How to Decorate Dessert Plates With Sauces, Creams, Flakes and Powders

Most desserts are pretty but you can serve them up so they look like they were made by a five-star restaurant if you do it right. You can make a plate that practically looks like an abstract piece of art if you are clever with how you drool these substances.

How you are going to decorate and what substances you are going to use to decorate are going to be determined by the dessert that you will be serving. This will help you decide on the flavors and colors. First off it is important to choose flavors that complement each other. A good example would be cherry and chocolate together, as would be the case with decorating a Black Forest Cake. You could sprinkle cherry sauce along with grated black chocolate to make a nice garnish. Another nice combination is a white chocolate cheesecake with some kind of fruit puree.

Fruit purees are incredibly versatile and make beautiful “paints” for plates. Blueberry makes blue, raspberries red, kiwi fruits a nice green, Mangos, papayas or oranges make nice orange and nectarines and yellow plums make yellow. If you want to make a vibrant green try grinding up mint leaves. You can use more than one puree to decorate a plate especially if the desert is somewhat neutral, like a rice or a tapioca pudding, a Bavarian crème or a plain cheesecake.

You can also just use syrups to decorate a plate. You can use caramel or chocolate syrup and also the brines that fruit are pickled in to make nice designs on a plate. For instance if you are looking for a striking pink color to play with on a plate then you might consider using maraschino cherry juice.

Flavored powders and sugars also look nice sprinkled on a plate. You can be unorthodox and use Strawberry Quick or candied sour powders to decorate the edge of a dessert. You can also use things like edible glitter. If you want a plate to look especially luxurious you can sprinkle edible gold glitter on the plate.

One of the nicest decorative elements that there is in the food world is whipped cream. Put it in a piping bag or buy it in a can and decorate your creation with dollops, stripes and kisses of cream.

Remember that the simpler you keep the plate décor, the more elegant it will look. You do not want a mish-mash of flavors or designs or this could confuse the aesthetics of the dish.

How to Decorate Your Yard With Cherry Trees

The difference between an ordinary cherry tree and a decorative one is that the decorative varieties do not bear fruit. This means that no rotten fruit falls to the ground and your grounds also attract less furry creatures and birds.

Decorative cherry trees are used in yards simply because they are so beautiful. Every spring they shoot out and snow an array of beautiful pink blossoms.

Here are some examples of common types of Cherry Trees that are perfect for decorating yards.

The Kwanzan Cherry trees are large hardy trees that grow over forty feet tall. The blossoms are a strong dark pink color and grow in clusters. The tree will blossom both in April and in the Fall. The tree grows just fine in USDA Hardiness zones from 4 to 9. It thrives in almost any soil.

The Okame Cherry Tree variety grows as tall as it is wide; thirty feet in height and thirty feet in spread. It’s pink blossoms are famous as part of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. It grows in most soils but needs full sun to do it’s best.

The Snow Fountain Weeping Cherry a dwarf variety of cherry tree that grows up to fifteen feet tall and has a spread of about eight fee. The tree grows long, downwards tilting branches that are slathered in small white flowers in the spring. The tree grows best in U.S. Department of Agriculture Hardiness Zones 4 through 8. This versatile smaller tree resists pests, but it also grows very slowly.

The Yoshino Cherry Tree is a traditional Japanese variety that grows up to fifty feet tall and forty feet wide. It has glossy bark, dark green leaves and light pink flowers and it does best in well-drained soils. It does best in USDA zones 5 to 8.

The Weeping Higan Cherry grows to be 300 feet tall with a branch-spread of 25 feet. It spews forth pale pink blossoms in the Spring before the tree even has a chance to grow leaves. The flowers grow up to one inch in diameter. The tree is okay to grow in shade and grows in Hardiness zones 5a to 8b. This tree also grows very fast.

The good news is that these trees come in a variety of sizes and there is a variety to suit every kind of climate. This makes it a versatile decorative tree to grow in any garden.