170 free Dessert trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Sixty-one dessert trivia questions and answers on the sweets people actually argue about: who really invented the pavlova, why a brownie owes its existence to a Chicago socialite, what tiramisu literally means, and which king supposedly ate himself to death on Lenten buns. The set roams the whole dessert cart. There are French classics like tarte Tatin, éclairs and croquembouche; Italian gelato, cannoli and zabaione; British puddings from Eton mess to spotted dick; American diner staples like the banana split, whoopie pie and Jell-O; and sweets from further afield including baklava, gulab jamun, mochi, mooncakes, halo-halo and brigadeiros. Difficulty runs from easy warm-ups to a few genuinely obscure origin stories. Every answer is checked against a cited encyclopaedia page, so it works for a bake-off night, a dinner party round or a food-themed pub quiz. Play it here for free, see your score and share it with whoever claims to know their puddings.
30 of 170 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the Italian name of the dessert tiramisu literally mean?
Pick me up
The layered coffee-and-mascarpone dessert seems to have appeared in northeastern Italy only in the late 1960s; no cookbook mentions it before then.
Q 02Which New York restaurant is credited with naming baked Alaska after the 1867 purchase from Russia?
Delmonico's
The restaurant's own recipe was originally called 'Alaska, Florida' for its contrast of frozen ice cream and hot meringue.
Q 03The pavlova, fought over by Australia and New Zealand, is named after a famous Russian what?
Ballerina
Anna Pavlova toured both countries in the 1920s, and each still claims to have created the dessert in her honour.
Q 04Franz Sacher, who created the Sachertorte as a teenager, served in the Vienna kitchen of which statesman?
Prince Metternich
The word torte is German for a filled layer cake; the original hotel and the Demel bakery later fought a long court battle over who owned the 'Original' name.
Q 05Tarte Tatin, the upside-down caramelised apple tart, is named after two sisters who ran what kind of business?
A hotel
Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin served it as the signature dish of the Hôtel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, about 169 km south of Paris.
Q 06Banoffee pie was invented in 1971 at the Hungry Monk restaurant in which English county?
East Sussex
Owner Nigel Mackenzie and chef Ian Dowding adapted a San Francisco coffee-toffee pie; adding banana made it so popular they could never take it off the menu.
Q 07Legend says the first brownie was made at the Palmer House in 1893 for ladies at which event?
The Chicago World's Columbian Exposition
Socialite Bertha Palmer asked for a dessert suitable for boxed lunches; the hotel still serves the original walnut-and-apricot-glaze recipe.
Q 08Which youth organisation did a 1925 Connecticut newspaper describe eating 'Some-mores'?
Girl Scouts
The contraction s'more had taken hold by the 1930s; early versions swapped apples for the crackers or peanut butter for the chocolate.
Q 09Bananas Foster, created at Brennan's in New Orleans in 1951, was named after a man who chaired what?
The city's Crime Commission
Richard Foster was a friend of owner Owen Brennan; at the time New Orleans was the main US port for bananas arriving from South America.
Q 10Peach Melba was created in the 1890s at London's Savoy Hotel by which celebrated French chef?
Auguste Escoffier
It was first served on an ice sculpture of a swan, a nod to Wagner's Lohengrin, the opera the soprano had just sung at Covent Garden.
Q 11The name of the cream-filled éclair comes from a French word meaning what?
Flash of lightning
One theory is that it is eaten 'in a flash'; another that its glossy icing glistens like lightning. The word is first recorded in the 1860s.
Q 12Rum baba reached France via Lorraine in the 18th century and is attributed to an exiled king of which country?
Poland
Stanislaus I supposedly revived a dried-out cake by soaking it in spirits; his daughter married Louis XV, which helped the idea travel.
Q 13Brazil's beloved brigadeiro, a chocolate fudge ball rolled in sprinkles, was created to promote what?
A presidential campaign
Q 21Boston cream pie is said to have been created for the 1856 opening of which hotel?
Parker House
It descends from earlier 'pudding-cake pies' and appeared on menus as chocolate cream pie before taking the city's name.
Q 22Cherries jubilee, flambéed with kirsch over vanilla ice cream, was created for a jubilee of which monarch?
Queen Victoria
Most accounts point to the Diamond Jubilee of 1897; the Victoria sponge is another dessert named for the same queen.
Q 23The Turkish version of baklava was probably perfected in the imperial kitchens of which palace?
Topkapı
The word baklava is first recorded in English in 1650, borrowed from Ottoman Turkish; an archaic version was already being made in the Byzantine empire.
Confectioner Heloísa Nabuco de Oliveira made them for Brigadier Eduardo Gomes's 1945 run; he lost the election, but the sweet won the country.
Q 14The pastel de nata custard tart was created by monks at a monastery in which Lisbon parish?
Belém
After the monastery closed in 1834 the recipe was sold to a nearby sugar refinery, whose owners opened the Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém in 1837 and still keep it in a locked room.
Q 15The caramelised, buttery kouign-amann originated around 1860 in which region of France?
Brittany
Its Breton name simply means 'butter cake'; the town of Douarnenez credits baker Yves-René Scordia with the invention.
Q 16The Australian lamington is believed to be named after a Governor of which state?
Queensland
Lord Lamington's French-born chef, Armand Galland, reportedly improvised the cakes for unexpected guests; the earliest reference to the name dates from 1927.
Q 17In which Pennsylvania town did a 23-year-old soda jerk create the banana split in 1904, per most historians?
Latrobe
David 'Doc' Strickler was inspired by the fruit-laden sundaes he saw on holiday in Atlantic City; his original marshmallow sauce topping has since vanished.
Q 18How old was Frank Epperson when he claimed to have invented the ice pop in 1905?
11
He did not patent 'frozen ice on a stick' until 1923; the story is still printed on the back of Popsicle boxes.
Q 19Jell-O was trademarked in 1897 by Pearle Bixby Wait, whose day job was carpenter and maker of what?
Cough syrup
He and his wife May added strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon flavours to gelatin and sugar, then sold the whole business two years later for $450.
Q 20In 2011 which US state officially recognised the whoopie pie as its state treat?
Maine
Not to be confused with its official state dessert, blueberry pie; that same year South Portland baked a 1,062-pound whoopie pie.
Q 24In Spain, long thick churros are known in some regions by which name?
Porras
Thin ones may be knotted; both are choux dough piped through a star tip into hot oil and eaten dipped in coffee at breakfast or in thick chocolate later in the day.
Q 25Gulab jamun is made mainly from khoya. What is khoya?
Milk reduced to a soft dough
The dough balls are deep-fried at low temperature, then soaked in syrup scented with cardamom and rose water, kewra or saffron.
Q 26Cannoli, fried pastry tubes filled with sweetened ricotta, come from which Italian island?
Sicily
In Palermo they are finished with candied orange zest; on the mainland the pastry is simply called cannolo siciliano.
Q 27Panna cotta, 'cooked cream', is usually cited as a traditional dessert of which northern Italian region?
Piedmont
Despite the tradition, the name does not appear in Italian cookbooks before the 1960s; Piedmont added it to its list of traditional products in 2001.
Q 28What makes kulfi, the frozen dessert of the Indian subcontinent, denser than regular ice cream?
It is not churned while freezing
The lack of churning keeps air out, so it counts as a distinct category of frozen dairy dessert rather than an ice cream.
Q 29Traditional Cantonese mooncakes are filled with a paste made from what?
Lotus seed
The round pastry is about 10 cm across; the yolk inside represents the full moon.
Q 30A tres leches cake is soaked in evaporated milk, whole milk and which third milk?
Condensed
Its airy sponge is why the cake absorbs all that liquid without turning soggy; the recipe spread with US condensed-milk exports to Nicaragua.