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Cake Retail Sales Statistics: U.S., Canada and Europe

Cake retail sales statistics across U.S. store channels, Canadian and European markets, with historical category values and clearly labeled forecasts.

November 11, 2026 10 min read blackboxcake.com Editorial Team

Contents

Cake retail sales statistics: U.S. store-channel results

U.S. cake sales differ sharply by store location and category definition. Circana’s scanner-reported figures distinguish center-store cakes from perimeter cakes, so the two totals describe separate retail channels rather than interchangeable measures of one identical product set. For the 52 weeks ending March 22, 2026, center-store cakes generated $553.2 million, down 7.1% year over year. For March 2025 to March 2026, perimeter cakes recorded $6.6 billion, up 3.2%. These are reported channel results over the periods named, not annual calendar-year totals. Source: Circana dessert market data

U.S. retail scopePeriodDollar salesReported change
Center-store cakes52 weeks ending March 22, 2026$553.2 million−7.1% year over year
Perimeter cakesMarch 2025–March 2026$6.6 billion+3.2% year over year

The contrast is useful precisely because it is channel-specific: one reported center-store measure declined while perimeter cakes increased. It should not be read as evidence that consumers moved from one channel to the other; the figures do not establish a cause for either trend. Nor should the channel totals be combined with values from other Circana reporting periods without accounting for their different end dates and category coverage. Source: Circana dessert market data

An earlier Circana snapshot shows a different point in the perimeter category’s trajectory. In the 52 weeks ending February 23, 2025, store-perimeter cakes overall had $6.2 billion in dollar sales and 803.4 million unit sales; both measures were reported as up 0.8% from the previous year. A separate 2026 article reports perimeter sales of $6.6 billion and a 3.2% increase for March 2025 to March 2026. The periods are close but not identical, and the observations should remain tied to their source periods rather than treated as a continuous series. Source: Circana cake market data Source: Circana dessert market data

This also illustrates why “cake retail sales” needs a stated scope. The 2025 store-perimeter total includes cakes sold in that channel, while the center-store number is a separate category. Convenience-store subcategories and the broader packaged-food market figures discussed below add still other boundaries. A total from one definition cannot stand in for all U.S. cake retail activity.

Cake retail sales statistics by cake type and units

Within the U.S. store perimeter, layer cakes were the largest explicitly measured type in the supplied subcategory figures: $1.9 billion in dollar sales for the 52 weeks ending February 23, 2025. Unit sales reached 224.4 million, up 3.5% year over year, while dollar sales rose 4.8%. These measures count different things: dollar sales represent category value, while unit sales count the reported items sold. They therefore provide complementary context without implying a price or volume calculation. Source: Circana cake market data

U.S. cake scope, 52 weeks ending February 23, 2025Dollar salesReported change or unit result
Store-perimeter cakes overall$6.2 billion803.4 million units; dollar and unit sales each +0.8%
Store-perimeter layer cakes$1.9 billionDollar sales +4.8%; 224.4 million units, units +3.5%
Store-perimeter cheesecakes$651.6 million−2.2%
Store-perimeter sheet cakes$596.3 million−7.4%
Center-store angel food, bundt and sponge cakes$258.5 millionDollar sales figure reported

The cake types did not move uniformly. Cheesecakes brought in $651.6 million and were down 2.2%; sheet cakes generated $596.3 million and were down 7.4%. The center-store subcategory combining angel food, bundt and sponge cakes recorded $258.5 million in dollar sales. No change rate is included here for that last figure, so it is best treated as a value observation rather than evidence of direction. Source: Circana cake market data

The report also identifies private-label layer cakes as leading that subcategory by dollar sales, at $1.7 billion. This belongs to perimeter layer cakes, not all U.S. cakes. In the convenience-store (c-store) channel, layer cakes generated $27.4 million, 10.9% less than the prior period; Grupo Bimbo was the leading company in that c-store layer-cake subcategory, with $26.1 million. C-store specialty products generated $20.3 million in dollar sales, down 8.3%. These narrower channel observations should not be compared as if they were equivalent to the much broader perimeter totals. Source: Circana cake market data

The assortment-level results show why one headline growth rate can obscure category differences. The total perimeter figure was positive, layer cakes also grew, and cheesecake and sheet-cake dollar sales declined. The available observations describe sales and units within named categories and periods; they do not explain why the patterns differed or establish that one category’s gains offset another’s losses.

Cake retail sales statistics across Canada

Canadian retail cake values offer a longer historical view in current Canadian dollars. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s report reproduces Euromonitor retail-market estimates: cakes were valued at Can$997.1 million in 2018, Can$1,033.6 million in 2020, Can$1,056.7 million in 2021, Can$1,164.5 million in 2022 and Can$1,242.5 million in 2023. The separate growth table reports 6.7% value growth for 2023 versus 2022, a 4.5% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over 2018–2023, and 24.6% total growth over those five years. Source: Canada packaged-food trends

Canadian retail cakesValue in Can$ millions, current prices
2018997.1
20201,033.6
20211,056.7
20221,164.5
20231,242.5

The 2025 Canada bakery report provides a later table with historical estimates and forecasts. It places 2020 cake sales at Can$1,033.6 million and 2024 at Can$1,266.4 million, with a 5.2% CAGR for 2020–2024. The same table forecasts Can$1,274.4 million in 2025 and Can$1,327.5 million in 2029, with a forecast CAGR of 0.9% for 2024–2029. Those future-year figures are projections as reported, not realized sales. The 2020 estimate matches the earlier report, while the values for other years should be read within their own report vintages and table definitions. Source: Canada bakery trends

Across these tables, the reported Canadian value series rises over the historical years shown, but the growth rates refer to different spans. The 6.7% figure is the one-year change from 2022 to 2023; 4.5% is a CAGR over 2018–2023; and 5.2% is a CAGR for 2020–2024 in the later report. The forecast CAGR of 0.9% covers 2024–2029. Keeping each period attached to its rate prevents a historical change from being mistaken for a forecast or a multi-year average.

Cake retail sales statistics in European markets

The European country observations report retail cake sales in US dollars. In 2023, Italy recorded US$5,530.8 million, Germany US$4,353.7 million, France US$4,116.9 million, the United Kingdom US$3,597.3 million and Belgium US$984.4 million. These are country-level estimates reproduced in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s 2024 soft-wheat report; the listed category is retail cakes, and the table values are not in local currencies. Source: Soft wheat in the EU and UK report

CountryRetail cake salesHistorical comparison reported
Italy, 2023US$5,530.8 million2019–2023 CAGR: 6.5%
Germany, 2023US$4,353.7 million2019–2023 CAGR: 3.9%
France, 2023US$4,116.9 million2020–2023 CAGR: 5.0%
United Kingdom, 2023US$3,597.3 million2019–2023 CAGR: 4.4%
Belgium, 2023US$984.4 million2019–2023 CAGR: 2.5%

The comparison spans different historical windows: France’s reported rate covers 2020–2023, whereas the other four rates cover 2019–2023. Italy’s 2023 value was preceded by US$4,298.3 million in 2019; its reported CAGR for that interval was 6.5%. Germany moved from US$3,740.9 million in 2019 to US$4,353.7 million in 2023, with a 3.9% CAGR. The United Kingdom recorded US$3,024.3 million in 2019 and a 4.4% CAGR through 2023. Source: Soft wheat in the EU and UK report

France’s 2020 value was US$3,389.4 million, followed by US$4,116.9 million in 2023, corresponding to a reported 5.0% CAGR. Belgium’s 2019 value was US$891.5 million; its 2023 value was US$984.4 million, and the reported 2019–2023 CAGR was 2.5%. The rates summarize the value changes across their specified intervals, not annual unit sales or growth in production. Source: Soft wheat in the EU and UK report

Because the table uses US dollars for every country, the displayed levels support comparison on that reported basis. They do not by themselves reveal how much of a change reflects quantities, prices or currency conversion. The country estimates also reflect one report’s market definitions and publication vintage, so they should not be mixed casually with scanner-based U.S. channel data.

Cake retail sales statistics: category value and growth

A separate Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada report published in 2022 provides U.S. retail-market estimates in US dollars. It reports cake sales of US$20,385.3 million in 2018 and US$25,816.6 million in 2022, with a 6.1% CAGR over 2018–2022. This is a broad retail cake category estimate, distinct from Circana’s scanner observations for named store channels and rolling 52-week periods. Source: Bakery products in the United States

The same 2022 report divides U.S. retail cakes into packaged and unpackaged categories. Packaged cakes reached US$11,194.2 million in 2022, with a 5.1% CAGR from 2018 to 2022; unpackaged cakes reached US$14,622.3 million, with a 6.9% CAGR over the same span. The report labels its category table as fixed exchange rate, historic and forecast, and expresses values in US$ millions. The values and growth rates are therefore tied to that table’s framing. Source: Bakery products in the United States

U.S. retail cake category2018 sales (US$ millions)2022 sales (US$ millions)CAGR, 2018–2022
Cakes overall20,385.325,816.66.1%
Packaged cakes9,181.711,194.25.1%
Unpackaged cakes11,203.714,622.36.9%

The category breakdown suggests that unpackaged cakes had the higher reported value CAGR in this period, while packaged cakes also grew. That observation concerns dollar-value estimates, not unit growth. It does not tell us why the rates differed or whether a comparable pattern continued after 2022. The report also lists US$27,129.9 million for 2023, but that figure was a forecast estimate in a report published in 2022; it must not be presented as a confirmed 2023 result. Source: Bakery products in the United States

The report’s historical and forward periods can be useful for understanding how published market estimates were framed at the time. A forecast from that vintage is analytically different from the later Circana observations. The former covers a broad retail market category and is expressed in US$ millions; the latter reports sales through specific U.S. store channels. Treating them as separate series preserves those definitions.

Cake retail sales statistics: market and forecast context

Sales value and physical volume do not always move in parallel. Canada’s 2025 bakery report gives cake retail volume separately: 109.2 thousand tonnes in 2020 and 107.4 thousand tonnes in 2024, with a −0.4% CAGR for 2020–2024. It forecasts 105.9 thousand tonnes in 2025 and 102.4 thousand tonnes in 2029, with a forecast volume CAGR of −0.9% from 2024 to 2029. The unit throughout is thousand tonnes, and the forward-year quantities remain forecasts. Source: Canada bakery trends

This volume series sits alongside the same report’s value series: historical cake retail sales were Can$1,266.4 million in 2024, and the report forecasts Can$1,327.5 million in 2029. The reported value CAGR is 0.9% for 2024–2029, while forecast volume CAGR is −0.9%. These figures describe different dimensions—money and tonnes—and neither should be substituted for the other. The supplied measures do not state a cause for their different projected directions, so they should not be used to infer one. Source: Canada bakery trends

The central reading rule for cake retail sales statistics is to retain the scope beside every number: country, channel or category; period; currency; and, where applicable, whether the observation is value, units or weight. U.S. scanner data describe Circana’s specific store-channel categories and 52-week windows. Canadian and European country tables are retail-market estimates reproduced in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada reports, with values shown in the stated currencies. The 2022 U.S. category report includes historical estimates and report-era forecasts. Those distinctions allow the results to be compared in context without turning unlike measures into a single unsupported market total.

Sources

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blackboxcake.com Editorial Team

Editorial team

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