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.

I love cannoli desserts, and I’m always looking for fun, new ways to work those light and creamy flavors into recipes, like this cannoli cheesecake and my cannoli tart. For another favorite Italian dessert-turned-layer cake, try my tiramisu cake, next!

Why You’ll Love This Cannoli Layer Cake

I’ve been making this cannoli layer cake for years and it remains one of my favorites. It has all the flavors of a classic cannoli wrapped up in a decadent three-layer cake! I recently updated the recipe to make it even better. I decided to change the cake layers to my newer moist vanilla cake recipe. It uses whole eggs, instead of egg whites, so you aren’t wasting the yolks, and it’s also a lighter cake. I also reduced the filling and added some mini chocolate chips and made the frosting a bit thicker and more sturdy to hold the cake together better.

This cake was amazing before so trust me when I say it’s simply irresistible now! Here are a few reasons why:

• All the best elements of cannoli. Cannoli as a flavor for cakes and other desserts always surprises me. It seems like a flavor that’s so light and primarily composed of a little cinnamon and a couple of kinds of cheese would be fairly boring – and yet every cannoli dessert I make I totally fall in love with. They are anything but boring and this cannoli layer cake is no exception.
• Light & lightly sweet. Mascarpone cheese has easily become one of my favorite things to use in desserts. The flavor is incredibly light, but so darn good and just sweet enough. I used it for both the filling and the frosting in this cake.
• Absolute showstopper. This cake really is exceptional. It takes a little time and finesse to work with the soft filling and frosting, but it’s totally worth it. You won’t want to share a single crumb with anyone. It’s so beautiful once assembled and doesn’t really require any special decorating skills either.