About National Dessert Day
In 2019, Grubhub, the leading online and mobile food-ordering and delivery marketplace looked at hundreds of thousands of orders to rank the top desserts and dessert providers on the platform.
According to Grubhub, the top trending dessert nationwide is chocolate fudge sundae. Following that is vanilla bean cheesecake, fruit crepe, caramel churro, and rainbow donut.
According to the data, the five states that order the most desserts are Texas, Colorado, Maryland, Tennessee, and Virginia. The top months for ordering desserts are July, June, and August.
Grubhub also determined the top desserts regionally, with the Midwest preferring dairy desserts, the Northeast preferring fried desserts, the South sticking to famous dessert staples, and the West mixing in traditional and non-traditional desserts.
Midwest
- Banana split: 379% more popular
- Turtle cheesecake: 368% more popular
- Baklava: 278% more popular
- Flourless chocolate cake: 263% more popular
- Peach cobbler: 246% more popular
Northeast
- Tempura ice cream: 478% more popular
- Fried dough w/ powder: 446% more popular;
- Chocolate layer cake: 323% more popular
- Apple turnover: 316% more popular
- Lemon meringue pie: 274% more popular
South
- Peach cobbler: 300% more popular
- Butter pecan pie: 279% more popular
- Cinnamon roll: 258% more popular
- Banana pudding: 241% more popular
- Key lime pie: 194% more popular
West
- Cinnamon churro: 452% more popular
- Blonde brownie: 439% more popular
- Caramel apple pie crisp: 322% more popular
- Fried banana and ice cream: 294% more popular
- Sweet southern apple fritter: 163% more popular
Origin of Popular American Desserts
Apple Pie
You can never go wrong with an apple pie! Despite this being a classic American dessert, the apple pie originated in England and was influenced by dishes from as early as 1390. The pie was brought to the United States by European settlers and quickly rose in popularity and became a classic dessert.
Pumpkin Pie
With Fall here and the holidays coming up, pumpkin pie is in season and the perfect pie to celebrate National Dessert Day with. While it’s unclear exactly when pumpkin pies became the version that you know and love today, a version was served at the first Thanksgiving after Native Americans brought them as gifts to the settlers and taught them different ways to use them.
Chess Pie
One of the first appearances of something resembling a chess pie is in Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery. There it was listed as “To make very good cheesecakes without cheese curd”.
Peach Cobbler
Not feeling a pie for National Dessert Day? No problem! Have you tried a peach cobbler? While cobbler and pie are similar, there are some differences. Peach cobbler was invented when the American settlers were traveling west. On their journey, they were in the mood for peach pie but didn’t have the ingredients to make it. They made do with what they had and thus peach cobbler was born!
