Cake Flavor Combinations – How to Combine Filling and Frosting

Pairing the right cake flavors with the right filling and frosting can be critical to the success of recipes. These Cake Flavor Combinations are a great guide to have on hand when you are wondering what to bake or what is the best flavor combination for a particular cake.

Popular Cake Flavor Combinations – Cake Flavor Ideas

Have you ever wondered about the endless possibilities of cake flavor combinations or cake flavor ideas?

• Which flavors go well together?
• Or what cake flavor goes with buttercream frosting?
• What flavor goes with lemon cake? what filling goes well with lemon cake?
• Or even what flavor goes with a red velvet cake? what filling should I use for red velvet cake?
• What goes with a chocolate cake? Which filling should I use in my chocolate cake?
• Which are the best cake combinations? What is the best cake filling combinations?
• Vanilla cake flavor combinations
• Best flavor and filling combinations
• or Best cake favor combination for decorated cakes?

When I started my little cake business one of my challenges was to figure out what cake flavor combinations would go well together. I’d have all these questions in my head and spent hours trying small batches of recipes and seeing whether I really liked them or not. I’ve given away a lot of free cakes just to get feedback and inputs from family and friends.

In truth what may be a family favorite does not necessarily work in business. For example:

• Red velvet cake combination –  I love my red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting but when I make it for a customer with fondant I usually use Swiss Meringue Buttercream – it’s easier to work with.
• Cake flavor that goes with lemon cake – I love lemon cake with lemon curd and lemon buttercream. But here the weather is so hot that in summer I don’t offer that flavor with fondant cakes. NOPE!! It has to be a buttercream cake and it has to be eaten within 3 days.

Cake Flavor Combinations. Best Cake Combinations for fillings and frostings

I love cakes!! And I love baking new flavors as much as eating them. Over the years I’ve lost count of the many experiments I’ve done with flavor ideas. I must admit that some have not made it to my books as keepers. And yet, I still enjoyed the process.

When I started cake decorating professionally, I started putting together a list of popular flavors and combinations and my list keeps getting longer and longer.

Cake Flavor Combinations or Best Cake Flavor ideas

So what are some creative cake flavors to try? Here’s a small part of that list, I think you will love very much. (Save/Pin)

Cake Flavors and Filling Combinations

• Almond cake with almond cream and white chocolate buttercream
• Champagne cake with strawberry mousse and champagne buttercream
• Ginger spiced cake with vanilla & honey buttercream
• Earl Grey cake with lavender flavored buttercream

Flavors that go with Coconut Cakes (coconut is one of my favorite flavors)

• Coconut cake with rum-flavored chocolate buttercream
• or Coconut with lime curd and maple buttercream
• Coconut Cake with pineapple cream and Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• and Coconut cake with dark chocolate fudge filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• Coconut cake with dulce de leche filling and chocolate fudge buttercream
• even Coconut cake with coconut cream filling and brown butter buttercream
• Toasted Coconut Cream Cake with coconut cream filling and Whipped Cream Buttercream
• Coconut cake with lemon curd and coconut cream buttercream

Flavors that go with Banana Cakes

• Easy Banana Caramel Cake 
• Banana cake with salted caramel frosting
• Banana cake with caramel cream cheese frosting
• or Banana Cake with Nutella Buttercream
• Banana cake with coconut cream and Almond Buttercream
• Tropical Banana cake with pineapple cream and whipped cream buttercream.
• Banana Maple Cake with pecan praline filling and caramel buttercream.
• and Banana Blueberry Cake with blueberry filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Flavors that go well with Lemon Cake or Strawberry Cake

• Lemon cake with almond buttercream
• or Lemon cake with raspberry frosting and lemon buttercream
• Strawberry cake with banana mousse and strawberry buttercream
• Lemon cake with lemon curd and lemon buttercream
• Vanilla cake, raspberry filling, and white chocolate buttercream
• Orange cake with vanilla chai buttercream
• Try my Strawberry Cake with Velvet American Buttercream

Flavors that go with Chocolate Cake

• Chocolate pecan cake with mascarpone cream cheese frosting
• Dark chocolate cake with peanut butter frostings
• or Dark chocolate cake with mint buttercream
• Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache
• Cherry Chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream*
• Chocolate Fudge cake with raspberry or white chocolate mousse and vanilla buttercream
• and Chocolate fudge cake with crushed Oreo buttercream
• Dark chocolate cake with orange, strawberry or raspberry buttercream
• German chocolate cake with pecan praline cream and dark chocolate ganache

Matcha Flavor Combinations

• Matcha cake with coconut cream and matcha buttercream
• or Match pound cake with blueberry filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• Match chiffon cake with cream cheese frosting
• and matcha genoise with strawberry and whipped cream
• White chocolate matcha cake with matcha ganache.

Cake Flavor ideas for Fall

• Pumpkin Coconut Cake with coconut cream caramel
• or Pumpkin cake with chai latte buttercream
• Pumpkin maple cake with pecan filling and maple buttercream
• Fall spice cake with Cream Cheese Frosting 
• Apple spice cake with caramel filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• Pumpkin cake with pumpkin pie filling and no butter cream cheese frosting 
• Pumpkin ginger cake with pumpkin spice buttercream
• Apple pear cake with apple pie filling and whipped cream buttercream
• Pumpkin white chocolate cake with pumpkin spice buttercream
• Apple Pie Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream 

Cake Flavor Combinations aka Best Cake flavor ideas

How to Create a Simple Cake Fillings Combination

Well, not all are straightforward but often creating these can be as simple as tweaking your basic vanilla buttercream recipe just a little. For example:

• Almond buttercream is just your regular buttercream with almond flavoring
• Mint buttercream – just a mint flavoring
• Lemon buttercream – replace the liquid in the recipe with some lemon juice when making vanilla buttercream
• and Nutella buttercream is just Nutella added to your vanilla buttercream too

Check out my post where I share how to make different buttercream flavors with one basic buttercream recipe.  As well as, my post; One Vanilla cake with many different flavors and One Chocolate cake with many different flavors.

Cake Flavor Combinations aka Cake Flavor Ideas

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