These Are The Easiest Cakes You Could Ever Make

Tomato soup cake definitely deserves a better name. By the time you're done, there's no tomato taste — only a deliciously moist, definitely different sort of spice cake. As an added bonus, the tomato soup replaces all the usual dairy ingredients, so if you're looking for a dessert that's dairy-free and low-fat, this just might be your new go-to.

Campbell's didn't invent tomato soup cake, but they're the ones that helped make it popular. Their condensed soup is a key ingredient, and they've helped re-make it several times since its invention in the 1920s. If you'd like to give it a try, you can't get any easier: just mix a can of tomato soup with half a cup of water, two eggs, and a box of any spiced cake mix. That's it! Bake, and in case you're wondering what you'd top something like this with, we'll tell you: cream cheese frosting. It's the perfect cake for something that's not too sweet and not to terrible for you, and if your family's in doubt, just don't tell them what's in it. They'll never know it's tomato soup.

Depending on how much time you have, it's possible picking up some premade angel food cake at the store is all you can swing. That's completely legitimate, so let's talk about just how you can dress that up into something that doesn't look the least bit store-bought.

While you're there, pick up a few cartons of fresh fruit. For now, let's talk peaches. The only cake prep you're going to need to do is a few horizontal slices, and done! Then, slice your peaches into thin pieces (but save one), and saute them with some brown sugar, butter, and lemon juice. By the time they're soft, you're going to have some ridiculously delicious caramelized peaches — and it's only going to take about five minutes. Set them aside, and make your frosting. Whip a pint of heavy cream until it starts to peak, then start folding in some powdered sugar. Make it as sweet as you like, and that peach you saved? Puree, then fold that into your whipped frosting, too.

Then, assemble your cake. Put a generous layer of caramelized peaches and whipped frosting between the two layers, add more peaches and whipped topping on the top, and sprinkle with some crushed nuts. You can do the same thing with any fruit you find. Use the same idea with cinnamon apples, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, or raspberries.

Angel food cake is one of those things that's easy to make and even easier to pick up at the store, but let's say you want to start this one from scratch. Start with mixing a cup of flour and ¾ cup of sugar, and set that aside. In a mixing bowl, mix 12 egg whites, a dash of salt, and either vanilla, hazelnut, or almond extract. Beat until the egg whites are stiff, then add ¼ cup of sugar. Keep mixing as you fold in your flour and sugar mixture, and that's it! 

For an amazing Boston creme cake, stir up a batch of instant vanilla pudding as your cake cools. That's going to be the center between two layers of angel food cake, and you're going to cover the entire thing with a layer of whipped heavy cream (just beat the cream with sugar and vanilla to taste) and layer the top with a simple chocolate ganache. Just heat some heavy cream to barely bubbling, then pour over some chocolate chips. Stir as it thickens, and there's your sauce. Decorate this one with a few serious dollops of heavy whipped cream and a handful of cherries, and you'll have a dessert with all the lightness of angel food and all the flavor of Boston creme.

Pound cake definitely isn't good for you, but that's OK — it's delicious. Switch up a traditional pound cake with some swirl, and let's talk basics first.

There aren't too many ingredients to a pound cake: two sticks of butter, a cup of sugar, two cups of flour, four eggs, and a dash of salt. That's it. Start by beating your eggs and sugar into a light, fluffy mixture, then add the salt. Slowly add your flour, then bake your batter. Seriously, that's really it!

Now, here's how to make it a little more fun. Split your batter into two before you bake it, and keep the majority of it for your cake base. The smaller amount is going to be swirled through the base — think of a marble cake, but with fun flavors. Use vanilla, rum, or hazelnut extract for your base, and cocoa powder for the swirl. How about a vanilla base with cinnamon swirl? A lemon base with ginger swirl? Top with confectioners' sugar, or add an easy whipped frosting — heavy whipped cream, granulated sugar, and flavoring — flavored to match your swirl, and you'll have a guaranteed win.

Dump cake is a brilliant way to make a sort of mix-and-match cake, so let's talk basics. Start with a box of chocolate or devil's food cake mix, and when you mix it up, add in a packet of instant chocolate pudding. Trust us! Your batter will be extra-thick, and that's what you want.

Spread a layer on the bottom of your cake pan, but only use about half your batter. Then, layer in your goodness. We're talking about things like salted caramel squares, peanut butter cups, chocolate or peanut butter chips, or crushed candy bars. (Kit Kat or Twix, anyone?) Cover with the rest of the batter, bake, and top.

What you use for the top depends on what's in your center layer. If you used chocolate chips, say, how about topping with a layer of marshmallow fluff to cut through all that chocolate, then decorating with a drizzle of melted chocolate? You could also make a thick caramel drizzle with just a can of condensed milk boiled then simmered with some light brown sugar and vanilla, because everything is better with a few thick, gooey layers of caramel.

Tired of the same old, same old? Even cake can get kind of boring, so let's take a page out of the history books to talk about a super-sweet cake right out of the Middle Ages.

First, when we say "cake," we're talking about something that's somewhere between our modern ideas of a cake and a pancake. It's going to be flat, dense, and sweet, but amazing. For an authentic version of this, beat three eggs until they're very, very frothy. Add in ¾ cup of honey, mix well, then slowly add in ¼ cup of flour. Bake at 350 until it turns golden, and you're done! Since this is such a sweet but thin cake, that makes it perfect for serving alongside ice cream. Imagine this honey-filled cake with a giant scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with crushed graham crackers and a drizzle of honey. Yes, please!

A more modern version of this is just as easy. Add a cup of butter, half a cup of brown sugar, and 1 ¾ cups of self-rising flour to that above recipe, and you'll end up with a more modern version of a centuries-old favorite.

There are a few different ways you can put together a cake filled with all the delicious flavors of a summer sangria, so let's start with a non-alcoholic poke cake, popular throughout the 1970s and deserving of a comeback.

Take a simple boxed white cake mix, and stir it up as normal — except, use only egg whites, replace water with juice from a lemon, a lime, and an orange, and stir in finely diced apples. While it's baking, make a thick syrup with grenadine and a box of raspberry Jell-O. Simmer, reduce, and cool. After your cake has cooled, poke repeatedly with a knife. Pour your syrup over the top, then frost with an easy, homemade frosting. Start with a pint of heavy cream, beat until it's frothed, then add a cup of powdered sugar and some lemon extract.

You can mix this up as much as you can switch up a sangria recipe. For a boozy alternative, use wine in your syrup. You could also simmer a mix of red wine and sugar to reduce into a thick syrup, and use that to flavor your frosting instead of the extract. Decorate with heaping piles of fruit or slices of oranges, and you'll have a cake that's as gorgeous as it is easy.