Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate and which share features with desserts such as pastries, meringues, custards, and pies.
A mooncake is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節). The festival is primarily about the harvest while a legend connects it to moon watching, and mooncakes are regarded as a delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is widely regarded as one of the four most important Chinese festivals.
Amaretto is a sweet Italian liqueur that originated in Saronno. Depending on the brand, it may be made from apricot kernels, bitter almonds, peach stones, or almonds, all of which are natural sources of the benzaldehyde that provides the almond-like flavour of the liqueur. It generally contains 21 to 28 percent alcohol by volume.
Chocolate syrup is a sweet, chocolate-flavored condiment. It is often used as a topping or dessert sauce for various desserts, such as ice cream, or mixed with milk to make chocolate milk or blended with milk and ice cream to make a chocolate milkshake. Chocolate syrup is sold in a variety of consistencies, ranging from a thin liquid that can be drizzled from a bottle to a thick sauce that needs to be spooned onto the dessert item.
A caffè mocha, also called mocaccino, is a chocolate-flavoured warm beverage that is a variant of a caffè latte, commonly served in a glass rather than a mug. Other commonly used spellings are mochaccino and also mochachino. The name is derived from the city of Mokha, Yemen, which was one of the centres of early coffee trade. Like latte, the name is commonly shortened to just mocha.
Nonpareils are a decorative confectionery of tiny balls made with sugar and starch, traditionally an opaque white but now available in many colors. They are also known as hundreds and thousands in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
A Boston cream pie is a cake with a cream filling. The dessert acquired its name when cakes and pies were cooked in the same pans, and the words were used interchangeably. In the late 19th century, this type of cake was variously called a "cream pie", a "chocolate cream pie", or a "custard cake".
A génoise, also known as Genoese cake or Genovese cake, is a French sponge cake named after the city of Genoa and associated with French cuisine. It was created by François Massialot in the late 17th century. Instead of using chemical leavening, air is suspended in the batter during mixing to provide volume.
A tin roof pie is a variation on ice cream cake. It consists of a base made from corn flakes, corn syrup, and peanuts. It is then layered with ice cream, chocolate syrup, and occasionally, crushed chocolate bars.
An icebox cake is a dairy-based dessert made with cream, fruits, nuts, and wafers and set in the refrigerator. One particularly well-known version used to be printed on the back of boxes of thin and dark Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers.
Flavored syrups typically consist of a simple syrup, that is sugar, with naturally occurring or artificial (synthesized) flavorings also dissolved in them. A sugar substitute may also be used.
Cake decorating is the art of decorating a cake for special occasions such as birthdays, weddings, baby showers, national or religious holidays, or as a promotional item.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
Opera cake is a French cake. It is made with layers of almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup, layered with ganache and coffee French buttercream, and covered in a chocolate glaze. Its name originates from its layers resembling the levels of an opera house.
Ganache is a glaze, icing, sauce, or filling for pastries, made from chocolate and cream.
Coconut cake is a popular dessert in the Southern region of the United States. It is a cake frosted with a white frosting and covered in coconut flakes.
Amandine is a Romanian chocolate layered cake filled with chocolate with caramel and fondant cream. Almond cream is sometimes used. As most Romanian cakes, they can be cut and served in 1-serving miniature cakes or as a big cake.
A sno-ball is a confection made with finely shaved ice and flavored sugar syrup. Commonly confused with the snow cone, the ice of a sno-ball is fine and fluffy; while a snow cone's ice is coarse, crunchy, and granular. Moreover, whereas in a snow cone the flavored syrup sinks to the bottom of the cup, in a sno-ball the ice absorbs the syrup.
Biscuit cake is a type of no bake tea cake, similar to American icebox cake, found in Irish, English, Danish, Arabic, Bulgarian and Jewish cuisine. It is made with digestive biscuits and is optionally prepared with a chocolate glaze.
