create your own assortment

Hello again, frosting aficionados! Last week, we showed you how to turn buttercream frosting into a fantastic fondue dip. Now, we’re giving part three of our buttercream blog series a little modern twist. These days, deconstructed cakes are all the rage: They’re gracing the menus for everything from weddings, to swanky hotel restaurants, to at-home dinner parties.

What is a deconstructed cake, you ask? Basically, it’s breaking down a cake to its essential elements—cake, frosting and toppings—and serving all of the separate parts together as a whole. This allows your guests to enjoy endless flavor combinations … and have fun customizing their cake!

It’s much easier than decorating a cake yourself, and your friends will be chattering about it for days. Here’s how to wow the crowd with a deconstructed cake at your next big bash:

The Cake

Using store-bought cake mix, bake enough cupcakes or cakelets for each of your guests. You can also bake the cake in a jelly roll pan and cut the cake into tiny cubes.

Don’t want to be married to one flavor? Don’t be shy! Bake as many flavors as you like. The more kinds of cake you make, the more creative your guests can get with their dessert. Once the cake has cooled off, place it on a large platter.

The Frosting

Display various kinds of buttercream frosting on the platter any which way you prefer: Put the icing in separate tiny cups, or pipe the frosting directly onto the plate. Let your eccentric side run wild; when it comes to showing off your deconstructed cake, anything goes!

Cheryl’s has an infinite selection of buttercream flavors to choose from, like caramel, cinnamon, fudge, mint, peppermint and vanilla. Give your guests a little bit of everything so they can mix and match each cake with their beloved icing flavors. They’ll have more combo options than they’ll know what to do with!

The Trimmings

And finally, the cherry on the cake! Pour any cake toppings of your choice into small shot glasses or miniature spice bowls, and arrange them on the platter next to the cake and frosting.

When picking your toppings, you can go in any direction your imagination takes you: Take the classic route (sprinkles, candy, chocolate chips), go down the exotic path (coconut, fruit, chocolate shavings), or do both!

It’s that simple: In three easy steps, you can turn dessert time into a festival of flavors. Keep an eye out for next week’s buttercream project: cake push pops!

How would you put your own personal touch on your deconstructed cake?

Welcome back to part two of our buttercream bonanza! Now that we’ve shown you how a bit of frosting can turn ordinary treats into works of art, it’s time to think outside the box of brownie mix and make some unique—and downright scrumptious—desserts with buttercream.

Is the idea of hosting a chocolate fondue party getting a bit stale for you? Jazz things up and throw an icing fondue bash instead! It’s incredibly simple, and no baking is necessary. Just fill a cupcake pan with your favorite icing flavors and toppings, grab some fondue sticks and a few delish snacks, and start dipping! Here’s how to do it:

Icing Flavors

Fill the outer compartments of the cupcake pan with different varieties of icing. There’s a rainbow of buttercream flavors to choose from for your fondue. For our main event, we used Cheryl’s fudge, vanilla, mint and peppermint frosting. Other great Cheryl’s flavors to try: caramel and cinnamon.

Toppings

Add a little something extra by filling the inner sections of the cupcake pan with assorted toppings. Have fun with this! Your friends will have a ball mixing and matching the icing with the trimmings, so give them as many options as you can. We chose chocolate chips, sprinkles, M&M’S, and chocolate cookie crumbs. You can also try other exotic garnishes, like coconut or crushed walnut.

Snacks to Dip

On separate plates, stack up the sweet and savory treats you want to dip. You can dunk just about any yummy bite-sized foods into your icing fondue. We went with sugar cookies, strawberries, mini cupcakes, marshmallows and pretzels. You can spear ’em with fondue sticks or just dive in with your hands.

And there you have it: an exciting dessert that will whip up tons of laughs at your next get-together. Come back next week for a very modern, very personalized buttercream dessert: deconstructed cake!

What kinds of treats and toppings would you use for your icing fondue party?

Just like the artist uses paint to create a work of art, the baker uses buttercream to make an edible masterpiece. If you have a colorful imagination, a quality pastry bag and a few tubs of sinfully delicious buttercream frosting, the possibilities for culinary creativity are endless! To help stoke your artistic fire, we’ll be taking the next seven weeks to show you all the different ways buttercream can be used. We have lots of fun projects for you to try out, so let’s get started!

This week, we’ll be covering the traditional desserts we all love to smother in buttercream: cakes, cupcakes, cookies and brownies, oh my! Hang on to your pastry chef hats; this is going to be one sweet ride. …

Cakes and Cupcakes

What’s the first image that pops into your head when you hear the word “icing”? Chances are you pictured either a towering layer cake or a platter of delectable bite-sized cupcakes, and for good reason. These fluffy desserts are a staple of every celebration, and there’s no limit to the fun you can have decorating them. Check out Celebrations.com to find out how you can use buttercream to make the perfect birthday cake and create the adorable Mom & Baby Owl Cupcakes pictured above!

Cookies

Frosting can also turn an ordinary cookie into a rich, extravagant confection. Whether sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies hit your sweet spot, just pick your favorite type and dress it up with some buttercream. To make these festive pumpkin- and acorn-shaped cookies for the fall, we used Cheryl’s Unfrosted Cutout Cookies, Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Fudge Buttercream Frosting and Mint Buttercream Frosting. (To make the orange icing, we added a few drops of red and yellow food coloring to the vanilla frosting.)

Brownies

Brownies don’t have to be so square! Sure, they taste great on their own, but topping them off with buttercream will enhance their flavor and give their appearance a lot of pizzazz. To get really creative with your chocolatey treats, cut them into shapes using a cookie cutter, or put ’em on a wooden ice pop stick for a fun snack on the go, like we did here. We created these fun and elegant dessert platters using Cheryl’s Premium Brownie Sampler and Buttercream Frosting Tub Sets (in vanilla, mint and strawberry flavors).

Next week, we’ll show you how to wow your party guests with buttercream fondue! Until then, tell us: What’s your favorite way to top cakes, cupcakes, cookies or brownies with buttercream frosting?