European study finds tiramisu gaining 'king of the cakes' status - Confectionery Production

Following an industry study into the UK’s most favoured chocolate product, a new survey into Europe’s most sought-after sweet treats has revealed that tiramisu emerged as a key contender for ‘king of the cakes’ across the continent.

According to the analysis compiled by cake retailer Jackandbeyond.com, the rich coffee flavoured classic remains a definite favourte in France, Belgium and Italy, with 246,000, 40,500 and 246,000 people searching for it every month, respectively. Furthermore, creamy cheesecake is the second most popular cake, a favourite in the Czech Republic (27,100) and Greece (9,400).

Surprisingly, Spain’s favourite emerged as being carrot cake. The polarising dessert trumped the likes of cheesecake, tiramisu and even tocino de cielo (a Spanish classic) to become the nation’s favourite, with 34,000 Spaniards search for them every month.

Other country favourites include: Germany – Muffins (100,000 searches), UK – Chocolate cake (90,500 searches), Poland – Mazurek (60,000 searches) and the Netherlands – Cupcakes (27,100 searches).

Focusing on the UK, Brits’ all-time favourite cake is chocolate, with monthly search volumes of almost 100,000 (90,500), as 74,000 Brits looked to take this love further each month, by Googling ‘chocolate cake recipe’. In second place are the iconic cupcakes. A staple at any get together, a whopping 74,000 people search for these tiny treats – not only that, 90,500 are looking to make them every month (by searching for ‘cupcake recipe’).

Trailing not too far behind are tiramisu, red velvet cake, cheesecake and carrot cake, all in joint third place. 60,500 Google searches a month are generated by these classic sweet treats, with specific recipe searches including: Cheesecake recipe – 74,000 searches, Carrot cake recipe – 60,500, Tiramisu recipe – 22,200 searches, and Red velvet cake recipe – 18,100 searches.

Originating in Australia and named after the Russian ballerina, Brits also have a lot of love for the pavlova. 40,500 Brits in fact, as they take to Googling the meringue-based delicacy every month. Pavlova is followed by Christmas cake (28,100 searches), panettone (27,100 searches) and Victoria sponge cake (25,100), making the top ten cakes most searched for by Brits. As with the Jaffa cake dilemma, the brownie’s debatable status as a cake means they have been removed from the study.