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.
