How to Dress a  Cake that’s Easier and Quicker than Frosting – and put on some music to entertain yourself when cooking with kids or grandkids. Try Silly Kwela!

It’s not necessary to  frost a cake.  It’s quicker and easier to  top it.  And better.  Whether you’re making a sheet cake or a round  cake, something as simple as a scoop of ice cream and a sauce can transform it  into a terrific, fancy dessert.

The  pictures in this article are of flourless chocolate cakes—they’re dense and  moist and luscious—but you can do the same with your favorite cake recipe.  If you would like to make a great flourless  chocolate cake, try this easy flourless chocolate  cake mix.

We  suggest three choices—or a combination : ice cream, whipped cream, and  dessert sauces.  To these, you can add  fruit or nuts—or even get a little crazy with things like peanut butter. Just use your imagination.

Your  grocer’s ice cream freezer has a dozen good choices. You  can make your own sauces—and we share some recipes in this article—but we sell a  very nice selection of professional dessert sauces.  You can use ice  cream toppings.  You can use fruit or cream pancake syrups.

But  where it starts getting really wild is when you start making flavored whipped  cream. The basic flavored whipped cream  substitutes another flavor or extract for vanilla and usually brown sugar for  the white sugar.  From there you can add  cinnamon or ginger—maybe some pumpkin pie spice.  We often add an ounce of cream cheese for  every cup of cream.  It adds flavor and  stabilizes the whipped cream.  You can add  nuts or peanut butter.  Try adding pureed strawberries along with the sugar, or pureed cherries ( without pits of course!)

Use the recipes below as templates to get  your creative juices flowing.  Here are additional recipe ideas to try:

Cherry Cream Cheesecake  Flourless Chocolate Cake ( what a mouthful in more ways than one!):

Top  the cake with cream cheese filling Add cherry cream cheese whipped cream ( whipped cream mixed with a dollop of cream chees, pureed cherries and sugar to taste).

Cherry Pineapple Cream Cheese  Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Cream cheese filling and pineapple filling is a wonderful combination. Top your cake with cream cheese filling and  then pineapple filling.  For color and flavor, chop maraschino cherries  and sprinkle them over the top.

Turtle Flourless Chocolate Cake.

Cover the top of your cake with caramel ice cream sauce.  If it’s too  thick, heat it just a bit in the microwave.  Sprinkle with pecans and  drizzle with chocolate ganache.    Add a scoop of ice cream.

Rocky Road Flourless Chocolate Cake.  When the cake comes out of the oven,  immediately sprinkle it with miniature marshmallows.  They should  partially melt.  If they don’t put the cake bake in the oven for a couple  minutes.  Remove the cake and drizzle with chocolate  ice cream sauce or ganache and sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Flourless German Chocolate Cake

Everyone loves German chocolate cake.  This is a simple version  made with a flourless chocolate cake.                    One flourless  chocolate cake, cooled German chocolate cake topping (recipe follows) whipped cream or ice cream

Top  the chocolate cake with the German chocolate cake topping.  Cut into  slices and serve with caramel whipped cream or ice cream.  Top with chocolate ice  cream sauce.

German Chocolate Cake Topping

Ingredients:     

3/4  cup canned evaporated milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut

1 cup chopped pecans
Directions:

1. In a small pan, bring the evaporated milk, brown sugar, and butter to a  boil.
2. Boil for three minutes.
3. Remove the pan from the heat.
4. Stir in  the coconut and pecans.
5. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

Strawberries  and Cream Flourless Chocolate Cake

This is a wonderful flourless chocolate  cake to serve in the spring when the strawberries are in season. It is  topped with Bavarian cream and fresh strawberries, then drizzled with strawberry  sauce, and topped with strawberry cream cheese whipped cream.

Ingredients:

• One flourless chocolate cake
• cooled 1 cup Bavarian cream pastry filling
• fresh strawberries, sliced
•  strawberry sauce (recipe follows)
•  strawberry cream cheese whipped cream

Directions:

1. Top the chocolate cake  with Bavarian cream filling.
2. To serve, cut the cake  into slices and place on dessert plates. Top each slice with  strawberries.
3. Drizzle with the strawberry sauce.
4. Top with the whipped  cream and serve immediately.

Strawberry Sauce

•  12 ounces, about 3  cups frozen, unsweetened strawberries
•  2/3 cup red currant jelly
• about 1/4 cup sugar

1. Thaw  and puree the strawberries. Place the puree in a small saucepan. Add the jelly.
2. Cook,  stirring occasionally, until the jelly is completely melted and blended with  the fruit.
3. Sweeten to taste with the sugar while it is still hot.
4. Stir to make sure that the sugar is dissolved.
5.  Let cool.

Strawberry Cream  Cheese Whipped Cream

Ingredients: 

2  cups whipping cream

1  teaspoon strawberry flavor

2  ounces cream cheese, softened

1/3  cup granulated sugar

Directions:

With  an electric mixer, whip the sugar and cream cheese together.  Add the flavor and whipping cream and continue  whipping until soft peaks form.                   You  can add pink food coloring to this recipe if you choose.

Tin Roof Sundae Flourless Chocolate  Cake

This is another fancy  flourless chocolate cake fit for a special occasion.  It is made with a  combination of Bavarian cream, peanut butter, and chopped peanuts all atop a  flourless chocolate cake.

Ingredients:

• One flourless  chocolate cake, cooled
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup Bavarian cream pastry filling
• peanut butter chocolate sauce (recipe follows)
• whipped cream

Directions:

1. Warm the peanut butter in the  microwave until it is soft and easy to stir.
2. Mix the Bavarian cream and  peanut butter together in small bowl.
3. Top the chocolate cake with the  peanut butter filling.
4. To serve, cut the cake into  slices and place on dessert plates.
5. Drizzle with the peanut butter  chocolate sauce.
6. Top with whipped cream and serve  immediately.

Peanut Butter Chocolate  Sauce

Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 9 ounces dark chocolate wafers
• 1/3 cup peanut butter

Directions:

1. Heat the cream.
2. In a medium bowl, pour the hot cream over the chocolate.
3. Stir until the chocolate  is melted.
4. Stir in the peanut butter.
5. Let the sauce cool enough for  serving.
6. If the sauce becomes too thick, reheat the sauce or stir in more  cream.

Chocolate Cherry Cordial Flourless Chocolate  Cake

This   makes a gorgeous, very fancy flourless chocolate  cake—certainly fit   for a special occasion and yet it is not very much  work.  It is an easy   flourless cake  topped with a cherry pastry filling and drizzled with a   chocolate amaretto  sauce. (Amaretto is a flavor commonly  used in   cherry chocolate cordials.)

Ingredients:

• One flourless chocolate cake, cooled
• 1 cup cherry pastry filling (see notes)
• powdered sugar for dusting
• chocolate amaretto sauce (recipe follows)
•  whipped cream

Directions:

1. Top the chocolate cake with the cherry pastry  filling.
2. To serve, cut the cake into  slices and place on   dessert plates.
3. Dust  each slice with powdered sugar.
4. Drizzle  with   the chocolate amaretto sauce.
5. Top  with whipped cream and serve   immediately.

Note to YOU from ME:  Pastry filling is more   intensely  flavored and a finer texture than is pie filling.  In a pie,   there is more filling than crust  and the filling must be pleasing by   itself.   In a pastry, there is more of balance between filling and   pastry and  hence the filling has more flavor. 

Chocolate  Amaretto Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 9 ounces dark chocolate wafers
• 1 teaspoon amaretto flavor
• 3 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1. Bring the cream to  a boil.
2. In a medium   bowl, pour the hot cream over the chocolate.
3. Stir until the  chocolate   is melted.
4. Stir in the flavor and butter.
5. Let the sauce cool enough for    serving.
6. If the sauce becomes too thick,  reheat the sauce or stir in   more cream.

Raspberry Flourless Chocolate Cake

This cake will please a crowd. Top the cake with a delicious raspberry sauce, fresh raspberries, and ice cream. Raspberries alone are not tart and not flavored enough for a dessert    sauce even when thickened with a starch.  There are two possible solutions:  Cooking the fruit down to concentrate the flavors or adding a jelly for thickness and flavor.  This recipe uses the latter.
Ingredients:

• One flourless chocolate cake
• 12 ounces, about 3 cups  frozen, unsweetened raspberries
•  2/3 cup red currant jelly
• about 1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Thaw  and puree the raspberries.  Strain them twice   through a sieve/strainer or until  nearly all of the seeds are removed.    Place the puree in a small  saucepan.  Add the jelly.
2. Cook,  stirring occasionally, until the jelly is   completely melted and blended with  the fruit.  Sweeten to taste with   the sugar while it is still hot.   Stir to make sure that the sugar is   dissolved.  Let cool.
3. Drizzle on the flourless cake and garnish with fresh raspberries.

Yield: About 1 1/3 cups of raspberry sauce.

ENJOY!!