Multi-flavored dessert cakes and new combinations of flavors for dessert cakes are disclosed. In preferred embodiments, the invention provides multi-flavored cakes that each combine a number of different ingredients from a particular geographic location or culture of the world, merging the flavors of those ingredients with the traditional flavors of a European dessert cake, in particular chocolate. In one aspect, a multi-flavored dessert cake comprises a plurality of sponge cake portions, each sponge cake portion being capable of absorbing a flavored syrup. At least one sponge cake portion is soaked with a syrup having a first flavor and at least one other sponge cake portion is soaked with a syrup having a second flavor, so that each soaked sponge layer takes on a different flavor. The invention is particularly well-suited to provide new versions of the traditional opera cake.