirsch and Toblerone, and served with walnut pastries and orange slices for dipping.

1960s: crown jewel dessert

This wobbly wonder was perfect for busy schedules as the Jell-O cubes could be prepared ahead of time. Also known as broken glass cake, it’s made by cutting fruit jelly and folding it into a lemon-laced cream that's set in the fridge. There weredifferent twists on the basic recipe,such as giving it a graham cracker crust, setting it in a mould or making it with cream cheese.

1960s: Texas sheet cake

This huge, gooey chocolate cake, topped with frosting, pecans and walnuts, is said to have appeared some time in the 1960s. A regular at Texan funerals – as its enormous size and comforting qualities madeit the perfect dessert to feed mourners – you might also see it called Texas funeral cake.

1960s: Tunnel of Fudge cake

This cake launched millions of bundt tin recipes (made in the distinctive ring-shaped moulds) when it won the long-running American Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in 1966. The butter, sugar, cocoa and nuts in the mix form a “tunnel” of oozy fudge through the cake as it bakes.

1970s: frozen yogurt

Can’t imagine life without soft, refreshing, low-calorie frozen yogurt? You only have to go back to the 1970s, which is when it was first created at Hood Dairy,in Lynnfield, Massachusetts.At first people thought it was too tart and similar to normal yogurt, so it took a few years and adjustments of the recipe to catch on.

1970s: carrot cake

1970s: Mississippi mud pie

The origins of Mississippi mud pie are murky.However, we do know people were making and printing recipes for thisrich chocolate dessert made with layers of pudding, cake, biscuit, ice cream, whipped cream, liqueur and a cookie crust basein the 1970s.

1970s: watergate salad

One of the decade’s most infamous dishes, watergate salad consistedof tinned pineapple, mini marshmallows, whipped cream, chopped nuts and Kraft pistachio instant pudding mix. It likely originated soon after Jell-O introduced pistachio pudding mix and got its name because of the 1970s political scandal and its similarities to watergate cake (a green pistachio cake).

1980s: Black Forest gâteau

Done correctly, Black Forest gâteau, or schwarzwälder kirschtorte as it’s known in Germany, is a light, creamy layer cake with bitter chocolate, sour cherries and boozy kirsch. As beautiful as it is delicious, it was the obvious choiceto round off a 1980s dinner party.

1980s: tiramisù

Tiramisù's popularity seemed to come from nowhere in the 1980s. So much so,The New York Times published an article discussing how the previously unknown Italian pudding suddenly became so ubiquitous. We think itmay have something to do with the fact it’s made with mascarpone, spongefingers and chocolate, contains a hit of espresso, and has a texture that’s light as air.

1980s: Impossible Pie

This was the decade of Bisquick Impossible Pies, the recipes for which were printed on the back of Bisquick baking mix boxes. They called for Bisquick (basically flour, baking powder, salt and shortening) plus ingredients such as eggs, milk and desiccated coconut, to make easy desserts where the mixture magically separated into crust and filling as it cooked.

1980s: zabaglione

This Italian dessert isa light, sweet custard made with eggs, sugar and Marsala fortified wine, whipped together. It started appearing on restaurant menus in the States in the 1980s and makes the perfect light sweet treatafter a long, luxurious dinner.

1980s: trifle

A very traditional British dessert, trifle consists of sponge fingers, fresh, tinned or stewed fruit, booze, jelly, custard and whipped cream. In this decade, usingshop-bought, ready-madeingredients becamemore commonas convenience food wasking, and no party was complete without a show-stopping (but easy to make)trifle.

1990s: Viennetta

1990s: red velvet cake

A ruby red cake with cream cheese frosting and a storied history. Red velvet cake'sroots are Victorian but it gained widespread fame when it was served at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, in the 1930s. Despite this, it was seen at a gimmick for most of the century. It wasn’t until Magnolia Bakery in New Yorkmade red velvetcupcakes in the 1990s, and it became a bestseller and a global star.

1990s: molten chocolate cake

This rich chocolate cake with a molten chocolate core was an overnight success when Jean-Georges Vongerichten served it at his New York restaurant JoJo. Within months, versions appeared on restaurant menus everywhere. It’s still commonplace todayand still loved, but not longer as exciting.

1990s: Rice Krispies cakes

1990s: Funfetti cake

The world’s love for Funfetti has only grown since 1989, when the white cake mix with rainbow sprinkles (for stirring intothe batter rather than decorating the top) was introduced by Pillsbury. An instant must-have at children’s birthday parties in the 1990s, those same children are now adults with a taste for Funfetti macarons, croissants and wedding cakes.

2000s: crème brûlée

2000s: cake pops

When these bite-sized treats went viral in the late 2000s, home cooks everywhere wanted to try their hand at them. They're made by mixing cake crumbs with cream cheese frosting, rolling into balls and coveringwithmelted chocolate and sprinkles. However, these days they’ve mostly fallen out of favour.

2000s: liquid nitrogen desserts

2000s: Nutella desserts

The hazelnut chocolate spread was invented in a small town in Italy nearly 60 years ago. Nutella quickly grew in popularity and by the 2000s, fans around the globe were not just spreading it on toast, but baking it in all sorts of desserts such as cheesecake and banana bread. Its appeal was so great, it caused a global shortage of hazelnuts.

2000s: cupcakes