The sweet tooth index
The cupcake tower is dying. The koeksister is back. South Africa's dessert taste is realigning — heritage sweets like milk tart (+18%), malva (+14%) and koeksisters (+29%) are surging while the imported 2010s darlings — cupcakes, macarons, cake pops — quietly retreat.
The 60-second version
- 🇿🇦 Heritage sweets are winning: koeksisters +29%, peppermint crisp tart +16%, milk tart +18%, malva +14%.
- 🧁 The 2010s darlings are fading: cupcakes −10%, macarons −11%, cake pops −12%, freak shakes −26%.
- 🍦 Frozen and bakery comfort surges: gelato +35%, cookies +31%, waffles +28%, donuts +25%.
- 🏠 The theme is home and heritage — nostalgic, makeable, shareable sweets are beating fussy showpieces.
Dessert is the most emotional category in food — it's nostalgia you can eat. So when it shifts, it says something about mood. And right now South Africa's sweet tooth is turning away from the fussy, imported showpiece and back toward the warm, familiar and homemade. The macaron is out. The malva is back.
Home team advantage
Heritage beats import
The cleanest signal in the dessert data is a tug-of-war between two baskets: the local classics every South African grew up with, and the globalised "patisserie" sweets that defined the 2010s party table. One basket is rising. The other is sliding.
SA classics (milk tart, malva, koeksisters, peppermint crisp) vs imported trends (macarons, cupcakes, churros, cake pops).
The takeaway: The heritage basket pulls ahead while the imported-trend basket drifts down.
This is comfort economics: in uncertain times, people reach for the familiar. Heritage desserts are also cheaper, makeable at home, and emotionally loaded in a way a macaron tower never was.
Four-year change across the rising sweet categories.
The takeaway: Gelato (+35%), cookies (+31%), koeksisters (+29%) and waffles (+28%) lead the charge.
Notice the pattern: the winners are either nostalgic-local (koeksisters, milk tart, malva) or everyday-affordable comfort (cookies, waffles, donuts, ice cream). Accessible beats aspirational.
The fall of the showpiece
The cupcake era is over
If one image defined the 2010s celebration, it was the tiered cupcake stand. Its decline — alongside macarons, cake pops and the over-the-top "freak shake" — is one of the clearest generational shifts in the dataset.
Categories in decline within the dessert space.
The takeaway: Freak shakes (−26%), cake pops (−12%), macarons (−11%) and cupcakes (−10%) are all in retreat.
These were the "decoration first, flavour second" desserts — built for a photo. As the party economy gets more honest and budget-conscious, the showpiece sweet is the first thing to go.
Average monthly search volume across SA classics, frozen treats and bakery sweets.
The takeaway: Everyday bakery and frozen comfort dominate, with heritage classics holding a proud, growing slice.
The map shows where the volume actually lives: not in the fussy showpieces that get the press, but in ice cream, cookies, waffles and the milk-tart-and-malva canon.
| Rising | 4-yr change | Falling | 4-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gelato | +35% | Freak shakes | −26% |
| Koeksisters | +29% | Cake pops | −12% |
| Milk tart | +18% | Macarons | −11% |
| Malva pudding | +14% | Cupcakes | −10% |
The verdict
A return to the kitchen table
The sweet-tooth shift is quietly profound: a country choosing the desserts of its grandmothers over the desserts of its Instagram feed. It's nostalgia, it's affordability, and it's a little bit of national self-confidence — the realisation that the koeksister never needed a French rival to feel special. The cupcake had its decade. The milk tart is having its comeback.
The fanciest dessert in 2026 is the one that tastes like being seven years old at your ouma's house.
- Source. Aggregated South African search demand for dessert keywords, monthly, June 2022 – May 2026.
- Growth. First 12 months vs the most recent 12.
- Caveat. Search interest captures intent and recipe-seeking, not units sold; heritage terms benefit from home-baking searches as well as buying.
References & further reading
Figures are PartyTrends' own analysis of the search-demand dataset described above. Sources below corroborate the wider context.
- South African History Online, Koeksisters & the heritage of SA baking. sahistory.org.za
- Statistics South Africa, Census 2022 — population & income context. statssa.gov.za
- PartyTrends, The Death of the Generic Birthday Party — the wider showpiece-to-personal shift. partytrends.co.za/blog
- PartyTrends, The Viral Food Index — how dessert trends now travel. partytrends.co.za/blog
- PartyTrends, Food Stats — live dessert demand tracker. partytrends.co.za/stats