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APPLE, PECAN, SPICE, & EVERYTHING NICE
There’s something about crisp autumn air that puts us in the mood for dessert. Maybe it’s the leaves turning, maybe it’s the countdown to Thanksgiving. Either way, fall doesn’t feel official until you’ve had a slice of apple pie, pecan pie, or a warm-spiced cake.
America’s bakeries have been perfecting fall flavors for generations, from Wisconsin apple country to New Orleans’ Garden District to Appalachian mountain kitchens.
The best fall desserts fall into seven categories: apple pies, apple cakes and pastries, pecan pies, sweet potato desserts, Southern layer cakes, cozy fall treats, and pumpkin desserts. Grab a fork and dig in.
What Are The Best Flavors For Fall Cakes?
The best fall desserts lean on warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, cardamom, and allspice, the blend known as pumpkin spice or apple spice. Beyond spice, the classic fall flavors include:
- Apple and caramel apple
- Pecan and praline
- Sweet potato
- Maple
- Cinnamon walnut
- Pumpkin
Apple Pies
Fall is peak apple season, and nothing says autumn like a towering apple pie with a golden crust.
The Elegant Farmer’s Apple Pie Baked in a Paper Bag®
The Elegant Farmer was founded in 1946 as a small, family-run dairy farm in Wisconsin. Today it’s one of the Midwest’s most beloved markets and bakeries, and it’s most famous for its signature Apple Pie Baked in a Paper Bag®. The pie is stuffed with steamed, juicy Ida Red apples. Baking it in a paper bag gives it a uniquely crunchy, sugar cookie-like top crust and a light, flaky bottom crust.
Blue Owl Bakery’s Levee High Caramel Pecan Apple Pie
The pie that landed on Oprah’s Favorite Things comes from Kimmswick, Missouri. Mary Hostetter created the Levee High in 1993 to honor the volunteers who held back the Great Flood. Eighteen hand-peeled Golden Delicious apples are mounded sky-high in a scratch crust, then covered in caramel and pecans. Each pie weighs about ten pounds and bakes up hot in your own oven.
Apple Cakes & Pastries
When pie isn’t enough, fall apples go into bundts, kringles, and more.
Red Truck Bakery’s Shenandoah Apple Cake
Red Truck Bakery in Marshall, Virginia, sources apples from local orchards throughout the region, including the Shenandoah Valley. This 9-inch bundt-style cake is made with fresh apples and apple cider, a hint of cinnamon, and a maple glaze. Saveur magazine singled it out as a can’t-miss seasonal treat. It’s available only September through December.
O and H Danish Bakery’s Apple Kringle
O&H Danish Bakery was started by Danish immigrant Christian Olesen in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1949, and it’s still going strong, today run by the fourth generation. The bakery is most famous for its kringle, a traditional ring-shaped filled Danish pastry. Their classic Apple Kringle fills this traditional flaky, buttery pastry with apples, and it’s sprinkled lightly with cinnamon and a fabulous spiced sauce.
Pecan Pies
Rich, sticky pecan pie is a fall and Thanksgiving essential, especially in the South.
Commander’s Palace’s Pecan Pie
Commander’s Palace has been serving its famous Haute Creole cuisine in New Orleans’ Garden District since 1893. Its Pecan Pie has a sticky filling in a crust of precise texture and thickness, a nod to early recipes that used local sugarcane syrup or molasses.
Michele’s Pies’ Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie
Every pie at Michele’s Pies is made by hand at Michele Stuart’s pie shop in Norwalk, Connecticut. Since opening in 2007, the shop has won 33 National Pie Championship awards, and this pie was the first. A flaky crust holds a bourbon chocolate layer on the bottom and a crunchy topping of chopped pecans and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Sweet Potato Desserts
Sweet potato brings a velvety, earthy sweetness to fall baking and a deep Southern tradition.
Nikki J’s Cakes’ Sweet Potato Thang
It’s not a sweet potato pie. It’s Nikki J’s Sweet Potato Thang, from Rowlett, Texas. A velvety sweet potato filling sits on a graham cracker crust, with a silky texture and just a hint of pure vanilla.
Southern Girl Desserts’ GIANT Sweet Potato Pound Cake
Catarah Coleman and Shoneji Robison were both born and raised in Florida. In 2007 they founded Southern Girl Desserts to bring some Southern savvy to Los Angeles, with nostalgic recipes from their grandmothers. This massive pound cake is loaded with sweet potato, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and topped with cream cheese frosting.
Southern Layer Cakes
Layer upon layer of fall flavor, straight from Southern kitchens.
The Village Bakery’s Mountain Apple Stack Cake
The Mountain Apple Stack Cake is an Appalachian tradition that has been served at weddings for generations. Using an old family recipe, the Village Bakery in Knoxville uses Tennessee green apples from orchards a few miles from the Smoky Mountains. The apples are hand-peeled, cooked down into apple butter, spiced, and spread between the layers of cake.
Savannah Candy Kitchen’s Praline Layer Cake
Stan Strickland opened Savannah’s Candy Kitchen on Savannah’s River Street more than 30 years ago. This three-layer cake is made from scratch, with the shop’s famous pecan pralines crumbled into the batter and a secret-recipe pecan praline frosting on top.
Cozy Fall Treats
For fall mornings and fall freezers.
My Grandma’s of New England’s Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake
My Grandma’s of New England got its start baking a single coffee cake in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1990. Each moist coffee cake is made with farm-fresh eggs, pure Bourbon vanilla, and cultured sour cream, then layered with cinnamon walnut streusel. All of the coffee cakes are handmade and certified Kosher under Orthodox supervision.
Nye’s Cream Sandwiches’ Caramel Latte Ice Cream Sandwiches
Since 2010, chef Christian Nye has been pairing artisan ice cream with handmade cookies in Wilmington, North Carolina. His Fall Favorites Collection packs seasonal flavors into ice cream sandwiches that are hand-scooped, assembled, and wrapped by hand. It’s proof that fall is still ice cream weather.
Pumpkin Desserts
No fall list is complete without pumpkin. Start with Duff Goldman’s Pumpkin Spice Cake, then see our full guide to the best pumpkin desserts or shop all pumpkin desserts on Goldbelly.
Fall Dessert FAQs
Apple pie, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie are the most popular fall desserts in the U.S., along with sweet potato pie, spice cakes, and coffee cakes.
Fall desserts feature warming spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and ginger, plus seasonal ingredients like apples, pecans, sweet potatoes, maple, and pumpkin.
Order 1–2 weeks ahead for the best selection, and choose your delivery date at checkout. Some fall desserts, like Red Truck Bakery’s Shenandoah Apple Cake, are only available for a limited season. Shop Thanksgiving pies and Thanksgiving desserts to plan your table.
Yes. Goldbelly ships apple pies, pecan pies, sweet potato desserts, layer cakes, coffee cakes, and more nationwide from bakeries across the U.S.
Fall for the season’s coziest flavors with the best fall cakes and desserts, shipping nationwide on Goldbelly. 🍂🥧🍎
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