Champagne Desserts

When it comes to New Year’s Eve, I just can’t help myself. Bring on the desserts with champagne! I love them. There aren’t many other occasions where champagne gets highlighted as much, so it makes sense to bring it into a dessert for New Year’s. Plus, champagne lends great taste to desserts when done right. If you haven’t ever tried a dessert with champagne, you will love Strawberry Champagne Tart. For a few other favorites, don’t miss my Strawberry Champagne Tiramisu, Champagne Cupcakes or my Champagne Cheesecake.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Sweet and light. I cannot express accurately through words just how delicious this tart is, but it is. The champagne and mascarpone compliment each other beautifully and give lovely light flavor to the creamy filling. And the fresh pop of fruit from the strawberries is both beautiful and delicious. The whole thing is just amazing.
• Easy and almost no bake. While you bake the crust, it’s for less than 10 minutes and then you’re done with the oven. There’s a little bit of cooking on the stove to help thicken the filling with cornstarch, but that’s it. Each part of the recipe is simple and it comes together quickly, which we all need this time of year.
• Elegant. Strawberries + champagne, in tart form? You really can’t make a more elegant dessert.

If you can’t tell by checking out my recipes, I love making desserts with champagne. I’ve got an amazing Strawberry Champagne Tiramisu, a delicious Champagne Cheesecake and some classic Champagne Cupcakes, to name a few. This champagne mousse is one that’s actually been on my site for a while, but is getting an upgrade today with some new and step-by-step photos. I love remaking older recipes and updating them, because it gives me a chance to try them again. This recipe was originally published in 2014, so it’s been a while since I made it. And I have to say, it’s even better than I remember.

Why You’ll Love This Champagne Mousse Recipe

This recipe is a modification of my chocolate mousse. Just like the chocolate mousse, it has a lovely smooth texture and rich creaminess, which comes from the egg yolks. It’s cooked the same way as the mousse, but since there’s no melted chocolate added in to this recipe (which helps things firm up as it cools), gelatin is used. Here are a few reasons why I think you need to make it – like, now.

• Light texture. This champagne mousse is airy and light but still creamy and luscious. It’s addicting and SO good! I just love the light texture of it.
• Perfect flavor. The champagne flavor most definitely comes through but isn’t overpowering or too much. It’s genuinely so darn good. Even those who aren’t huge champagne fans will likely love these.
• Easy to make. Mousse really is a lovely little dessert because it feels fancy and special, but there’s no baking required and it’s not hard to make. There’s just a little cooking over the stove and some time to let it set.
• Perfect for the holidays. This champagne mousse is great for New Year’s and celebrations. It’s festive, fun and delicious. Plus, at a busy time of year, you could easily make them a day or two ahead.

Better Than Store-Bought

I am such a big caramel fan. It’s easily one of my favorite flavors. In a bag full of candy and chocolates, I will always eat anything with caramel first and may not even bother with the rest. It’s true love.

And these homemade caramels are even better than store-bought ones – and pretty much every other recipe I tried. When I make something homemade, I want even better flavor than what I can buy, otherwise what’s the point? Many recipes out there have caramel flavor that just isn’t enough for me. So I set out to make something better.

Rather than having just one caramelization process that’s cut short by the temperature needed to have softer caramels, this recipe has two rounds of caramelization. You basically start out by making my homemade salted caramel sauce, which already has amazing flavor, then add a few more ingredients and cook it again until it’s at the right temperature for chewy caramels. Purely addicting and amazing. The flavor is the best.

Why You’ll Love These Homemade Caramels

• Amazing flavor – As explained above, the flavor of these caramels is the best. Twice the caramel flavor of most other recipes! You won’t be able to resist them!
• Soft and chewy – They are soft, chewy and just the right texture. Plus, with slight adjustments to the temperature you cook them to, you can make them more or less soft to your preference. Easy!
• Perfect for gifting – Move over cookies! Homemade caramels are in town! Not only are homemade caramels special and impressive feeling, they also last longer than any cookie. Gift them all season long, ship them – they stay perfect.

Why You’ll Love This Homemade Cannoli Recipe

Cannoli are a classic and there are surely many opinions as to what makes one the best. And as for making them homemade, it’s quite a process. But it can really be a lot of fun with the right recipe and it gives you a little control over the process to make sure your cannoli truly are the best. Here’s why I love this recipe.

• Light, crispy shell. Lots of trial and error went into figuring out exactly how to make the perfect cannoli shell for this recipe. The dough can be a little tricky to work with! But the final result is a thin, crispy shell that’s golden brown and bubbly.
• Smooth, creamy filling. The filling for this recipe is made with ricotta cheese, mascarpone cheese, and powdered sugar. It’s sweet but not too sweet, though you can add more/less powdered sugar as desired. You can absolutely make it with just ricotta cheese but I just love the flavor of the mascarpone.
• Detailed directions. Making cannoli can be tricky. I spent a lot of time testing, especially the shells. You will find all the details (and step-by-step pictures) on how to get those shells just right.
• Prep ahead. Homemade cannoli is definitely not one of those quick and easy desserts ready in 30 minutes but the good part is that you CAN make parts of it in advance. The dough for the shells can be refrigerated overnight or you can even make the shells and store them for a month. Just be sure to wait to assemble the cannoli to avoid a soggy shell!
• Chocolate! This recipe does include the option to dip half of the shells in melted chocolate and add some mini chocolate chips. Both are optional but really…chocolate does make everything better!

Why You’ll Love This Chocolate Mousse Recipe

This recipe is for the same chocolate mousse that’s in my chocolate mousse cake. It’s such a hit in that cake that I had to share how to make just the mousse.

• It’s the real deal. It’s not a “shortcut” chocolate mousse, it’s the real deal. It’s SO good, smooth, and creamy, not to mention incredibly rich and wonderfully silky.
• Easy to make. Even though this mousse is made from scratch, it’s actually really easy to make and goes quickly. The hardest part is waiting for it to firm up in the fridge!
• Perfect texture. This mousse is both silky smooth and light and airy, just the way a good mousse should be. My mouth is watering thinking about it.
• Great for nicer occasions. Mousse is one of those desserts that I like to whip up when I really want to impress guests or just have a “fancy” dessert, without spending hours in the kitchen. The fact I can make it the night before is a bonus!