Once you've nailed baking the basics like an evenly risen sponge cake, a velvety cream frosted cupcake or gooey chocolate brownies, you can elevate your game even further by applying some stunning decoration or garnishes, like sweet shards.
Think shards of glistening toffee poking out of frosted cupcakes, striking white meringue shards with a vibrant fruit coulis, or ethereal milk shards plugged into your rice pudding.
From toffee and meringue to milk and chocolate, shards add visual and jaggedy textural interest to dishes, elevating desserts from everyday to superior and stunning.
Shards are relatively easy to make with simple ingredients and equipment. The fun bit is getting to work with a mallet smashing your sugar, toffee or chocolate sheets to smithereens once they've set. Then it's just a case of getting creative decorating cakes, or garnishing puddings, like chocolate mousse or ice cream or even adding them into the mix for some extra crunch factor.
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How to Make Shards
Cream Cheese Marshmallow Shards
Crunch on the outside, chewy on the inside. These tangy cream cheese shards from ChefSteps are so versatile, they can be used in any number of favourites from rocky road ice cream to ice cream sandwiches or even folding frozen shards into brownie dough.
Crispy Milk Shards
Instead of throwing away that unwanted skin that forms on the surface of a pan of warmed milk, dehydrate it and turn it into crackling ethereal shards, to add a crunchy texture and interest in sweet and savoury dishes.
Caramel Shards
The Violet Bakery in London shares their simple recipe for caramel shards. The only ingredients you need are caster sugar and water. Simply boil the sugar in water, pour onto a prepared baking tray and parchment paper, spead out evenly, allow to harden and smash to smithereens. You can store the shards in the freezer for months. Perfect for pepping up your cookies, ice cream or chocolate cake.
Chocolate Shards
Here's one for chocolate lovers. Melt white, milk and/or dark chocolate, spread evenly on parchment paper, get creative topping with dried fruit, sprinkles and more. You can even go for a simple marble effect by blending two or more version of the melted chocolate together. Break into shards and set about cake decorating!
Edible Sugar Glass Shards
Last up, how to make the incredibly effective sugar glass shards. They're visually stunning, and in a combination of colours, make an incredible stained glass window effect.
