The key to elevating this dessert is topping it with Chantilly cream, berries, syrup, and beautiful flowers.

Ingredients

Like meringues of all kinds, pavlova requires egg whites. I use 4 whites for a 6-inch diameter one. To get the best pavlova, use fresh eggs instead of old ones.

I achieve the perfect topping to cake ratio by baking extra short cupcakes, leaving lots of room for the mascarpone custard and whipped cream.

This recipe takes time and effort, but it’s totally worth it. If you don’t have as much time, try using vanilla cupcakes and tiramisu frosting (that combination is still fantastic, but less authentic).

While these two simple ingredients rest together in the fridge, the cookies turn soft, pillowy, and cake-like as they absorb the cream, resulting in a treat that is luscious, light, and deeply addictive.

Jessie Sheehan is the co-author of Icebox Cakes [paid link] (Chronicle Books, 2015) and she shares her best tips for Ice Box Cakes below.

This post discusses all of the different types of frostings for cupcakes and cakes and gives you a number of frosting ideas for topping your own baked treats.

What Are Fairy Cakes?

What a fairy cake is completely depends on who you talk to.

Like plain Chantilly cream (sweetened whipped cream) and strawberry whipped cream, peach whipped cream is wonderful over vanilla ice cream and fruit pies. It’s also a lighter alternative to other cupcake frostings like buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

Peach whipped cream has just three ingredients:

Most raspberry desserts, simply mix in fresh raspberries into the batter or use them on top – like my raspberry scones. Other recipes like raspberry lemonade cookies call for freeze dried raspberries. What makes these cupcakes special is that in addition to whole raspberries, there is pureed raspberries mixed into the batter. 

Tips for Making the Best Raspberry Cupcakes

It’s great on my raspberry cupcakes, but of course it works perfectly when piped onto chocolate cake or chocolate cupcakes!

While I love buttercream, cream cheese frosting (both regular and chocolate), and ganache, sometimes I want a really simple and airy chocolate topping for my desserts. That’s when I choose this recipe.

You can whip up this recipe in minutes, and nothing beats its light, sweet flavor.

Ingredients

The only required ingredient to make Chantilly cream is cold heavy whipping cream.

In both cake and cupcake format, angel food is sweet and spongy and wonderful when served with fresh whipped cream and berries.

Angel food cake is part of a group of cakes called foam cakes. Foam cakes are composed of flour, sugar, eggs, and flavoring. They contain no chemical leavening agents. Cakes that fall into this category include chocolate angel food cake, chiffon cake, and tres leches cake. (See my post on angel food cake vs. chiffon cake for more on this subject.)