How  to Make 1000 Desserts with the Ingredients You Have in Your Kitchen Right Now

Yes, I know you’re busy.  Some days you need an easy dessert you can  put together that looks good and tastes great—without going to the grocery  store.  I’ll show you a thousand  possibilities.  (Do the math; it’s  actually much more than that.) This is for busy moms, active grandma’s, cooking with kids, and could become the basis of many kid stories for the future!

I’m  talking about a type of dessert here.  Start  with any bar cookie or dense cake recipe.   If you have any boxed cake or brownie mixes tucked away in your pantry,  they will do.  It’s what you put on them  that counts.

Call  these fully loaded desserts.  Take pieces  or wedges of cake, bar cookie, or brownie and dress them up with a topping, sauce,  and whipped cream.  This is a mix-and-match  operation: Match the cake with the topping with the sauce with whipped  cream.  I think you’ll be amazed at the  possibilities and you’ll make luscious desserts.

The Base: Brownies, Cake, or Bar Cookies

I like dense rather than light and  fluffy cakes but either will do.  Your  recipe books are going to be full of recipes for these or you can grab a mix:

• Brownies
• Blondies
• Snacking cakes
• Bar cookies
• Coffee cakes

The First Layer: Toppings

I’m  partial to fresh fruit here but frozen fruit will do—even squiggles of pastry  fillings.  You can use prepared  fillings.  We’re certainly biased to our Chubby Cherry  topping—we think it’s really good—but you can use a topping  of your choice.

• Sliced bananas
• Sliced peaches
• Fresh       strawberries
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Sliced mangos

The Sauces

We use Designer  Dessert Sauces a lot—chocolate, raspberry, and caramel  are my favorites–but ice cream toppings work as well as homemade syrups and sauces.  Lawford’s  Private Reserve Cream Syrups make great dessert sauces.  If you want to go homemade, here are some recipes  to get you started:

• Carmel       sauce
• Hot fudge       sauce
• Raspberry       sauce
• Strawberry       sauce
• Mint       chocolate sauce
• Lemon       sauce

Whipped Creams

We  rarely make standard whipped cream.  It’s  too much fun to make flavored whipped cream.   Basically, we’re substituting other flavors for the vanilla.  I’m very partial to  brown sugar instead of white and think it makes the whipped cream taste  richer.  We use brown sugar instead of  granulated sugar with warm flavors like caramel and butterscotch.  Orange Cloud and Lemon Cloud Whipped Cream  call for orange or lemon zest respectively.   (See how to make  flavored whipped cream.)

My “Go To” Pan

My most used baking pan in the kitchen  is my Candy Apple Red  Silicone Springform Pan.   I use it for cakes, bar cookies, brownies, and desserts—even  cornbread.  It doesn’t leak—it has a double  gasket–and it’s easy to peel the ring off and cut right on the glass base for  perfect slices.  Any recipe that calls  for a 9 x 9-inch pan or an 8 x 10-inch pan works in this pan.

To  get nice, neat uniform slices in a rectangular pan, we line it with parchment  paper and when baked, lift the parchment paper and cake from the pan to  cool.  Then we trim the crusty edges and  break out a ruler to cut uniform little slices.   We skip all that with our silicone springform pans: no parchment paper,  the edges don’t seem so crusty, and we just cut the cake into neat wedges and  we’re done.

See how a  silicone springform pan works (video)

Sample Recipes

Here  are three sample recipes.  These are made  with brownies and blondies because I’m on a brownie and blondie kick right now  and we have lots of brownie and blondie mixes.  But you could also make these with cakes.

Chubby Cherry Brownies
Make  the brownies according to package instructions.   After the brownies have cooled, cut the cake into wedges.  Top the brownies with Chubby Cherry  topping and drizzle them with chocolate sauce.  Add vanilla, amaretto, or cherry whipped  cream—my favorite is a cherry whipped cream.   Garnish with chocolate curls.

Shown  is a Chubby Cherry Brownie topped with Cherry Whipped Cream.

Banana Split Brownies
This  is just a banana split with or without the ice cream, on top of a brownie.  Cut the brownies and layer them with banana  slices.  Put optional ice cream of  Bavarian cream over the bananas and a generous drizzle of chocolate sauce.  Top with vanilla or banana flavored whipped  cream and optional chopped peanuts and a cherry.

Shown  is a Banana Split Brownie topped with Banana Whipped Cream.

Strawberry Shortcake Brownies  (Blondies)

You can use either brownies or  blondies for this.  Cinnamon chip or  white chocolate chip blondies are great with strawberries.

Top  your brownies with sliced strawberries.   Add a drizzle of white or dark chocolate sauce.  Top with plenty of whipped cream vanilla,  lemon or orange.

Shown  is Strawberry Shortcake Blondie with a Old Time  Chocolate Chip Blondie and topped with Brown Sugar  Whipped Cream.