How to Make Luscious Cake Desserts
with Fruit and Sauces
Kitchen tools, gourmet foods, baking mixes, and hard-to-find baking ingredients mentioned in this article are available at The Prepared Pantry.
by Dennis Weaver
Every day is bake day at The Pantry. We bake, we test, and we share the good stuff with our customers in the store.
Last Friday and Saturday, we made cakes using our Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes mixes and then topped them with fresh or frozen fruit, sauces, and flavored whipped cream. When we got them right, they were luscious.
The Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes mixes are cream cake mixes, denser and moister than the fluffy mixes from the store. They are about half way between the fluffy mixes and a pound cake. With more substance, we think they are more suited for these desserts.
Vanilla Bean Cake with Raspberries or Blackberries and Lemon Sauce
Lemon and raspberry is a great combination. We made the lemon sauce from a mix and then added raspberries. We concluded it was better not to mix them, rather, pour the lemon sauce over the cake and add the berries.
We tried several flavors of whipped cream. We liked the lemon cloud whipped cream the best.
Step 1: Make the cake according to package instructions.
Step 2: Make the lemon sauce according to package instructions.
Step 3: Make the lemon whipped cream according to the recipe below.
Assemble the dessert.
Vanilla Bean Cake with a Blueberry Lemon Sauce
Lemon and blueberry is a classic combination. We liked the berries mixed right in the lemon sauce. It made a beautiful pink and magenta sauce.
The lemon cloud whipped cream was really the only choice for this dessert.
Step 1: Make the cake according to package instructions.
Step 2: Make the lemon sauce according to package instructions.
Step 3: Make the lemon whipped cream according to the recipe below.
Assemble the dessert.
Vanilla Bean Cake with Fresh Strawberries and Lemon Sauce
If you like strawberry shortcake, you'll like this. The strawberries are just coming on; they'll be a little better later in the season. Still, this was very good.
The dessert in the image was made with lemon sauce. If you prefer buttermilk syrup any of the following would work well:
Buttermilk Syrup
Lawford Coconut Cream Syrup
Coconut Buttermilk Syrup
We didn't try it but I bet a good chocolate sauce would have been very good.
Since we used lemon sauce, we stuck with lemon whipped cream.
Step 1: Make the cake according to package instructions.
Step 2: Make the lemon sauce according to package instructions.
Step 3: Make the lemon whipped cream according to the recipe below.
Assemble the dessert.
Vanilla Bean Cake with Peaches in Caramel Sauce and Caramel Whipped Cream
Buttermilk syrup tastes like a cross between caramel syrup and butterscotch syrup. We added frozen peach slices right to the syrup. That was a mistake. It thinned the syrup too much. It tasted great but it was too thin. It's best to use fresh peaches or let the frozen slices thaw a bit and then pat them dry. Pour the sauce over the slices and the cake.
Caramel whipped cream was dynamite with this.
Step 1: Make the cake according to package instructions.
Step 2: Make the lemon sauce according to package instructions.
Step 3: Make the lemon whipped cream according to the recipe below.
Assemble the dessert.
Dennis Weaver is the founder of The Prepared Pantry, a full line kitchen store in Rigby, Idaho. The Prepared Pantry sells kitchen tools, gourmet foods, and baking ingredients including hundreds of hard-to-find ingredients.