8 Old-School Desserts People Loved To Eat In The 1960s

1960s cuisine was a reflection of the culture and society of the midcentury. Women from the baby boom generation started entering the workforce at a much higher rate, and therefore favored quick and convenient recipes that incorporated prepackaged foods and ingredients. Desserts of the time favored custards, puddings, and fruits, which were becoming more widely accessible and common in the average American home. Not to mention, new and exciting prepackaged ingredients were all the rage, including marshmallows, Jell-O, and Cool Whip.

Julia Child also had a huge influence on 1960s cooking by introducing French recipes to American homes and simplifying complicated recipes to make them accessible to more people than ever before. Her television show and cookbook reinvented cooking as an enjoyable pastime and encouraged homemakers to experiment in the kitchen. From fruit-forward treats like pineapple upside-down cake to rich fudgey desserts such as Coca-Cola cake, these are some of the most popular desserts of the '60s that we're feeling nostalgic for.

The infamous Pineapple Upside Down Cake wasn't invented in the 1960s; in fact, it has, origins in the 1920s when the recipe was first printed in a Seattle cookbook. It was in the 1920s that the pineapple industry really exploded, creating a culinary phenomenon in which canned pineapple was used in tons of recipes. By 1945, canned pineapple production was scaling globally, making the fruit more widely accessible and extremely convenient to use in recipes.

By the late '50s and '60s, Pineapple Upside Down Cake had maintained popularity and had become more of a common dessert because of the availability of canned pineapple. This unique dessert gets its name from the cooking method. You lay pineapple slices, maraschino cherries, and other toppings on the bottom of the cake pan, pour in a brown sugar and butter mixture, and then add the cake mix on top. After baking, you turn it upside down so that the fruit is on top to serve. This old-school dessert can be prepared in many different ways, and nostalgic fans love to share their grandma's recipe variations and reminisce on midcentury cooking.

In the 1960s, Coca-Cola launched the "Things Go Better With Coke" campaign and this proved to be true for desserts. While its exact origins are unknown, Coca-Cola Cake has roots in the Southern United States and really gained popularity when newspapers started printing different Coca-Cola chocolate cake recipes in the South before it spread nationwide. The cake is very similar to a Texas Sheet Cake, complete with buttermilk and cocoa powder, except it also incorporates America's favorite soda for a delicious, rich treat.

The midcentury recipes for this cake often included Coca-Cola in both the batter and frosting, and recipes from this time usually incorporated marshmallow as well. Using the carbonated soda makes the batter rise and creates a fluffy texture. While this dessert isn't seen very often today, it did have another spike in popularity in the late '90s when Cracker Barrel added the Double Chocolate Fudge Coca-Cola Cake to its menu, served alongside popular beverages from 1969.

Ambrosia salad, named after the food of the Greek Gods, originated in the South in the 1800s. Recipes for this fruit salad at that time typically included oranges, coconut, and sugar, all ingredients that were seen as luxurious. Ambrosia salad evolved throughout the years, being served as both a side dish and dessert, mainly in the South and Midwest. Recipes from the 1900s included a medley of fruits and in the 1960s, cookbooks featured various recipes for ambrosia salad with new additions.

Starting in the 1950s, marshmallows were being mass-produced in the United States, so many 1960s recipes for ambrosia salad featured marshmallows. Other common ingredients in mid-century recipes included maraschino cherries, whipped cream, pineapple, sour cream, and nuts. Although many people remember ambrosia salad fondly as a Holiday dessert served by grandparents, the dish likely fell from grace due to its controversial texture and diminished excitement over the then-novel ingredients.

We have the Tunnel of Fudge Cake to thank for the bundt cake fad we see today. The bundt cake pan was invented and trademarked in 1950 as a modern cooking tool to create tall, circular pastries. However, it wasn't until the mid-1960s that the bundt cake pan really took root in American kitchens.

A woman named Ella Rita Helfrich entered the 1966 Pillsbury bake-off with her Tunnel of Fudge Cake recipe. She took second place in the annual competition, but her cake and the unique pan it was baked in immediately grabbed the public's attention, with more than 200,000 people writing in to Pillsbury to request the recipe. The key to the fudgy center of this chocolate cake is nuts. The current Pillsbury recipe calls for walnuts, but the original recipe from Mrs. Helfrich calls for pecans. Unfortunately, the Tunnel of Fudge cake is no simple recipe, as the soft filling makes it difficult to bake structurally sound, which is likely why it is not a very common recipe today.

Like many recipes of the mid-century, Baked Alaska was a recipe that was representative of the rapidly evolving United States. This flashy dessert was dubbed "Alaska, Florida" in a 1894 cookbook due to its combination of hot and cold ingredients. However, its current name, "Baked Alaska," appears to originate at Delmonico's in 1867, inspired by the U.S. acquisition of Alaska from Russia.

Early recipes for the Baked Alaska included banana or vanilla ice cream and pound cake. The dessert went through several evolutions throughout the 1900s but the 1960s versions of this recipe typically featured sponge cake, Neapolitan ice cream, and meringue made from egg whites and sugar to create the iconic peaks that the dish is known for. The meringue coating keeps the ice cream insulated, preventing it from melting while the cake is baked. Additionally, the dessert was often served with a flashy table-side flambe using brandy, sherry, or other liquors.

Grasshopper pie, aptly named for its bright green color, is a mid-century dessert inspired by the Grasshopper cocktail, which became popular after the Second World War as an after-dinner beverage. The dessert was all the rage in the '60s because it was an easy, no-bake pie that didn't require an oven and could be made ahead of time and stored. This was greatly appealing to 1960s women who were entering the workforce and valued quick, simple recipes.

Grasshopper pie came to be loved for its classic mint and chocolate combination, offering a colorful dessert alternative and a no-bake option for busy hosts. Most original recipes used crème de menthe and crème de cacao, but you can also swap these for peppermint extract and vanilla extract for an alcohol-free version. Today, some recipes swap out the original graham or chocolate crust with an Oreo crust and swap heavy whipping cream for whipped cream. While the recipe is not as popular today, it does occasionally make an appearance around St. Patty's Day due to its green color.

Banana pudding is another nostalgic no-cook recipe that many people remember fondly as a dessert staple in 1960s homes. This layered treat included custard, shortbread of some kind, and bananas, often topped with meringue or cool whip. It became so popular in the '60s in part because of the expansion of the Southern Interstate Highway, which allowed for trucks to deliver bananas and other fruits in a fraction of the time.

But it was also popular in many American kitchens for how simple it was to make, especially when using prepackaged ingredients. Grocery stores capitalized on the popularity of the dessert and started placing Nilla Wafers next to bananas in grocery stores. Additionally, Cool Whip hit the market in 1966, so these products made for an obvious and natural addition to the classic dessert. In 1964, Jell-O released a banana pudding flavor mix, and the instant pudding mix made the southern-style dessert even more convenient.

Julia Child was wildly influential with regard to 1960s cuisine and changed the world of cooking in several ways. She made French cuisine accessible in American kitchens by sharing manageable recipes and taking much of the mystery out of French cooking techniques. Through her cooking shows and cooking books, she encouraged women to experiment in the kitchen and explore cooking as a fun activity, as opposed to a chore.

One of Julia Child's favorite French desserts was the Floating Island, a mid-century recipe which she shared in "The French Chef" cookbook based on her television show. The Floating Island is actually a rather simple dessert featuring custard and meringue, like so many other dessert recipes of the time. The meringue on top can be poached, similarly to a Baked Alaska, which was another popular dessert of the time. The stiff peaks of meringue are often referred to as Oeufs à la neige, or "Eggs in Snow."This custard dessert is often served with nuts and/or caramel sauce on top and fresh berries on the side to offset the sweetness.